I think for beginners (I include myself here) is good to not start fancy with advanced techniques and stuff like that... I recommend to just sit down! and have a very passive attitude towards everything; don't try not to think nor try to think about anything... I mean don't try to actively shut the internal monologue, just.. don't pay much attention to it... and forget about time. This is the simplest method and though I don't guarantee awesome results I find after a while I start getting deeper and deeper...