Do nothing meditation | elliotstiller.com

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Do nothing meditation

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“I had meditators that are so good. When you would come into the Mind Body Apothecary, all of those times, your energy creates an energy. All along, even though it has been intermittently, I can see my progress from you being my original teacher.” Teresina

“I have always been opposed to opening myself to meditation, however with this whole process I am trying to open myself to new things everyday. I was guided quite comfortably into some breathing techniques and ways to focus inward on myself, something that has only been done with drugs. In this short time I reached a calmness that I had only felt with a high. I’m so appreciative of this instruction and already on my first day I feel welcomed and at ease with these new meditative techniques. I hope everyone in this house has gotten to experience the relief I was given tonight and the hope that comes after.” Luke

Welcome to part 2. We begin with the summary of the entire training

Now we move to part 2, which is a more in-depth, experiential version of part 1. Lets go!

In this training, we will go through each of the steps below, one after the next.

Understand that the mind automatically moves between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, or having no thoughts
Realize that this automatic process of the mind--to experience the 3 types--happens whether you like it not, throughout your waking hours
Feel that just focusing on one of the automatic processes of the mind (such as just having thoughts, just letting thoughts go, or just having no thoughts) is far less enjoyable than experiencing all 3 types, which is what the mind automatically does
Understand that doing techniques to control yourself covers up the automatic process of the mind, since they are spells that you cast on yourself like a wizard
Feel that doing techniques to control yourself is less enjoyable than experiencing this automatic process of the mind
Understand that doing techniques to control yourself can use the body or use the mind
Understand that, in totality, there are two automatic processes: the automatic processes of the body (to breathe, hear, relax, and experience sensations) and the automatic processes of the mind (to have thoughts, let thoughts go, or have no thoughts)
Experience the do nothing meditation
Understand the 3 rules regarding how long to meditate for

Welcome to Part 3. This is upgrades: essential

Now that you really get the meditation, it is time to introduce a few upgrades that make the relaxation sink in deeper. Basically, sometimes you are just sitting there with your thoughts and now you have no tools to get rid of them, because the meditation is all about it happening to you, not by you; it is all about letting your mind and body relax on its own. So, you have no toolkit to control yourself anymore, so sometimes the meditation just feels tense and terrible. So these upgrades are quite necessary so you can make it through that.

For all upgrades of part 3, do not practice them during the do nothing meditation. That would be doing a technique. Only practice them as separate, standalone upgrades; then, when you return to the do nothing meditation, you forget about them. These separate, standalone upgrades will make your do nothing meditation become vastly enhanced.

Upgrade 1: it gets easier the more you practice

That’s all

Upgrade 2: relaxation is happening while thoughts are happening

Do the do nothing meditation
Notice thoughts are there, distracting you, seemingly preventing any meditation from successfully happening
Give it a minute
Recognize that even while thoughts are happening, there is still relaxation happening at the same time

Upgrade 3: give it time

Do the do nothing meditation
Recognize that even while thoughts are happening, there is still relaxation happening at the same time
While this is true, you really want to just relax, right? So this upgrade 3 is to “give it time”
It is like rain drizzling on grass. At first, it makes little impact; after minutes, though, the grass is saturated
Recognize that usually you just need to give it time

Upgrade 4: automatic blockade to surrounding sound, built by practice

At first, surrounding sound may bother you more
After meditating more often, it becomes easier to meditate, despite there being noise

Upgrades: incredible activations that layer onto all meditations hereon

These next upgrades are “activations”--stuff that you do a couple times, which unlocks a feeling that will spontaneously appear at random times when you meditate, and feel quite nice. You don’t need to keep practicing these activations; in fact, it is suggested that the only meditation you do is the do nothing meditation.

Note that upgrades 2 and 3 are the sensations that I referred to previously, as being the "sensations" that are one of the "automatic processes of the body." Once practiced a few times, they are automatic--you don't need to force them during the do nothing meditation.

Upgrade 1: Letting go weight into chair and floor activate

You can be reminded of a chain of supports that are already happening, but that you may be forgetting, and this forgetting keeps you more tense and uncomfortable. These supports are: your head is supported by your neck; your neck is supported by your back; the back is supported by the chair. Now let your weight go into the chair, instead of being tense as you sit. Lastly, your feet are on the ground, so let your weight go into the ground as well. This will make you more comfortable as you sit.

Upgrade 2: Palms energy activate

You can first feel energy between your palms. To do this, face the palms towards one another, horizontally, like you are preparing to clap, but with the palms more relaxed than that. The distance that the palms should have from between one another should be around 10 inches. Now, wait for about 10 seconds so the feeling of tingles on the palms can start being felt. Even if you don’t feel the tingles yet, you may with this next step, which is to slowly bring the palms closer together, so the space between them is decreasing. As you do this, you may feel tingles or pinpricks on your palms, as well as a thickness or a heaviness in the air between your palms. This practice has activated the tingle or pinprick sensation on your palms, so from now on, whenever you meditate, you may spontaneously feel that sensation; this is useful, because this adds to the overall sensation of meditation.

Upgrades: incredible activations that layer onto all meditations hereon

Upgrade 3: Sensation in center of chest activate

1. How the sensation in the center of the chest is unique

While other meditations typically involve more comprehensive instruction, this meditation only invites you to bring attention to the center of your chest–that is all
This meditation is unique compared to most meditations because you feel a real sensation in the center of your chest, as well as calmness, while other meditations just give calmness

2. Introduction to the technique and backup techniques

You have a sensation in the center of your chest, that feels like tingles, lightness, expansion, or like something opening
To feel it, we have a few ways, and the first we will try is just putting our attention at the center of our chest at armpit level for a minute
The first time you try it out, it may take a minute to feel, or even a couple minutes or a few attempts
If you don’t feel the sensation by just putting our attention at the center of our chest at armpit level, we have backup techniques to do. However, the main meditation is just putting our attention at the center of our chest at armpit level
The backup techniques are just to get the sensation activated so you start feeling it, and later we want to do away with those backup techniques, since they are a bit busy and make you feel like there are unnecessary extra steps that you always have to do

3. Addressing thoughts

During the meditation, thoughts will come up about interests or problems. Sometimes, these thoughts are “on the way out,” so after coming up, they have expressed themselves and do not have to keep interfering with the meditation. Other times, the thoughts will repeat the whole time. In either case, don’t feel guilty if you have lots of thoughts–it is a natural process of the mind
Don’t start doing other techniques, like breathwork, if you have lots of thoughts
Instead, remedy having lots of thoughts by reminding yourself again and again to bring your attention to the center of your chest, which makes the nice sensation be felt more easily

