Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 114
  2. Potentials for Rapture
     … In addition to the recollections, you might be thinking thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, or equanimity: any theme that allows the body to relax, allows the mind to relax with a sense of well-being. Then notice how the breath feels and try to maintain that quality of breath. This practice of paying appropriate attention is very important. It’s what you’re … 
  3. Lighter & Stronger
     … You strengthen the mind by holding in mind perceptions that help you to separate yourself out from the things you felt you had to rely on, or that you actually thought were you. Like this body: It’s hard for a lot of people to imagine themselves without a body, in particular the one they have. Yet the body keeps refusing their claims. When … 
  4. Shame & Compunction
     … When you see that the wise people criticize certain behavior, feel a sense of shame at the thought of behaving in that way, so that you don’t behave in that way. That’s when shame becomes a guardian of the world. The same with compunction: When you can see that other people behave in ways that are harmful, look at your own behavior … 
  5. Step Back
     … It says, “Well, of course this is the way things have to be; this is the way you have to look at it.” So you have to question the “of course” ideas, question your “of course” assumptions, starting as a thought experiment. Ask yourself, what would the world be like if you believed the opposite? This was Ajaan Lee’s test for anything that … 
  6. Breathe Easy
     … I said, “That’s precisely the problem, you’re weighing yourself down with thoughts about things you don’t even know.” Even if the pandemic goes away, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of disease, the end of illness, the end of death. These things keep happening. Even before the pandemic started, I was told that on average more than 200,000 … 
  7. On an Even Keel
     … Just because a thought is being offered for you doesn’t mean you have to pick it up, take it, and run with it. You’re a wise committee chairman. The wise committee chairman is very patient: firm, but patient. When you can make your mind like earth like this, when you can keep it on an even keel like this, then the meditation … 
  8. A Load Off the Mind
     … But if you think of the breath energizing those parts, giving them a sense of fullness, and allowing that fullness to spread so the different full spots connect, you find that the potentials of the body are different from what you thought. A lot of this has to do with what you’re doing right now, what you’re choosing right now, where you … 
  9. Selfing & Not-selfing
     … You’ve got the feeling of pleasure that you’re trying to maintain; the perception of the breath that holds you with the breath; fabrication of directed thought and evaluation as you keep thinking about the breath and evaluating how good it is, and adjustments so that it feels good breathing in, good breathing out, all the way in, all the way out. You … 
  10. Dispassion & Delight
     … Let those thoughts encourage you. Be passionate about that goal. Then, when you’ve attained that goal, you look at everything else you’ve been holding on to and you realize you don’t need that anymore. You can let that go as well. But in the meantime, be passionate about what you’re doing as you fulfill your duties on the path, because … 
  11. The Bright Tunnel
     … There’s form affected by clinging, feeling affected by clinging, perceptions, thought fabrications, consciousness, all of which are affected by clinging. The clinging is what turns them into suffering. The clinging is what tries to wring a happiness out of them that they simply don’t have to offer. Having to run around clinging to things all the time puts the mind in a … 
  12. Fence Me In
     … Think of the skin as being the limit to as far as you want your thoughts to go. If you’re going to think, think about things that are going on in the body right now. If you’re going to be aware, try to be as totally aware of the body as you can be—either one part of the body or the … 
  13. Samvegic Ironies
     … Wherever your thoughts could go that would pull you away from your object of concentration, you have to realize they’re taking you to a place that’s unreliable. The only way to make yourself reliable is through the practice. That’s what your breath offers. It may not seem like much—just in and out, in and out—but the way you develop … 
  14. Endurance Through Discernment
     … How are you fabricating your thoughts around the pain? What are you telling yourself about the pain? And it’s perfectly legitimate to bring in the breath as well. Through the way you breathe you can create feelings that enable you to sit with the pain for a longer period of time and feel less threatened by it. Of course, there will be things … 
  15. Karma-ism
     … If you try to maintain a whole-body awareness, you find yourself less likely to latch onto thoughts just because they pass through the the larger range of your awareness. Then he says to calm bodily formations, which means calming the activity of the breath, all the physical processes going through the body. How do you calm them without stamping them out? These are … 
  16. Seeing with the Body
     … And just that fact of how it feels in the present moment, without your having to get involved in thoughts of identity, the narratives of your life, your worldviews: Get used to looking at things simply on this level, just the experience in and of itself. This gives you a new foundation. You get in touch with the ability, in the midst of the … 
  17. Put Your Books Back on the Shelf
     … When you find that you can stay with the breath comfortably and things feel good, then you can put aside all the directed thought and evaluation, the chatter about the breath. Just be with the breath. And at this point, you don’t have to make any comments on it at all, aside from just, “Breath, breath, breath.” I remember one time—when I … 
  18. Your Sketches vs. the Buddha’s
     … So look at your thoughts. Look at your ways of thinking. Look at your ways of breathing, where you say, “It’s got to be this way,” because it’s in your map. If it’s causing you to suffer, throw out the map. Try the Buddha’s map. A lot of people have used it and found that it works. Of course, even … 
  19. Cut Through the Narratives
     … It sounds almost comical, because we don’t usually stop with that thought. It continues: “Why is that person saying that? Why do they have no respect for me? Why do they look down on me?”—or whatever the reaction is. Then we go spinning out another narrative. So even something simple like that—“an unpleasant sound is making contact at the ear”: That … 
  20. Dangers Outside & In
     … And you’ll find that as you take a more proactive approach to the pain, it’s not as scary as you thought it was. When you’re running away from it, it seems huge. But when you turn around and really face it, it begins to shrink. You begin to understand the extent to which your perceptions have made the pain a much … 
  21. In the Driver’s Seat
     … He said the actions of the past give the same kind of result, which is something very, very different, because if you have a change of heart—which includes developing unlimited thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity; training the mind so it’s not easily overcome by pleasure, not easily overcome by pain; training it in virtue and discernment—then the results … 
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