Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. Things as They’ve Come to Be
     … It wants to continue weaving those thoughts, exploring those thought-worlds. If you want to understand that compulsion to keep creating these thought-worlds, one of the best ways is to thwart it. Keep saying, “Nope, nope, nope.” As soon as there’s the slightest little bit of recognition that this is a thought about that, that’s a thought about this, dissolve it … 
  3. Battling Darkness
     … Learn to see the escape from that thought-world, from that pattern, from that habit. Sometimes just looking at the arising and passing away of the thought-world is enough to undercut any sense of reality or trustworthiness in the thought-world, and it will go away. Other thought-worlds are more compelling. You have to look very carefully to see the gratification, to … 
  4. Subduing Greed & Distress
     … We start out the meditation with that chant—thoughts of goodwill, thoughts of compassion, thoughts of empathetic joy, thoughts of equanimity for everyone—as a way of disentangling ourselves from the narratives of the day and the narratives of our lives. Whatever anyone has done to us, we have goodwill for them. Anyone who we know is suffering right now, we have compassion. As … 
  5. Quick on the Draw
     … A thought comes in to the mind, you say, “Yeah, that sounds like something I’d like to do.” You’re already running with it, forgetting that when the thought first appeared, it was simply that: a thought, neither good nor bad. And it was neither you nor something else. It was just there. And the question is: What are you going to do … 
  6. Concentration & Insight
     … You don’t want to wait to see whether it’s a good or bad thought or anything. You want to have your first line of defense that you can sense where the thought-potential is associated with the body. Then, if you breathe through that spot and allow the tension to relax, the thought doesn’t have a place to stand. You’re … 
  7. The Psychology of Virtue
     … Just realize, “I don’t need these thoughts.” Ajaan Lee even recommends that you think that maybe they’re not even your thoughts to begin with. There are all these worms and germs going through your blood system, going through your blood vessels: Maybe these thoughts are their thoughts. Maybe these are the thoughts of your old karmic debt collectors, as they call them … 
  8. Bursting Bubbles
     … One of the potentials is that even though the thoughts may be there in the mind, you’ve still got the breath, and the breath doesn’t have to be a restless breath. You can try to calm it down. Or the thought of your death: That’s just as real as any of the things you’re worried about. Death could come at … 
  9. Death Is Normal
     … Our thoughts are like that: When there’s one really good thought, it has a lot of worth, a lot of value. So try to make your mind as One as you can with the breath. And from there, radiant thoughts of goodwill—to the person who’s died and to all the people who have died today. In that way, you can help … 
  10. Open Door Meditation
     … And as you open the door to your skillful thoughts, other thoughts are going to sneak in. This is where discernment is necessary. You’ve got to see what it is, this flow of thoughts that’s coming in, and who’s sneaking in behind the shadow of a good thought. Because those are the thoughts that are going to derail you. So it … 
  11. Potentials for Energy
     … Sometimes it may seem to be just a tiny part of the mind as you’re assailed on all sides by thoughts of this, that, thoughts of discouragement, thoughts of anger over something, thoughts of frustration with yourself. Well, those are not going to help you, so you don’t want to feed them. And how do we feed those thoughts? We pay attention … 
  12. The Water in Your Cup
     … When you went from one thought to the next, what was the transition? But when you’re sitting here meditating, you can see the thoughts come, you can see them go—not that you want to get interested enough to draw the map, but just realize that you’re in a better position now, outside of the thoughts. That’s one of the purposes … 
  13. Skillful Desire
     … Instead of your thoughts running your mind, your mind is in charge of your thoughts. If a thought is insistent, you can figure out what spot in the body the thought is associated with—because there will be tensions associated with every thought. Breathe right through the tension in that thought, and the thought will go away. So these are some of the benefits … 
  14. On Not Twisting the Cow’s Horn
    The description of right concentration includes, in the first jhana, directed thought and evaluation. A lot of people approach those two processes as something they have to add to what they’re already doing. But that’s not the case. Your mind is engaged in directed thought and evaluation all the time. It’s how we talk to ourselves: You think of a topic … 
  15. Take an Interest
     … When a thought tells us that this is right or that’s wrong, we tend to go running out, looking at what’s right and what’s wrong. We don’t stop and question: How did that thought come into the mind? Where is it coming from? Is it right? How did that thought develop? This is not just an abstract question, because these … 
  16. Feel-Good Religion
     … But then you slap a label on it and say, “This is a thought. It’s a thought about that; it’s a thought about this.” And you go running with the thought. But there’s a physical side to the thought as well, but you tend to lose sight of it. It’s like a computer keyboard. You press the control button and … 
  17. A Load of Straw
     … In situations like this, thoughts of envy or resentment can easily come up, so if they do, look at them. Do you really want to think those thoughts? Do you really want to identify with those thoughts? These sublime attitudes are measuring sticks against which you can measure what’s actually going on in your mind. In other words, you’re not just smothering … 
  18. The Triple Training
     … You look at your thoughts not so much in terms of the content, but in terms of the fact that the thought is an action, an action that has an influence. Thoughts can lead either to suffering or away from suffering. So you look at your thoughts from that angle. The Buddha said he got on the right path when he was able to … 
  19. Wearing the Breath
     … You’ve been through your thoughts many, many times. And even though they seem to promise something new, what they provide is pretty much a matter of changing a few details here and there. The major substance, though, is all the same: something the mind fabricates and then it goes into the thought and takes a ride for a while. Then things fall apart … 
  20. Single-minded
     … In other words, you do the directed thought and evaluation in one object, but you don’t have to do the rapture or do the pleasure. The rapture and pleasure come as a result of what you’re doing with the others. And as for the others, they’re all centered on one thing. You direct your thoughts to the breath, you evaluate the … 
  21. Friends with Pain
     … You don’t want to carry grudges, any thoughts of remorse into the meditation, because they can mess things up. Thoughts of compassion, thoughts of sympathetic joy: You spread those to everybody as well. In other words, no sense of resentment, no desire for anybody to suffer: These are good thoughts to think. Then you follow them up with thoughts of equanimity, reflecting on … 
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