Part III: Questions and answers

FW 297-301. On 18 March 1977 Sri Chinmoy answered these questions, which were put to him in writing by the members of the United Nations Meditation Group in Geneva.

Question: How does one stop the mind?

Sri Chinmoy: There are quite a few ways to stop the mind. One way is to repeat the Name of God and try to forget oneself inside the repetition of the Name. Or one can repeat a particular mantra, which means sacred word or incantation. When one is repeating a mantra or God’s Name, there will be a continuous flow. If it is “God, God, God,” then inside the repetition itself one has to lose oneself. Then the mind stops.

There is also another way. One has to see the mind as a material object. We can take a material object and put it anywhere we want to, or we can throw it the farthest possible distance, according to our strength. So either we can grab the mind like a material object and throw it into the distance, or we can put the mind wherever we want to. If a mischievous child is bothering us, we can take the mischievous child into a corner and threaten him and keep him there. One can do that to the mind also.

A third way is to totally forget about the existence of the mind. Ignore the mind and feel oneself only as the heart. It is not enough to say, “I have a heart.” One must say, “I am the heart, I am the heart.” Then the qualities of the heart will permeate the entire being, and automatically the mind will stop. There are many more ways, but these three ways are quite enough for any individual, and one can choose any of the three in order to stop the mind.