Upgrades: incredible activations that layer onto all meditations hereon

4. The main meditation for the sensation in the center of the chest

Go into the meditation posture
Bring your attention to the center of your chest at armpit level
Wait for the sensation to happen. It should feel like subtle or expansive tingles, lightness, or opening
Enjoy the nice sensation; if you get distracted, remind yourself again and again to bring your attention to the center of your chest
Meditate for as long or as little as you would like

5. Backup techniques, for if you cannot feel the sensation from the main meditation

Technique #1: Relax, touch the center of your chest at armpit level with one hand, and smile sweetly and freely to the center of your chest
Technique #2: Let the sensation in the center of the chest open in all directions: left, right, front, back, and center
Technique #3: Don’t look at it; let go of the result, and just let it open naturally on its own, whenever it does
Technique #4: Don’t try to open the sensation; let go of the result, and just let it open naturally on its own, whenever it does

6. After practicing the meditation, the sensation can be felt spontaneously, even when you are not trying to feel it

After practicing this meditation even a couple times, the sensation in the center of your chest can be felt even when you are not meditating or not trying to feel it at all. For example, you can be at the store and feel it suddenly opening widely. This is the incredible part about the sensation in the center of your chest

7. Nobody really knows what it is

If you look up the sensation in the center of the chest, you may see people claiming that it is a little piece of God that is inside of us
There is yet to be proof that this is true, so for now we just enjoy the sensation

Revisiting again, with these upgrades in place

Revisiting the do nothing meditation

We are going to do the do nothing meditation, and see if you feel any of those activations going off spontaneously, automatically, naturally.

Go into the meditation posture
Do the do nothing meditation
- Did you notice the palm tingles?
- Did you notice tingles anywhere else in your body?
- Did you feel the sensation in the center of the chest?

Revisiting the comparison

Now that you have some of the upgrades in place, let's compare how it feels to do a technique to control ourselves, compared to doing the do nothing meditation.

Do your favorite technique to control yourself, such as breathwork, mantras, visualization, progressive body relaxation, prayer, a mindset, and so on
- How good do you feel, from 1-10?
Do the do nothing meditation
- How good do you feel, from 1-10?
Which did you rate higher?

Upgrades: reducing how distracting thoughts are

Don’t worry, we still have an important upgrade to go. After we go through this one, we will compare again like we just did, and see how it got even better.

This important upgrade reduces how distracting thoughts are by simply figuring out your life. After all, that is why thoughts happen: we have problems to solve, and interests to pursue. Let’s get into this subject in depth.

Problem-solution and interest-plan to reduce how distracting thoughts are that reach for answers in life

During meditation, thoughts come up. They fall into two categories: interests and problems.

Interests will keep yammering at you, and cannot really be resolved unless you let them go and decide to stop doing the interest. Even if you have a plan for your interest, like deciding to do it 2x/day for 10 minutes on xyz subjects, thoughts about the interest will still come up and yammer at you.

Problems will only yammer at you if they are unresolved. For example, I have no reason to think about what exercises to do, because I already know what I like. I have no reason to consider being a roofer, because I don’t like heights. Problems that are unresolved will keep yammering at you.

So if you want to have a better meditation, start by addressing your interests and problems. This will reduce how distracting thoughts are for you during the meditation. As already stated, with your interests, all you can do is create a plan for them, so at least you know how to do them; that is one less thing to think about. For problems, all you can do is resolve them, so think through solutions; this will be addressed more shortly.

Now, you may say “I have thoughts come up about problems that are resolved already.” In that case, the problem is likely not resolved fully, or has changed into an interest. For example, it changed to an interest if you may have solved a communication problem with your wife, but now that it is over you are just thinking about how the conversation went. In that case, it is an interest. On the other hand, it is not resolved fully if you solved a communication problem with your wife but are thinking of other problems that you need to discuss.

Upgrades: reducing how distracting thoughts are

I keep mentioning that thoughts are either interests or problems. To explain this further, when you have a thought, it is always connected to either a problem or an interest. For example, consider this:

A thought about cheap vegetables. You wonder why they are so cheap. This is solving a problem.
A thought about an interesting movie. You wonder what to watch. This is pursuing an interest.

The call to action here is to create plans for interests, and solutions for problems. This will reduce how distracting thoughts are for you during the meditation. Rest assured, thoughts will still come up to distract you–they will just distract you less when you have plans for interests and solutions for problems.

So, before you go into your meditation, you want to have a solution for your problems and a plan for your interests.

To have solutions for your problems, you can use a sheet I made that lists 40 areas of life; and to create plans for your interests, you can use a sheet I made that lists 15 interesting areas of life. Let’s start with the problems. You can easily identify problematic areas; once identified, simply write up a solution for each problem. Do this for as long as is needed for you to have a detailed solution for each problem. Update these every day or week, because things change over time. Again, by having solutions for your problems, this will reduce how distracting thoughts are for you during the do nothing meditation.

Upgrades: reducing how distracting thoughts are

Recommendations to help you better find solutions for problems and create plans for interests

Persistent effort: sometimes we give up after the first solution. It’s fine to take a break, but we don’t want to forget about our need for a solution entirely, and just get stuck with a problem. Instead, we need to be patient with ourselves and persistently apply effort–try many different solutions–over not just days or weeks, but years. Eventually, something will stick. And that something that works may not solve the problem entirely, but even making incremental, small progress is an incredible success.

Varied efforts: when you persistently apply effort, it begins with one solution. You try it out again and again in different ways, until you decide that that solution did not work. But that’s where we combine persistent effort with varied efforts. You don’t just stop at one solution attempt. You creatively think up, research and collaborate to discover many more solutions, and persistently try those ones out, one at a time, over years. This is what it means to apply varied efforts.

Creative efforts: trying out a variety of different efforts involves creativity! You need to think outside the box, outside of what you wanted your life to look like, outside of what others thought your life should be like, to really be creative in finding a surprising and different solution that could be the one that works. For example, a creative solution to exercise for someone who never exercises, could be a 3-minute home workout that is not very strenuous. This short format (3 minutes, instead of 30 minutes) and easy intensity (non-strenuous, like gentle kicks, instead of difficult pushups) is a creative way of looking at exercise. Another example could be your housing situation. If you are finding rent to be too expensive for your apartment, you might think of renting a room for yourself to save money, or to get a similar career job in a state with cheaper housing. These creative solutions required you to look outside of what you wanted your life to look like–to think outside the box.

