Search results for: "Thought"
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- Giving to the Meditation… What are you bringing to the meditation? You may be bringing a day full of scattered thoughts, worries about this, that, the other thing, and as you focus on the negative things you’re bringing to the meditation it makes it difficult. Focus on the positive things: You’ve got a body; you’ve got the breath; you’ve got a certain amount of …
- A Sense of Yourself… Be careful with your speech, because that translates into directed thought and evaluation. Even before you’re going to speak, you have to direct your thoughts to things and evaluate them. That’s when you come up with something to say out loud. All too often, though, we don’t put too much energy into evaluating things properly. Whatever pops into our minds, whatever …
- The Kathina… It doesn’t say why the Buddha thought up the kathin, how it came about. It’s in a very unusual section of the Vinaya. It seems to assume that the people reading the section already know what the kathin is all about, so very little is explained. So you have to read between the lines. Just look at the event. The monks have …
- Mindful of the Buddha’s Shoulds… Which is very ironic because the Buddha thought that was the most important thing he left behind: a basis for deciding what you should and shouldn’t do. That, he said, was one of the main duties of a teacher. Of course, he didn’t impose the shoulds on you, but as he pointed out, if you wanted to put an end to suffering …
- The Equanimity of a Winner… It’s effort in the mind, the effort to go against certain thought patterns, certain desires, certain old ways of doing things. Even though they may be subtle, dealing with them requires a consistency and a persistency, a stick-to-it-tividness that you can manage only when you have equanimity to help you see clearly. So we’re trying to develop here the …
- Urgency & Contentment… You don’t have to second-guess the different thoughts that come floating into your mind, wondering if maybe this is something valuable or that’s going to be a great insight or whatever. Just content yourself with staying right here. You don’t have a hankering to go off someplace else. So these are two ways of thinking to keep you focused on …
- Watching Over Time… If you see that what you thought originally was going to be harmless actually ended up causing harm—and this can be from very gross levels to very subtle ones—then resolve that you’re not going to make that mistake again. Talk it over with other people who are practicing, people you trust, to get their perspective on it, too. This one basic …
- The Power of Choice… Even the slightest little bit of thought is going to destroy that kind of concentration. But if an element of exploring and evaluation is part of the concentration itself, you can be in the concentration and pull out a little bit, without destroying your focus. It’s like having your hand in a glove: You can have it in all the way, or you …
- Fear & Conviction… This helps to get your priorities straight and strengthens your conviction that what really needs to be done is to focus on your actions in thought, word, and deed—to develop your mind more than it is now, until you get to that point that the Buddha called attaining the as-yet-unattained, knowing the as-yet-unknown, reaching the as-yet-unreached—that …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
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