Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 115
  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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