Research effort: besides your own ideas, be humble and look online to find ideas for the problem areas. You can use research sites like ChatGPT, Google and scholarly articles, and video sharing sites like YouTube, to go into incredibly deep dives into simple or complex solutions. Plus, you can use community forums like Reddit and Quora to find incredible, surprising solutions that other people facing the same exact problem as you, applied to their own lives–and then you can do what they did!

Collaborative effort: make a post on community forums like Reddit and Quora where you ask people questions about ideas you have or just ask for open feedback on your problem area. They will gladly give you valuable, free advice! But don’t stop there: if your problem is something that you think a subject-matter expert could address, then look up their job title and contact them, whether it is through LinkedIn, Google Maps, or Google. For example, say you wanted to become an engineering drafter (designs engineering drawings using online software), but you don’t know what the field is like. You do plenty of research on ChatGPT and watch YouTube videos… but you just want to get a feel, a sense, of what engineering drafting is like. So you look up “drafting company” on Google Maps, call 12 in your city and a neighboring city, and get ahold of a real drafter who tells you what a day in his life is like. Suddenly, you feel more sure than ever before that this is the profession for you, so the next problem you start working on is how to get an internship in the field, so you can try it out.

Upgrades: reducing how distracting thoughts are

Letting go and acceptance to reduce how distracting thoughts are that reach for answers in life

First, you try to create plans for interests and solutions for problems, in order to reduce how distracting thoughts are, so that the “do nothing meditation” can be enhanced. But, after spending a while on the problem-solving side of things, often you will end up just letting go of that interest or being okay with not being able to solve the problem. Letting go would then be your natural, unconscious, automatic (you are not trying to say “let go of this” every time–it just happens automatically) go-to when the thought arises during your “do nothing meditation.” So, say a thought comes up about your exercise routine and how you wish you could swim in cold water. Well, since you already let go that this is just the way it is, you don’t want to swim in cold water, then now letting go become the method by which the thought has an answer. When the thought has an answer, it will not endlessly repeat in your mind while you are trying to enjoy the “do nothing meditation.” Acceptance comes after letting go, and is a subtler feeling of “okay, this is how it is.”

Note that after letting go and accepting you may, of course, return back to problem-solving for the interests or problems, in a cycle that repeats. Usually this is spontaneous. For example, after years of accepting you do not want to swim in a cold pool, you find a warm pool, and then decide to now pursue that interest and solve the problem of when to swim in it and how to. Or, after years of accepting that you don’t like vegetables, you see a YouTube video on your feed and suddenly realize specific recipes that seem doable. Now you return to problem-solving by getting the recipe ingredients and equipment and start making the vegetables. So, in short, for many areas of life it will be a cycle that repeats: problem-solving, letting go, accepting, then problem-solving, letting go, accepting. For other areas of life, it will stay in the accepting phase, e.g. you go your whole life accepting you cannot move to Japan.

Letting go and accepting is a manner by which thoughts can have resolutions for problems and interests, and these resolutions make it so these thoughts do not have to repeat in your mind when you are trying to do the “do nothing meditation.”

Closing notes

So why did we have these upgrades?

“It gets easier the more you practice,” “relaxation is happening while thoughts are happening,” “give it time” and “automatic blockade to surrounding sound…” helps you gain perspective that develops essential patience for the do nothing meditation
Activating “letting go weight into chair and floor,” “palms energy” and “sensation in center of chest” makes the do nothing meditation be more relaxing and profound; once these activations happen, they can spontaneously be felt anytime, even when you are not meditating
Problem-solution, interest-plan, letting go and acceptance help reduce how distracting thoughts are during the do nothing meditation

Anyway, check out the appendices next for more detail on techniques to control yourself and my background.

Appendix 1: more detail on do nothing meditation and techniques to control yourself

The do nothing meditation compared to techniques to control yourself

The do nothing meditation is based on letting your body and mind relax on its own by not controlling it
Techniques to control yourself gives you something to do, while also experiencing stillness and calm. However, since you are doing something, those parts are “making you hold your body, blocking parts that could receive relaxation”

Techniques to control yourself: examples

Breathwork: You are focusing on your breath, and also creating irregular breathing, because your body already knows how to breathe deeply on its own. This creates two effects:
- Your mind is more active because you are reminding yourself to do techniques
- Your body is more active because you are inhaling in certain ways as you practice the technique
Chanting: as you repeat a mantra or set of mantras:
- Your mind is active as it comprehends how to form the words
- Your body is active as you are moving your mouth
Guided meditation: your brain is active as you process sounds from the guided meditation
Visualization: your mind is active as you are creating a visualization. In addition, you may also be processing sounds from a meditation that is guiding the visualization

Techniques to control yourself: analogy

These treat you as if you are a wizard casting spells on yourself, where you say specific words (like “let go of all burdens, worries, and concerns” or “feel the relaxation spreading across your whole being”) or go through specific techniques (like the sensation in the center of the chest, or a breathwork technique) to enact concrete results upon yourself
The do nothing meditation is the opposite; you do nothing, and the meditation happens to you, not by you

Appendix 2: my background

I created a new model by doing away with much of my original teachers’ curriculum, to refine it to the most effortless meditation possible, the “do nothing” meditation.

I have 27 certifications from Natural Way of Living; each certification is a 9-hour-per-day training, lasting from 1-3 days, and several certifications were repeated 2-3x. I also have dozens of 1:1 mentorship lessons. I also taught 20+ people 1:1, several people in small groups, and presented to audiences of 70+. Over a decade, I have meditated for over 3,000 hours.

Over the years, I gradually drifted away from their curriculum. Firstly, they claimed with certainty to know about uncertainties, such as God, afterlife, Reiki, past lives, and chakras. I realized that these claims, purporting unproven matters to be guaranteed facts, actually created tension, holding, breathlessness, and so on; simply put, they were “reaching,” when they claimed with certainty to know about uncertainties. So, as I went to create my own curriculum, I scanned their meditations–100s of them–and removed any that dealt with these uncertainties.

