Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 108
  2. Acceptance Without Suffering
     … If any unskillful thought comes up in the mind, he says that you don’t just let it stay. You try to take it apart so that you can abandon it. You realize that when you have an unskillful emotion like lust or anger, it’s made up of three things: the way you breathe, the way you talk to yourself, and the perceptions … 
  3. In the Light of Karma
     … You can start engaging in your verbal fabrications—all the thoughts and conversations of the mind—in a skillful way. Bring them to a focal point right here with the breath. Learn how to figure out what’s going on here in the body, what positive things you can do with this energy you’ve got here, so that there’s a sense of … 
  4. Borrowed Wealth
     … Because your body, your feelings, your perceptions, and thought constructs, even your consciousness, acts of consciousness: They come and they go, and you have to leave them at some point. And the question is, in taking possession of these things and taking care of them, what do you have to show for your effort? Most people go for a life of sensual pleasures: nice … 
  5. A Network of Goodness
     … If they’re still around, think thoughts of gratitude, and think about how you might respond to their goodness. The Pali term for gratitude, kataññu, means having a sense of what was done; katavedi means having the feeling that goes along with that sense, wanting to repay, and if nothing else, wanting to carry on the goodness. Whatever goodness we’ve learned from our … 
  6. Respect
     … But then he added, “Well, actually, you know, everywhere is sacred.” I thought to myself, “That can’t be the case. If everywhere is sacred, where are you going to go to the bathroom?” The whole idea of things worthy of respect means that there are some things worthy of more respect than others. So when we have respect for the Buddha, it means … 
  7. Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources
     … And generosity is a necessary part of the path, you can’t simply think thoughts of compassion or goodwill and not act on them at all: That’s hypocrisy. You’ve got to act to some extent. But the extent to which you’re able—in terms of your monetary resources, in terms of your time, in terms of your energy—you have to … 
  8. Inner Strength, Inner Wealth
     … There are so many other examples out there, so many other stories about how you can find happiness, with a very limited notion of what happiness is and often very little thought of the consequences. There was a scary book out several years back on Positive Psychology where the author was trying to be very objective and scientific, saying that there are ways of … 
  9. Intent
     … This means you can unburden yourself of a lot of thoughts, a lot of concerns. At this moment, the only thing that matters is the awareness right here in the present moment and your breath, and whatever thoughts help you stay with the breath. Thinking is a part of concentration, but it has to be focused thinking. We’re not just randomly wandering around … 
  10. A Sense of Direction
     … So for your own well-being and the well-being of others, it’s good to develop thoughts of goodwill, wishing that they might find the causes for true happiness and abandon their unskillful behavior. In that way, the world becomes a better place. To counteract sloth and torpor: If you find that your meditation is putting you to sleep, well, change the object … 
  11. Leaving Meditation
     … There’s not a lot of pushing and pulling, fighting off distracting thoughts, because you’ve made a habit of staying with that one point and letting your awareness spread out from that one point. It’s the same skill you want to develop as you’re sitting here with your eyes closed. When you can keep this continuity, then the meditation can develop … 
  12. Settling In
     … That’s part of the path, as you deal with directed thought and evaluation, getting the breath comfortable, getting the body comfortable, settling in. But then you can let go of that and just be with the breath as it is, be with the body as it is. You get more and more used to being here—and what it means to be here … 
  13. Complacency
     … Like that time the fire was coming over the horizon, the thought that went through my mind was that mother nature wants to kill us. Here’s a fire coming our way, and this body is put together in such a way that it will die if it doesn’t escape. The forces of nature are going to kill it. Do you have your … 
  14. Discipline Is a Choice
     … The basic formula tells you, on the one hand, to follow the body in and of itself, and on the other hand, to subdue thoughts of greed and distress related to the world. You’re choosing to follow one part of your experience and to subdue another part. And you try to do that consistently. Normally, we jump back and forth, focusing on our … 
  15. Enlarged Awareness
     … Some of your thoughts may still feel open and naked when you have this enlarged awareness. In other words, when you’re dealing with other people in your ordinary ways of trying to figure them out in the course of a conversation, those might have a tendency to take over. So you’ve got to remind yourself, no, you’re in a much better … 
  16. Lavish Goodwill
     … May all beings understand the causes for true happiness, and be willing and able to act on them.” It should be a thought that you can think over and over again. But often we’re challenged by other people’s unskillful behavior, and it becomes hard. Or, sometimes we have difficulty thinking goodwill for ourselves: looking at ourselves, seeing our drawbacks, and thinking that … 
  17. Nostalgia for Suffering
     … A mind thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to be a lizard… wouldn’t it be cool to be a frog… wouldn’t it be cool to fly up and down and back and forth, you’d become a hummingbird.” And the mind is more variegated than all those animals out there, so there’s no way that the Buddha’s going to detail … 
  18. Going Out of Your Way
     … As the Buddha said, when you’re avoiding unskillful thoughts, that can mean either that the mind is in concentration, or simply that it’s thinking things that are skillful: not based on sensuality, not based on ill will, not based on harmfulness. But that’s not necessarily special. What makes it special is when you decide you’re going to focus in on … 
  19. Realities Right Here
     … When you get into a feeling or a thought world, you don’t see them in those terms. But when you can step back a little bit and can observe your mind, you begin to realize that’s actually what’s going on. So try to be fully sensitive here, right here, right now. Put aside the notions you’ve learned from outside of … 
  20. Switch the Context
     … That thought helps to act as a solvent to dissolve a lot of the narratives. Your sense of the world in which you exist: That’s also an act of becoming. We were talking the other day about how dependent co-arising doesn’t happen inside you or inside the world. You and the world happen inside the pattern of dependent co-arising, which … 
  21. Endurance & Contentment
     … Technically, it’s defined as directed thought and evaluation, but it basically comes down to the chatter going on in the mind. When you invest that chatter with your identity, it makes it hard to step back from it. So instead, you can look at it as the committee of the mind, or the corporation of the mind. Or try Ajaan Lee’s image … 
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