Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 113
  2. Doubt vs. Questioning
     … That’s a lot more trustworthy than the knowledge that you gain simply from books, from words, or from what you’ve thought through on your own. The Buddha talks about three levels of discernment. The first two are the discernment that comes from listening and reading, and then the discernment that comes from thinking things through. Ajaan Lee compares the first to elementary … 
  3. Beginning the Rains
     … It shows that you’ve put in some thought. And you’re not just spending all your time with social grease because too much grease can muck up the works. And finally, you’re consistent. Years back I was reading an advice column, and the person giving advice was saying, “If you’re going to help other people, don’t be very consistent in … 
  4. The Power of the Mind
     … fact that the mind is going out looking for them. In the Buddha’s analysis, even prior to sensory contact there are a lot of things going on in the mind: thoughts, intentions, perceptions, fabrications of various kinds. These are the things that shape our experience now and on into the future. Because the mind has power, we can use it in various ways … 
  5. In Memory of King Rama IX
     … You may not be able to get rid of it, but at least don’t let it show, and don’t let it take over your thoughts. If something in the mind says, “Okay, this is worthy of anger,” learn how to say, “No. Maybe there’s another side to it.” Or if something says, “This is worthy of lust, this is worthy of … 
  6. The Dhamma Without Price
     … In fact, when he thought of when he was a king—guards posted inside the palace and outside the palace, inside the city and outside the city, inside the country and outside the country—even then he couldn’t sleep for fear that someone would try to kill him. If you’re trying to amass wealth, then once you’ve got it amassed, you … 
  7. Learning & Respect
     … Then, when you can do that, he says the next step in the training is to keep track of the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world, but don’t think any thoughts about the body. The same with feelings, mind states, mental qualities. This means that you’re aware of the … 
  8. The Wrong Uses of Right
     … As the body acts, as your words act, as your thoughts act, look at where they come from. Look at where they’re going. Don’t just get into them and ride around. Step back from them and see who’s driving them. That’s how you learn how to step back from your views. That’s what right view is for is learning … 
  9. Right Speech, Inside & Out
     … One thought leads to another, leads to another, and you end up who knows where in the middle of Siberia. Other times, when the mind is settling down, there’s a part of the mind that’s afraid of concentration so it tries to break things up. That’s divisive speech. Harsh speech, of course, is when you tell yourself you’re a miserable … 
  10. An Admirable Friend — In Memory of Luang Loong
     … So tonight at the end of meditation, dedicate the merit to Luang Loong, because without people like him, where would we be? The best way to carry on their influence is to embody it in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds—so that we have something to pass on to the next generation. This is one way of looking forward and looking back … 
  11. The World of the Body
     … So we’ve got this body that we have to care for that will eventually leave us, and we don’t know when it will leave or how much grief it’s going to give us before it goes—when it suddenly decides to do things that we never thought we’d give it permission to do, but it doesn’t have to ask … 
  12. Imperturbable
     … Until you take care of the greed, aversion, and delusion, your thoughts of past and future tend to do nothing more than add more fuel to the fire. Then you can remind yourself with the chants on the brahma-viharas, that you do really want true happiness, a happiness that’s good for everybody. So the chants are there to clean out a lot … 
  13. Unattractiveness
     … She didn’t know where to go until she thought of space. So she took space as her object, stayed there for quite a while, and then realized that everything in the body had come back to normal. So what the voice had said was not true, but she’d learned an important lesson: If you can’t stay with the body, go to … 
  14. Always Willing to Learn
     … You look at your intentions, and if you anticipate that the actions you’re planning to do, whether they’re in thought, word, or deed, are going to lead to any harm, you don’t do them. You have to act only on intentions that seem to be good, harmless. While you’re doing them, you look at the results. If you see that … 
  15. A Good Narrative
     … When Prince Siddhartha thought about this, he realized that as long as he was pursuing aims that with themselves age, grow ill, and die, he wasn’t accomplishing anything at all. Beauty, fame, power: All these things are going to change and unravel. They aren’t worthwhile ways of finding a meaning in life. The only thing that really is meaningful is deathless, something … 
  16. An End to the Stories
    We start the meditation with thoughts of goodwill to clean out our minds from all the stories of the day—“This person did that, that person did this”—or the stories of the year or the stories of your lifetime. Think about that statement at the end of the chant just now: “Those who are capable of making an end.” That’s what we … 
  17. Right Resolve
     … Focusing on the breath is called directed thought. Learning how to make it comfortable is called evaluation. These are the two factors that help build concentration. The third factor is singleness: that you really focus on the breath and try to stay with the breath and nothing else. These are the three things you focus on developing. Notice how the breath feels in the … 
  18. Wisdom for Dummies
     … There may be pain in the body, there may be undesirable thoughts coming up in the mind, but as you focus more carefully in the present moment, you begin to realize that you choose where to focus and how you want to shape the situation. You could let yourself suffer, fall victim to these things, or you could make a change. This point is … 
  19. An Hour of Bliss
     … Focus on your breath, then think thoughts of goodwill, as we chanted just now. Goodwill for yourself: You want to be happy. Goodwill for other people: Realize that other people want to be happy, too. You want true happiness, not just fleeting happiness. Something that lasts. Something that’s really nourishing for the mind. The way to do that is to learn how to … 
  20. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … He changed his thoughts, his words, and his deeds to fit in line with the Dhamma and gave them an example. We should allow ourselves to do the same so that we can be a good example for the world. Because the best way to benefit from the Dhamma, the best way to test the Dhamma, is to follow it in line with the … 
  21. Monastery Standard Time
     … Who could do that for him now? As he thought about this, he began to realize that there were the teachings Ajaan Mun had been giving him all that time. And one that he had stressed over and over again was that when anything comes up in the meditation that you’re not sure about, just stay with the sense of the knower and … 
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