Also, although their meditations would immerse me into deep, easy bliss, it was so involved in doing. The instructor would have to say dozens of lines of guidance each time. I was very pleased when, in the Mastering Reiki Tummo workshop, several workshops in, they introduced a concept called “doing nothing.” They proceeded to add on uncertainties, saying “True Source (their word for God) can give you the best of the best when you are out of the way, doing nothing.” I understood that to mean that relaxation can be received by unspecified parts of your body when you are less involved in the process; when you are not directing every part of the meditation. These unspecified parts of your body can relax suddenly and deeply, all when you are just doing nothing.

So as I entered this phase of evaluating my teachers, of reconsidering their curriculum, I just emphasized the doing nothing part of their instruction.

I felt like if I sat and did nothing, God could flow down and pull me into heaven, or something like that. While that never happened, I did have some deep meditations. Eventually, I decided to remove the uncertainty of the word God, as well as all the other uncertainties (like afterlife, etc.) and just actually sit and do nothing. I felt like “doing nothing” included removing recordings, music, or any guide’s voice. After all, that would be less material to get in the way, and make it more of a “do nothing.” When I removed the guided recordings and music, and just sat there, all that I was left with was my thoughts.

Appendix 2: my background

It was tough, because I was just thinking the whole time. Yet I would notice deep relaxation happening as well, and so I later called it “relaxation happening while thoughts are happening.” Anyhow, I created a variety of different curriculums around this doing nothing foundation that they had given me, and they were each keeping the foundation of no music, no moving, no talking, and so on: no using the body to perform activities or even techniques, like breathwork.

I refined the curriculum for years, as I learned by testing the curriculum on myself. I tried things like not being attached to thoughts, until I realized that, too, was a form of doing. I tried things like just letting thoughts go, until I realized that was a tense, held mindset that I was fixated on, and created discomfort. I tried letting thoughts flow naturally, until I realized that was emphasizing thinking too much, when in reality there are three choices with thoughts: to let thoughts go, have thoughts, or have no thoughts. I thought I had found the way, which was these three choices. Then I decided that these three choices were only the natural mechanics of the mind, and all you have to do during meditation is to pick whatever you prefer (letting go thoughts, having thoughts, or having none), just like daily life, because then you are not controlling yourself at all, which is the expression of doing nothing.

As I structured the meditation curriculum, I added on helpful prerequisites for the meditation curriculum, from other programs I had made. These other programs included one about thoughts, where I learned that solving problems helps less thoughts repeat, because thoughts only happen to solve problems or advance interests; when you have a plan for the interests, and a solution for the problems, the thoughts that they are connected to will happen less during meditation, and when you enjoy the do nothing meditation, instead of being busy thinking the whole time, you can experience more peace and calmness.

I also realized to add on activations that, once being activated, happen 24/7 during life and during the do nothing meditation, such as the sensation in the center of the chest. While my former teachers would diligently practice the sensation in the center of the chest and tamper with it, I realized instead that all that is needed is for a brief activation period to happen, and then one can simply enjoy it being tangible and felt during the do nothing meditation.

I stitched it all together into one program, which composes most of the pages of this book. Yet after practicing it again on myself, I felt limited by having to be aware that my mind automatically moves between letting go thoughts, having thoughts, or having none. It just felt tense to me. I wanted a deeper meditation that was less busy and more immediate.

Appendix 2: my background

While it was correct that the mind moves between these three choices–letting go thoughts, having thoughts, or having no thoughts–during meditation, this only describes the technical aspect of what is really going on in the mind. This technical aspect is essential to understand, because it leaves you alone with your thoughts and without techniques, which is similar to the do nothing meditation. However, just the technical aspect alone does not create the do nothing meditation–it is only preparation for it.

I realized then that the preferred meditation, the do nothing meditation, is to do nothing, which is what my instructors originally taught. As I was just getting situated on this understanding, I temporarily devolved back to emphasizing the three choices and even spent some time on just one of the choices--having thoughts--until I realized that just focusing on having thoughts feels like you are always looking out for the next thought and feels very unenjoyable. So then I turned back to the three types (letting thoughts go, having thoughts, or having no thoughts), and while this was an improvement--because it is letting all the automatic processes of the mind happen, instead of just thinking--it still felt like it created tension in the brain and attention on the brain. Dedicated to results, I returned to the do nothing meditation, and felt the tension in the brain release and the attention on the brain shift downwards on my body. As a comparison, I would then "activate" the three types meditation (the automatic process of the mind), and within moments I would feel energy in my brain and attention there, and it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as just doing nothing.

So I synthesized the two together: yes, the automatic process of the mind is what always happens, and is important to understand; and yes, you want to meditate using that automatic process of the mind. But, once you really grasp that concept, it is time to transition to "do nothing as the mind moves between having thoughts, letting thoughts go and having no thoughts" and then, once you grasp that concept, to go to the final meditation of "enter the meditation posture and do nothing."

Next, as I continued to work on this, I realized something quite obvious: there is also the automatic processes of the body, which is to breathe, listen, relax spontaneously, experience sensations, and so on.

Appendix 2: my background

The reason that such intention and effort had to go into finding this fully optimized, proper do nothing meditation, was because there is a massive challenge that everyone faces when the techniques are finally let go of. You are left with your mind–and you want to do something to fix it, whether it is falling back into the addiction of a technique, or letting go of certain uncomfortable thoughts. The answer is simple: do nothing.

Continuing to analyze the curriculum, I spent some time renaming the process "non-interference meditation," highlighting how the goal is to just not interfere with the automatic processes that happen. While that was true, having "don't interfere" as the instruction didn't feel very good. As I kept practicing, I realized that all I do when I meditate is close my eyes and "do nothing." To explain it to newcomers, I would say "do nothing while the automatic processes happen." I realized further that this "do nothing" was also the approach that one uses when the urge to do a technique comes up. As a result of these realizations, I decided more concretely that "do nothing" was indeed an appropriate title.

Understanding the automatic processes of the mind

The do nothing meditation involves doing no techniques to control your body or mind. This absence of techniques leaves you with your mind and body only, and whatever automatically happens there. As we start, we will focus on just the mind. Automatic means "done spontaneously or unconsciously." So, we ask ourselves: what functions does the mind do automatically?

If you sit with your thoughts only, and do no techniques to control yourself (like breathwork, visualization, etc.), then you may notice, after many times of doing this, that you mind itself simply moves between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts. Those "3 types" categorize all activities of the mind for everyone. While you can make yourself think, make yourself let go of thoughts, and make yourself have no thoughts, it is also true that even if you are not trying to make yourself do these 3 types, then these 3 types would still happen automatically.

