Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 126
  2. The True Dhamma Has Disappeared
     … I know in my own case, studying with Ajaan Fuang, I thought that by the time I started studying with him, I had pretty much already tamed my own pride. But he found instances of my pride that I hadn’t seen and dug them out to show to me. That was a real gift. I didn’t like seeing those things, I didn … 
  3. Transparent Becoming
     … If you find yourself pulled to lustful thoughts, you can think about what you’ve got inside your body, and what that other person has inside his or her body. In other words, there are no hard-and-fast rules about what you should be focusing on. Or, even if you’re focused on the breath, there are no hard-and-fast rules about … 
  4. Empathetic Joy
     … For years they threw out the data because they thought it was impossible. They had to open their minds first and then they could take advantage of the data. It’s the same way with the breath. We pick up certain ideas, either from our own conjecture or from what we’ve read about what the breath does. Then we force it into that … 
  5. At Play
     … So, as you’re sitting here meditating, think of yourself being at play—at play with the four elements of the body; at play with feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness, your awareness—on those basic, building-block terms. You begin to see even how not only are your perceptions somewhat arbitrary, but even the Buddha’s perceptions are conventions. You see this in some … 
  6. No Preferences
     … And sometimes the results are better than what you could have ever thought of wanting.
  7. True & Beneficial
     … What do you make the raft of? You make the raft out of the twigs and branches on this side of the river, which the Buddha identifies as form, feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, consciousness of the senses—in other words, the things that you ordinarily cling to that cause suffering, but now you’re going to cling to them strategically as you make this … 
  8. Kill Your Anger
     … So you need some brakes on the rush of your thoughts, just as the Buddha has you to think about using brakes on your speech before you speak. In other words: Is this true? Is this beneficial? Is this the right time and place for that? You have to ask the same questions of your anger. This thing that you see as wrong: Is … 
  9. Pain & Patience
     … form—the way you create the sense of your body, inhabit the sense of your body; feeling—feeling tones of pleasure, pain, neither pleasure nor pain; perceptions, the labels you put on things, either words or images; fabrications—the thoughts you create around things; and then finally, consciousness, which is aware of all these things. These are all activities you’re engaged in. And … 
  10. Precept Meditation
     … As you develop this habit of saying No to sensual indulgence in the course of the day, it’s a lot easier to say No to sensual thoughts in the course of the meditation. You’ve also developed the habit of learning when to say “enough,” which will hold you in good stead as you begin to develop the sense of non-sensual pleasure … 
  11. Papañca
     … If you can hold that attitude in mind, then it’s a lot easier to settle down and your thoughts don’t assail you over the fact that you’re with a body that sometimes does what you want and sometimes doesn’t do what you want and a mind that sometimes does and doesn’t do what you want. It’s a lot … 
  12. Appropriate Attention
     … The first thought that went through his mind was, “Who’s looking after whom here?” But then he told himself, “Well, as long as I’m up, I might as well meditate.” So he did. Suddenly he realized he’d been going about things the wrong way. He’d been trying to get rid of the pain, when, pain, dukkha, is something you’re … 
  13. Heedfulness
     … If you made a mistake—something you thought was okay but it turned out not to be okay—talk it over with someone experienced on the path. Then make up your mind not to repeat that mistake ever again. When you think about the attitude that, if you had a child, you would like the child to take toward his or her actions, the … 
  14. Stubborn Clinging
     … looking after the breath, making sure your attention stays with the breath, making sure your thoughts stay with the breath, trying to be sensitive to how your thinking has an effect on the breath. You’re monitoring this at the same time as you’re doing it, creating the sense of concentration inside. Ajaan Lee was once teaching an old scholarly monk in Bangkok … 
  15. Deconstruction
     … clinging to the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, thought constructs, and consciousness. The clinging is in the desire and passion you have for those things. The suffering is the clinging-aggregates altogether. Think of this in terms of the image of feeding. You’re hungry: That’s the craving; that’s the desire and passion. You find something you want to eat, so you … 
  16. Two Kinds of Middle
     … He was doing walking meditation so much that his feet started to bleed and he began to have thoughts of disrobing. The Buddha, reading his mind, levitated and appeared right in front of him. Don’t you wish you had the Buddha coming to appear right in front of you while you’re meditating? It would make things a lot easier. In this particular … 
  17. The Reflective Self
     … If there are parts of the mind that resist, learn how to psych them out so that you’re happy to see your defilements go, happy to see that you’re able to put more energy into the practice than you might have thought. It’s interesting: The Buddha lists six qualities here, and the first five are the qualities that can make you … 
  18. Withstanding Pleasure & Pain
     … This is why we use directed thought and evaluation with the breath. Watch your breath for a while and notice where it’s comfortable, where it’s not comfortable. At what point does the breath get too long? Or how does it feel when the breath is too short? You explore these things. You think about them, you ask questions, and you evaluate. When … 
  19. Concentration that Bears Great Fruit
     … Sometimes that can be a very reassuring thought. It wakes you up but at the same time it helps you get a lot the issues in life into perspective—you see that they’re so miniscule, so petty compared to the fact that at some point you’re going to have to leave this body and then move on, that the issues of this … 
  20. Serial Clinging Is Still Clinging
     … Sometimes you identify with your body, sometimes with your feelings, sometimes with your perceptions, your thoughts, your consciousness, or any combination of these. If you were to draw a picture of your sense of self, it would be like an amoeba, changing shape all the time. It all still counts as clinging, because the Buddha’s not telling you, “Wander around with your ideas … 
  21. Right & Wrong Decisions
    Each time you meditate, start with thoughts of goodwill. Goodwill is a wish for happiness, a happiness that doesn’t change, a happiness that doesn’t turn on you, a happiness that causes no pain or suffering or harm to anybody at all. You wish it for yourself. You wish it for all living beings. We do this to remind ourselves, deep down inside … 
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