That something is voluntary doesn't imply you have the power to choose.
Thoughts are voluntary. Can you stop yours?
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Thought content perhaps not, but thinking in itself seems to be voluntary, at least to a degree. I've gained some sparse control over mine.
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Ahhh? See how long you can not think. Don't jam the channel with a mantra or visualization or some such.
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At the moment, I'd say about 10-15 seconds. But will be something like:
Silence.
Random notion arises and passes.
Silence.
Another notion.
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you can relax completely, and that will empty out a ton; or you can channel jam thru attention so there's no room for thoughts.
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Seems to be the latter in this case. There's almost an audible sound like: youtu.be/a4Vu5latvTI
Then world gets loud, mind quiet.
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not something I've experienced. I used to "have" to stop thoughts due to uncontrolled ideation.
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The two ways I used most often were visualization and resting attention at the center of my head. Both are "channel jams".
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I've tried that, but I'm not good enough to produce an effect that lasts more than a second - and it feels strenuous. This is effortless.
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attention is quite small, it doesn't take much to jam it. Mantras can do the same, but replace thoughts with predetermined ones.
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You can also deliberately exhaust yourself. You may still have thoughts, but they will float and you won't care.