This is to say: your mind will automatically ("spontaneously or unconsciously") move between these 3 types: having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts. Whether you like it or not, throughout your waking hours, your mind will be moving between these 3 types. For example, even during a day that seems like you are just thinking a lot, there are still moments of letting thoughts go and having none--however briefly.

Therefore, we recognize that the automatic processes of the mind are to have thoughts, let thoughts go, or have no thoughts. This recognition is the first preparation that is needed for the non-interference meditation. To recognize this for yourself, do the following practice.

Practice 1

Go into the meditation posture by sitting, closing your eyes, and placing your hands however you like
Do no techniques to control yourself
Notice that your mind moves between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts
This is the automatic process of the mind
Let this happen for 30 seconds, so you can better recognize this automatic process of the mind

My experience

Over the years, I gradually drifted away from their curriculum. By carefully analyzing their curriculum, creating my own meditations, and testing it all on myself and others, I created the innovative do nothing meditation.

Understanding why to do no techniques to control yourself

You may have noticed that I invite you to do no techniques to control yourself, in order to become aware of the automatic processes of the mind. This is because if you were occupied doing a mantra, a visualization, a breathwork, a progressive body relaxation, or some other technique, then that activity would cover up the automatic processes of the mind. Instead of realizing that the automatic processes of the mind are to experience thoughts, let thoughts go, or have no thoughts, you would only be cognizant of the technique that you are doing to control yourself.

This is why, when doing this meditation, the same instruction is given often: to do no techniques to control yourself. Let us meditate again, now that we better grasp what it means to do no techniques to control yourself.

Practice 9

Go into the meditation posture
Do no techniques to control yourself
Experience your mind moving between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts
Let this happen for 45 seconds

Understanding why to do no techniques to control yourself

Congratulations on recognizing that the automatic process of the mind is to experience thoughts, let thoughts go, or have no thoughts, and on better recognizing the meaning of doing no techniques to control yourself.

...However, these "techniques to control yourself" don't just go away so easily. If you are a practiced meditator, you may be very attached to techniques to control yourself. And if you are a new meditator, you may reach to techniques to control yourself during the do nothing meditation, because you want to stop thoughts--to stop the automatic processes of the mind.

So, let us compare how it feels to do a technique to control ourselves, compared to experiencing the automatic process of the mind.

Practice 10

Do you favorite technique to control yourself, such as breathwork, mantras, visualization, progressive body relaxation, prayer, a mindset, and so on.
- How good do you feel, from 1-10?
Experience the automatic process of the mind by going into the meditation posture, doing no techniques to control yourself, and experiencing your mind moving between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts
- How good do you feel, from 1-10?
Which did you rate higher?

Techniques to control yourself are so common. From a recording on relaxing your body, to a spiritual recording on opening your heart, chakras, and energy channels, to a breathwork that has you go through specific techniques, it is helpful to view these techniques to control yourself as spells that people cast on themselves as if they are wizards. Those techniques create an endless cycle of tampering with, interfering with, monitoring, and controlling the mind and body.

Instead, we want to just let the mind be, and the most accurate representation of that is just experiencing the mind moving between its automatic processes of having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts.

Understanding the automatic processes of the mind

Before we progress further, it is important to know what not to do. There is a tendency for us to focus on one of the 3 types, but doing that creates tension. For example, trying to just let thoughts go every time is not natural or automatic, and is very effortful. Trying to just do one of the 3 types is the problem. If your mind wants to naturally, automatically just do one of the three types, that is fine, such as if you go to meditate and you are just thinking the whole time. However, if you try to just think the whole time, that would be very effortful. You want to allow the automatic process of the mind to happen.

For example, say you are meditating for 5 minutes. Your mind might automatically want to think for the first 2 minutes, and then from 2 to 2:30 you might want to let go of thoughts, and then from 2:30-2:45 you suddenly experience having no thoughts--a blank space. Lastly, from 2:45-5 you are thinking the whole time. As you can see, your mind should naturally, randomly, spontaneously select for any of the 3 types throughout your meditation--but rarely just one of them. You should give allowance for it to jump between, or transition between, any of the 3 types.

You do not have to hold onto the mindset of “let the automatic process of the mind happen”; instead, it just happens while you close your eyes and experience your mind.

To explain better how it feels bad to try to just do one option the whole time, we have the next activities, where we try to solely focus on each of the three types.

Practice 5: only having thoughts

Go into the meditation posture
Expect to only have thoughts
When thoughts come up, think about them
Practice this for 1 minute. How does it feel?

Practice 6: only letting thoughts go

Go into the meditation posture
Stop or let go of thoughts every time they arise
Practice this for 1 minute. How does it feel?

Practice 7: only having no thoughts

Go into the meditation posture
Whenever you naturally experience no thoughts, hold onto it as long as you can
Practice this for 1 minute. How does it feel?

Practice 8: the correct way--the automatic process of the mind

Go into the meditation posture
Experience your mind moving between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts

Which of these practices did you like the best? Did you notice that just trying to do one of the 3 types felt tense over time, while experiencing all 3 types through the automatic process of the mind felt far better?

Summary of what we have learned so far

At this point, you:

Understand that the mind automatically moves between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, or having no thoughts
Realize that this automatic process of the mind--to experience the 3 types--happens whether you like it not, throughout your waking hours
Feel that just focusing on one of the automatic processes of the mind (such as just having thoughts, just letting thoughts go, or just having no thoughts) is far less enjoyable than experiencing all 3 types, which is what the mind automatically does
Understand that doing techniques to control yourself covers up the automatic process of the mind, since they are spells that you cast on yourself like a wizard
Feel that doing techniques to control yourself is less enjoyable than experiencing this automatic process of the mind
Understand that doing techniques to control yourself can use the body or use the mind
Understand that, in totality, there are two automatic processes: the automatic processes of the body (to breathe, hear, relax and experience sensations) and the automatic processes of the mind (to have thoughts, let thoughts go, or have no thoughts)
Have experienced the do nothing meditation
Understand the 3 rules regarding how long to meditate for

Understanding the automatic processes of the mind

Congratulations on recognizing that the automatic process of the mind is to have thoughts, let thoughts go, or have no thoughts.

So far, you understand that the mind experiences all of those 3 types, but we want to help you understand that even better by focusing on each of those 3 types, one by one.

