Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 118
  2. Your Actions Are Yours
     … There is a certain school of thought that says, when you’re practicing, you have to have the idea that there’s nobody there practicing. If you think that somebody’s practicing, you’re starting out with wrong view, and that’s going to skew everything. That’s what they say, but it’s obvious from the way the Buddha teaches Rahula that that … 
  3. An Auspicious Day
     … Because ultimately you’re going to be watching the mind, and it’s very easy when you’re watching the mind to get sucked into its different thought-worlds, so that you suddenly find yourself at some other place, some other time, not right here, right now. But if you’re with the breath, you know you’re in the present moment, because there … 
  4. Non-Verbal Discernment
     … Is it true or is it not true? Is it a mirage? How do you test? Whereas in Indian thought, especially prior to the Buddha, the basic paradigm was not the act of looking at something, it was the act of eating. This, they said, was the basic function of a human being, of any being: eating. The Buddha himself said that this was … 
  5. The World of the Body
     … As for other thoughts that may come to the mind, you can let them go. Try to stay in the world of the body right here. The mind is used to living in lots of different worlds. You’ve got the world of family, the world of work, the world of school, the world of the highway, the world of being a shopper. We … 
  6. To Be Worthy of the Dhamma
     … So let that thought be uplifting. It lifts your intent, lifts your heart, so that you can put even more energy into the practice.
  7. Faith as a Virtue
     … That doesn’t mean that you’re going to blame yourself for everything that shows up in the mind, but you do want to be careful about what kind of things you pick up to think about and what kind of thoughts you follow through with—or, as the Buddha says, bend your mind. Which directions do you want it to be bent in … 
  8. Endurance & Equanimity
     … That first thought—you don’t want to please the other person—is spiteful. Here you’re using spite in order to overcome the anger. At the very least, you get some control over it. Psychology has given a bad name for people who control their emotions. They think that in every case when you control an emotion it goes underground and turns into … 
  9. Solid Inside
     … It’s simply because you’re not observant, you’re not watching the mind carefully enough to see where it’s picking up a thought that’s unnecessary. One way of developing this attitude of compassion is to look at the breath. Where in the body does the breathing feel uncomfortable? Think of the breath not just as air coming in and out of … 
  10. No-Tech Meditation
     … When you get to the fourth jhana, the breath energy gets more full in the body because of the steadiness of your focus, undisturbed by thoughts about the world. You get to the point where even the in-and-out breathing stops. You could pursue this through the formless jhanas, and get to the point where mental fabrications—perceptions and feelings— stop as well … 
  11. A Matter of Life & Death
     … So when any difficulty comes up related to pain in the meditation, ask yourself, “What am I doing that’s taking this physical pain and turning it into mental pain?” When situations outside are difficult, ask yourself, “What am I doing that’s taking that tangle outside and using it to tangle up my own mind?” It’s your perceptions, your thought constructs: These … 
  12. The Gatekeeper Doesn’t Just Note
     … But if you compare the drawbacks with a false allure—in other words, with what you thought is the reason you went for things, but it really wasn’t the reason—you don’t get to the root of the problem. You might get discouraged: With all this analysis and everything, nothing seems to be clearing up the mind. Well, that’s because the … 
  13. Comfort Dhamma
     … If you learn to use these tools of analysis—taking things apart in terms of where’s the feeling, where’s the perception, where’s the thought construct, what’s the bodily element in all these things, and sort them out—you begin to realize that there’s not that much there that’s really worth holding onto. When you see things in that … 
  14. Riding an Elephant to Catch Grasshoppers
     … I now have the time to think about this, the time to think about that, and stash away all my thoughts.” When you have whole days to practice, it’s all too easy to fill them up with little things, and the fact that they’re filled up doesn’t mean that they’re of high value. The fact that the mind can be … 
  15. Noble Ardency
     … You just want to ask yourself, “Is this good?” And if it’s good, “Okay, we’re going to stay here.” Then you fight off any other thoughts at the moment. Just stay still with the breath until you really settle in and have a sense of being nourished by the breath, nourished by the concentration. Then you can ask yourself, “Is this really … 
  16. The Desire for Truth
     … This, the Buddha said, is how all people who purify their thoughts, words, and deeds go about doing it. So it’s in purifying your deeds that you learn about them. Then you look at the ideas that made you want to act in that particular way, to see which ideas are skillful, and which ones are not. This gives you an idea of … 
  17. Steps in Concentration
     … And as you do, the mindfulness turns into directed thought, and the ardency and the alertness turn into evaluation, as you try to make it really good and get the most out of being with the breath. This is where mindfulness begins to shade into concentration. What kind of breathing is good? When you get a comfortable sensation from the breath that you can … 
  18. Rottweilers in the House
     … your physical actions, your words, and your thoughts. Ajaan Lee makes the comparison: It’s like having a house, and restraint means knowing when to open the windows and doors, and when to keep them closed. On the one hand, there are dangers outside: potential thieves, things that could come into your house and steal away your goodness. You’ve got to watch out … 
  19. Drowsiness
     … The thought occurred to him: “Who’s looking after whom here?” He said that to me once, and I realized that it was a message: If I was going to be looking after him, he didn’t want me lying there asleep when he needed someone at night. So there’d be nights when I sat up all night, just in case he needed … 
  20. Death World
     … So you have to ask yourself, “What kind of action would be skillful in a case like this?” It’s not the first thought that often comes to us. When you look around at the world, it’s hard to say, “It’s a wonderful world, everything’s fine, therefore I’m going to be good.” You have to realize that, ok, even though … 
  21. Mindful All Day Long
     … You’ll let thoughts come into the mind and say, “Give the mind a little time to roam around before it gets back to work.” Well, that tendency to roam around is then going to come and infect your meditation when you’re sitting with your eyes closed. So you want the day to help the meditation, and the meditation to help the day … 
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