My mind won't stop talking when I meditate. How do I make it quiet?
You are trying to make the mind quiet. Notice who is trying. That effort is just more talking, the loudest voice in the room. Thoughts are not a problem in sitting. They are weather. The mind makes thoughts the way the ear hears sounds; you would not sit down and try to stop hearing. So stop fighting. Let the talking go on, and don't follow it. When you notice you've wandered off into a story, that noticing is the practice, not a failure of it. Come back, again and again, without scolding yourself. Quiet is not something you make. It shows up on its own when you stop feeding the noise. Next time you sit, count your out-breaths from one to ten. When you lose count, and you will, simply begin again at one.
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