Practice 2

Go into the meditation posture
Notice you sometimes have thoughts
This is one of the automatic processes of the mind

Practice 3

Go into the meditation posture
Notice you sometimes let go of thoughts
This is one of the automatic processes of the mind

Practice 4

Go into the meditation posture
Notice you sometimes have no thoughts
This is one of the automatic processes of the mind

Together these "3 types" make up the automatic process of the mind: to have thoughts, let go of thoughts, or have no thoughts.

Understanding why to do no techniques to control yourself

Currently, we are getting used to not doing techniques to control ourselves. Let's go through more practices that deepen our recognition of that.

Firstly, let's get more used to not doing techniques to control ourselves, specifically focusing on those that use the body. Most techniques to control ourselves use the body in some way, like how a mantra uses the mouth, a breathwork uses the breath, a progressive body relaxation uses various body parts, and how recordings and music use the ears. Practice 11 will help us get used to doing no techniques to control ourselves that use the body.

Practice 11

Go into the meditation posture
Don’t listen to music or recordings, don’t talk, don't do breathwork and don't try to release tension from the body
Do this for a minute
How was it?

Secondly, let's get more used to not doing techniques to control ourselves, specifically focusing on those that use the mind.

Practice 12

Go into the meditation posture
If you notice thoughts come up about techniques to control yourself, like telling yourself to “relax this part of my body” to “visualize” to “call upon God,” to have a mindset like “be patient,” etc., then don’t follow those thoughts–stop them, so the habit goes away
Do this for a minute
You are experiencing your mind moving between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts
- However, the techniques to control ourselves that use the mind must be released, such as telling yourself to “relax this part of the body” to “visualize” to “call upon God,” and to have a mindset like “be patient"
How was it?

So, practice 11 helped us to do no techniques to control ourselves that use the body, and practice 12 helped us to do no techniques to control ourselves that use the mind. Together, we now have a better skill in not using any techniques to control ourselves, thereby enabling the body to relax on its own through the automatic process of the mind, where it moves between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts.

How long to meditate for

Now that you are fully experienced in the do nothing meditation, we need to train you on how long to meditate for. There are three rules regarding this:

Most of the the time, 1 or 2 minutes is perfectly enough
- Sometimes, meditating for longer can feel uncomfortable, so you can just dip in long enough to enjoy it briefly, through a 1 or 2 minute meditation
If you are enjoying it, meditate for as long as you would like
- There is no reason to feel guilty if you find the meditation extending for longer, since it feels sweet and nice
Sometimes, stick with the meditation, even though you are not enjoying it
- You will find that the bad feeling, which might linger for whole minutes, can go away and be replaced with the nice feeling from the meditation. Just continue to experience your mind moving between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts.... and continue to do no techniques to control yourself.... and you may find the bad feeling goes away
- This is a tremendous success; being able to sometimes "stick with the meditation and it ends up feeling good" is very liberating, because it shows you that at any time there is a possibility to swap from feeling bad to good, and you might just have to stick with the meditation
- This may not always work; if it still feels bad and its been a little while, you can just stop

Revisiting again, with these upgrades in place

Spend some time on the upgrade pertaining to finding solutions for problems and plans for interests, and once you feel that you have newfound clarity on at least one or two subjects, please revisit the practices below, because you will likely find that the do nothing meditation is easier once you have that upgrade in place. Thoughts should be less distracting.

Revisiting the do nothing meditation

We are going to do the do nothing meditation, and see if you feel any improvement from having solutions for problems and plans for interests.

Go into the meditation posture
Do the do nothing meditation
- Did thoughts feel less distracting, compared to before you did the upgrade to find solutions for problems and plans for interests?

Revisiting the comparison

Now that you have all of the upgrades in place, let's compare how it feels to do a technique to control ourselves, compared to doing the do nothing meditation.

Do you favorite technique to control yourself, such as breathwork, mantras, visualization, progressive body relaxation, prayer, a mindset, and so on
- How good do you feel, from 1-10?
Do the do nothing meditation
- How good do you feel, from 1-10?
Which did you rate higher?

Do nothing meditation

You have learned much about the automatic processes, not doing techniques, and many other things. How does this relate to "doing nothing"? Why is this meditation called a "do nothing meditation"?

This is because just knowing about all this is not enough. The question arises: what do we do when the automatic processes are occurring? For sure, we know to not do techniques. But that doesn't answer the question. We need some sort of instruction. And the answer is simple: do nothing and let the automatic processes happen.

This guidance gives you something to grip onto, anchoring you into the meditation. As the meditation progresses, you will become more and more familiar with doing nothing, and you will actually receive relaxation from the activity of doing nothing. This relaxation will go to unspecified, unasked-for places, because you made no intention--you just did nothing. This makes it a unique meditation every time, with unique parts relaxing every time.

When we consider the instruction-- to "do nothing and let the automatic processes happen"--we must apply the technique correctly. There are two keys to practice until you know it well enough to return to the simple meditation of "just closing your eyes and doing nothing." Here are the two keys.

First, throughout the meditation we do nothing.
Secondly, when we become aware of automatic processes during the meditation--like noticing thoughts, breathing or hearing sounds--we just let them happen without interference.

It is okay if you find yourself reminding yourself to "do nothing." This is another thought, which falls under the category of "automatic processes of the mind." In that case, you let it happen. If you were to try to avoid the reminder "do nothing" you would be monitoring, which is a technique, and we are to let go of techniques.

As we get more and more used to doing nothing and letting automatic processes happen, a standard, a groove, becomes created within us--and it is something that starts to relax you. As you give it time--say, 2-3 minutes--you will feel yourself relaxing more and more. And that's the whole point of the meditation. You just do nothing and let the automatic processes happen, and over time you will relax.

Let's try some new practices that are similar to the previous ones, but incorporate do nothing as the terminology.

We'll go through everything we discussed and make practices out of them--such as letting go of techniques and letting automatic processes happen. Note that once you are trained in all techniques, you don't have to do them any longer--the simple, final meditation becomes "close your eyes and do nothing." We will start with the simple, final meditation so you can really enjoy it, then move on to several practices.

Practice 14

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Do this for 1 minute

Now let's work on the automatic processes happening more smoothly.

Practice 15

Go into the meditation posture by sitting, closing your eyes, and placing your hands however you like
Do nothing and let the automatic processes happen
Any time an automatic process comes up, like thinking or breathing, just let it happen
Do this for 1 minute

Now let's narrow in on the automatic process that people interfere with the most: trying to stop thoughts.

Practice 16

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Have lots of thoughts? Try sending them away each time or getting rid of them
Do this for 1 minute
How did that feel?

Now that you have the reference point, let's return to the proper way.

Practice 17

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Have lots of thoughts? That's fine; it is an automatic process. Let the thoughts happen
Do this for 1 minute
How did that feel?
Was it better than practice 3?

Now let's have reminders to do no techniques.

Practice 18

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Whenever the urge comes up to do a technique, remember to let it go
Do this for 1 minute

Now let's get another reference point: how your favorite technique-based meditation compares to the do nothing meditation.

Practice 19

Close your eyes
Do your favorite technique-based meditation, like breathwork, visualization, or whatever else. Do this for 1 minute
How relaxed are you?
Do the do nothing meditation for 1 minute
How relaxed are you?
Which is better?

Now let's summarize all of this training so far into the most simple instruction possible.

Practice 20

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Let automatic processes happen, let techniques go
Do this for one minute

Now let's realize that giving the meditation more time usually results in a deeper meditation.

Practice 21

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Give it 3 minutes
Do you feel that you are more relaxed now that you have given it some time?

Once proficient in practices 15-21, turn to practice 14 as the only meditation to do--the simple, final meditation.

This meditation may feel like just ordinary life--like you are just sitting there thinking. That is okay. Remember, the automatic processes of the mind are to have thoughts, let go of thoughts, and have none, so if it feels like you are just thinking the whole time that is the ordinary process of the mind.

If it felt uncomfortable, don't worry--there are many pages of upgrades and reminders coming shortly, which will help the experience of the do nothing meditation become much, much easier.

Understanding the automatic processes of the body

So far, we know very much about the automatic processes of the mind: we let it move between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts. This is the first automatic process.

Now, it is important to understand about the automatic processes of the body. This is the second automatic process.

As a reminder, there are automatic processes that the mind and the body experience, which are more noticeable in the absence of techniques. We already know about this absence of techniques: you have been trained to perform no techniques on the body or mind. So, when these techniques are gone, the automatic processes of the mind and body can be better felt.

For the mind, the automatic processes are to move between having thoughts, letting thoughts go, and having no thoughts.

For the body, the automatic processes are to breathe, to listen, to relax when it feels like, and to experience sensations (see part 3).

We want to understand that these automatic processes are more noticeable when we are not doing techniques. To let these automatic processes happen, we don't have to do anything--it happens purely, naturally, on its own. The result of letting the automatic processes of the mind and body happen is that:

Your body and mind relaxes on its own, and the parts that relax are unspecified--so it can go anywhere, unpredictably, and satisfyingly
You spontaneously experience times when you are having no thoughts, which feels nice
When you have thoughts, they feel lighter and freer
Subtle parts relax deeply, spontaneously
Every time we meditate, the relaxation process happens differently (sometimes slower, sometimes faster; sometimes parts relax in one meditation that don’t relax in other meditations), so each meditation is unique
We enjoy the experience of not having to do a set of instructions, like most meditations ask of us

Soon, we will experience practicing the automatic processes of the body and mind, but let us first get used to the automatic processes of the body through a practice that focuses on just the body.

Practice 13

Go into the meditation posture
Do no techniques to control the body
Realize the body's automatic processes are to breathe on its own (not forced through a technique), to listen naturally to sounds (if it feels like it), to relax spontaneously in random, unspecified places, and to experience sensations
Experience these automatic processes of the body for one minute
How was it?

Appendix 2: my background

My do nothing meditation was born in the pursuit of creating the ultimate "do nothing" meditation. The do nothing meditation was taught to me at the Mastering Reiki Tummo level by Natural Way of Living. But I know now that what they taught was far from doing nothing. This is because they had you listen to audio where the ears are engaged, adding a layer of doing. Furthermore, they were embedded with a practice of letting go of busy thoughts or other things that caused negative emotions, which is another layer of doing.

Ultimately, my meditation is distinct for a few unique reasons:

Firstly, it does away with any unproven ideas like God, afterlife, chakras and regressions
Secondly, it explains the automatic processes of the mind and body, which helps you realize what is beneath the surface at all times. In contrast, they used techniques to control themselves, which covered up these automatic processes; for example, a guided recording or self-guiding prayer that says words that cover up thoughts that would normally happen as part of the 3 types of the automatic process of the mind
Thirdly, it provides the unique upgrade of having solutions for problems and plans for interests, which reduces how distracting thoughts are
Fourthly, it presents activations, such as the sensation in the center of the chest, as being things that express themselves automatically once activated a few times, while they have you fastidiously “develop” activations through various practices that are done for your entire life
Fifthly, it encourages the do nothing meditation as the only meditation to do, while they recommend several meditations to do regularly
Sixthly, it presents brief meditations as being acceptable, while they do both brief meditations and 20-90 minute meditations

This is a freeing meditation that liberates you from the chains and busyness of endless techniques. You just go into the meditation posture, do nothing, and over time you will feel relaxation happening... so this is the most effortless meditation.

I encourage you to follow through each part of this book, and feel advancements in the meditation practice that you already do, and hopefully eventually you make it through the entire book and can enjoy the sweet and most effortless relaxation of the do nothing meditation.

Welcome to Part 1. This is the do nothing meditation

Part 1 consists of 5 slides that simply explain and give practices for the do nothing meditation. Part 2, which follows, explains the same content, just more in depth. Let's start!

When you hear the term "do nothing," you might assume that you will not be thinking during this meditation. After all, it says "do nothing," and thinking is a form of doing.

Automatic processes

But those two words are not the full meditation, which is to "do nothing and let the automatic processes happen." You see, there are automatic processes that our mind and body always experience--some of these are the mind thinking and the body breathing.

How do we approach the reality of these automatic processes existing? There are two ways.

First, throughout the meditation we do nothing.
Secondly, when we become aware of automatic processes during the meditation--like noticing thoughts, breathing or hearing sounds--we just let them happen without interference.

As we get more and more used to doing nothing and letting automatic processes happen, a standard, a groove, becomes created within us--and it is something that starts to relax you. This relaxation will go to unspecified, unasked-for places, because you made no intention--you just did nothing. This makes it a unique meditation every time, with unique parts relaxing every time.

As you give it time--say, 2-3 minutes--you will feel yourself relaxing more and more.

And that's the whole point of the meditation. You just do nothing and let the automatic processes happen.

Techniques

This meditation is so different than most meditations, because you are not asked to do any technique, like breathwork, mantras, visualization or prayer. So remember: the final instruction is to just do nothing, and that includes any technique. For experienced meditators who are used to a variety of complex techniques, you will find yourself reaching for the techniques during the do nothing meditation. When that happens, just remind yourself again and again to let them go. After some time, you will get used to doing no techniques, and then you don't have to remind yourself anymore to let them go.... You will then just close your eyes and do nothing.

Summary

For automatic processes, you let it happen; for techniques, you let them go.

Table of contents

Qualifications

Table of contents, 1

Welcome video, 2

Testimonials, 3

My experience, 4

Part 1: simple summary

The do nothing meditation, 5

So... what are automatic processes? 6

What am I supposed to do again... about automatic processes? 7

What am I supposed to do again... about the urge to do techniques? 8

The practices! 9

Part 2: same as part 1, just more in-depth

Summary of the entire training, 10

Understanding the automatic processes of the mind, 11-13

Understanding why to do no techniques to control yourself, 14-16

Understanding the automatic processes of the body, 17

Do nothing meditation, 18

How long to meditate for, 19

Summary of what we have learned so far, 20

Part 3: upgrades

Upgrades: essential, 21

Upgrades: incredible activations that layer onto all meditations hereon, 22-24

Revisiting again, with these upgrades in place, 25

Upgrades: reducing how distracting thoughts are, 26-31

Revisiting again, with these upgrades in place, 32

Closing notes, 33

Appendices

Appendix 1, 34

Appendix 2, 35-39

So... what are automatic processes?

The instruction of the meditation is to "do nothing and let the automatic processes happen." But what are the automatic processes?

I will just tell you in part 1, but in part 2 we are going to have you experience it step by step.

The whole point of the do nothing meditation is to do no techniques to control your body or mind. Well... what is left, if you are doing nothing? With all of the techniques stripped away... what is left that is happening?

The answer is: there are automatic activities that are left. The word automatic means "done spontaneously or unconsciously." There are a lot of things that happen unconsciously. Let's see what they are, for the mind first, then for the body.

For the mind, it either thinks, is letting go of thoughts, or has no thoughts--one of these are happening at any given time. For the body, many things are happening at the same time, but we narrow it down to a few key activities: breathing, hearing, relaxing on its own (not when you tell it to--when it chooses to, like your jaw suddenly loosening out of nowhere), and experiencing sensations (see part 3 for this).

Those are the automatic processes of the mind and body.

They are things that are always happening under the surface, even when you forget about them, even when you are doing techniques like prayer, even when you are doing nothing. The automatic processes of the mind and body are the current in a river that flows while your boat rests upon the surface and is carried along by the current.

...What I ask of you is simple: do nothing while this current flows; do nothing and let the automatic processes happen.

I will explain that in the next slide.

What am I supposed to do again... about automatic processes?

Now that you understand what the automatic processes are, let's give some examples of how it might show up during the meditation.

You notice thoughts are happening. You want to stop them. Don't--the thoughts are an automatic process, and the instruction is to do nothing and let the automatic processes happen.
You notice yourself breathing. You also notice you feel tense. You want to take a nice deep breath like everyone has said is good to, in order to relax. Don't--you are trying to let go of techniques, even that of a nice deep breath. Why? Because each time you let go of a technique, it gets easier to do nothing and experience calmness and relaxation that arrives solely from doing nothing--in other words, the only way to get results from this meditation is by getting used to letting go of techniques!

Automatic processes are happening, and we just let them happen, while we sit there and do nothing. Remember the summary from slide 5: throughout the meditation we do nothing, and when we become aware of automatic processes, we just let them happen

What am I supposed to do again... about the urge to do techniques?

Sure, we've covered what to do when the automatic processes (like thoughts or breathing or hearing sounds) come up.

But... what about that urge to do techniques? What do we do then?

I know, you just let them go and ignore that urge. It's simple. But it's deep. Because we are so used to doing techniques to control ourselves, especially experienced meditators. So I'll give some examples and explain why.

Breathwork. Mantras. Visualization. Prayer. Guided recordings. Any technique whatsoever...
Must be "undone." Must be forgotten. Must be let go.
How? Whenever the urge to do the technique comes up during the do nothing meditation, you refrain from doing the technique. You tell yourself "no."
After some time, you will get used to doing no techniques, and then you don't have to remind yourself anymore to let them go.... You will then just close your eyes and do nothing

We will try this out in the upcoming practices.

The practices!

In this slide, we'll go through everything we discussed and make practices out of them--such as letting go of techniques and letting automatic processes happen. Note that once you are trained in all techniques, you don't have to do them any longer--the simple, final meditation becomes "close your eyes and do nothing." We will start with the simple, final meditation so you can really enjoy it, then move on to several practices.

Practice 1

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Do this for 1 minute

Now let's work on the automatic processes happening more smoothly.

Practice 2

Go into the meditation posture by sitting, closing your eyes, and placing your hands however you like
Do nothing and let the automatic processes happen
Any time an automatic process comes up, like thinking or breathing, just let it happen
Do this for 1 minute

Now let's narrow in on the automatic process that people interfere with the most: trying to stop thoughts.

Practice 3

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Have lots of thoughts? Try sending them away each time or getting rid of them
Do this for 1 minute
How did that feel?

Now that you have the reference point, let's return to the proper way.

Practice 4

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Have lots of thoughts? That's fine; it is an automatic process. Let the thoughts happen
Do this for 1 minute
How did that feel?
Was it better than practice 3?

Now let's have reminders to do no techniques.

Practice 5

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Whenever the urge comes up to do a technique, remember to let it go
Do this for 1 minute

Now let's get another reference point: how your favorite technique-based meditation compares to the do nothing meditation.

Practice 6

Close your eyes
Do your favorite technique-based meditation, like breathwork, visualization, or whatever else. Do this for 1 minute
How relaxed are you?
Do the do nothing meditation for 1 minute
How relaxed are you?
Which is better?

Now let's summarize all of this training so far into the most simple instruction possible.

Practice 7

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Let automatic processes happen, let techniques go
Do this for one minute

Now let's realize that giving the meditation more time usually results in a deeper meditation.

Practice 8

Close your eyes
Do nothing
Give it 3 minutes
Do you feel that you are more relaxed now that you have given it some time?

Once proficient in practices 2-8, turn to practice 1 as the only meditation to do--the simple, final meditation.