Search results for: "Thought"
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- The Message of Mindfulness… Either an outside noise distracts you, or other thoughts in the mind come up. And you go wandering after wherever they may lead you. This is why we have to be alert to notice when this is happening. Then mindfulness kicks in again to bring you back to the breath. The act of reminding here is very important, because the mind so easily forgets …
- Samvega… It keeps deceiving itself, “Think about this over here! Think about that over there!” A thought comes in and, instead of looking at it simply as an event in the present moment, we’ve programmed ourselves to think of it as a sign pointing away someplace else. So we follow the arrow of the sign, always veering off, away from the present. We find …
- Healing Skills… You thought you were here with the breath, and all of a sudden there you are: the other side of the world. So you very patiently bring the mind back to the sensation of breathing. Then, to keep it here, you try to breathe in a very comfortable way. When you notice where the sensation of breathing is strongest, also notice whether it feels …
- Opportunities Everywhere… Some of your thoughts may seem really pressing, but you don’t have to give in just because they’re insistent. There are always opportunities to sidestep suffering, to sidestep unskillful mental states. This is probably one of the most important teachings: that regardless of how bad a situation may be, at least you always have the freedom to choose to do something skilful …
- A Noble Warrior’s Path… It’s because they thought strategically that they won. And as we’re practicing here, we have to think strategically, too. There’s a passage where Ven. Ananda talks about three things that the practice is aimed at abandoning—actually, we’ll be giving up our need for these things as a result of the practice—but we need to use them in the …
- The Flamethrowing Mind… feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, acts of consciousness—very simple things that are not very lasting. In fact, they’re very ephemeral. Yet we want to create a sense of our identity as a solid thing we can depend on, and the world as something we can depend on. And we do a fairly good job—good enough, at least, that we can deceive ourselves …
- Large Perspective, Small Focus… physical fabrication, i.e., the breath; verbal fabrication, directed thought and evaluation; mental fabrication, which are perceptions and feelings—perceptions are the labels or images you apply to things, and feelings are feelings of pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain. You realize, when you’re getting the mind into concentration, that you’re working directly with these forms of fabrication, getting hands-on …
- The Psychology of Harmlessness… When the Buddha talks about the three characteristics, the question there is in terms of form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrications, consciousness: Are these things constant or inconstant? They’re inconstant. If something is inconstant, is it stressful or easeful? The fact that it’s inconstant and unreliable means that it’s going to develop some stress. Then the conclusion is not, “Therefore, there is …
- The Good Side of Kamma… Then the Buddha says to develop thoughts of goodwill—goodwill for yourself, goodwill for all the people around you—as a way of strengthening your resolve not to act in an unskillful way. Again, goodwill has meaning because of kamma. Goodwill becomes our motivation to do things in a skillful way. If we were windup toys, goodwill would be superfluous. Or if our actions …
- Doubt… As Ajaan Lee says, the pleasure and rapture come from directed thought and evaluation centered on one object. So you do that. As for doubts that are more abstract, you put them aside. In this way, your curiosity and inquisitiveness get more and more focused on issues that really will be helpful. They stay right there on that issue of: What’s skillful? What …
- Gratification… You see this little train of thought coming into the mind and you jump onto it. Then it begins to lose steam, so you catch the next train and then the next train, and the next train. Who knows where you’ll end up? Try to get skilled at bringing the mind back. As soon as you realize you’ve hopped on a train …
- Motivation… As the Buddha said, heedfulness is the basic motivation for all good things we do, all the skillful actions we do whether in thought, word, or deed. We realize that if we act in unskillful ways, there’s going to be suffering down the line. Our actions really do make a difference. If our actions didn’t make a difference, heedfulness wouldn’t be …
- Duties… Any thoughts coming up that would interfere with that, you let go. That’s the abandoning of the craving. When the Buddha taught the Dhamma wheel, he laid these things out. In fact, that’s what the wheel is in that sutta. In the old days, when they would give lists of variables, they called it a wheel—like today, when we draw what …
- Home Schooling Your Inner Children… Then you think: “There’s something else I should be doing it right now.” Ajaan Fuang used to call those thoughts “Deva Maras.” Mara, of course, is the symbol of the temptation, and a deva is a higher being, higher than human beings. These higher beings tell you good things you do: Go fix some food, go arrange this, go clean that up. These …
- The Rewards of Cleanliness… As for any thoughts of greed, anger, delusion, fear, jealousy, whatever, as they come, you can recognize them as things you don’t want to get involved with. You don’t have to chase them away. If you don’t get involved, they go. It’s as if they come around offering things for sale. They may be insistent, they may really want to …
- The Right to Repair Your Mind… They thought that if the Japanese attacked Singapore, they would come by sea, so they set the cannons in concrete pointed out to the sea. And then it turned out the Japanese came down the Malay Peninsula and the cannons were useless. We’re working on concentration. You’re trying to bring your awareness to fill the body, and try to fill the body …
- Strength from Within… Families would even split over whether they thought Ajaan Mun was right or not. And you have to wonder what kept him going. Well, it was his determination, one, to find the true path to the end of suffering and then, two, his skill in strengthening that determination in the face of a lot of resistance and controversy. Here we are practicing in another …
- Views, Virtue, & Mindfulness… This thought makes it easier to recognize and learn from your mistakes in the meditation, because you’re developing a more skillful attitude as to how to judge your behavior. There’s so much fear about judging behavior nowadays. That’s basically a fear that comes from people who are really unskillful. They figure: “If I don’t judge my behavior and don’t …
- Cause & Effect… You don’t want the suffering, so why hold on to it? Why claim it as yourself?—that kind of activity, feeling, or perceiving, or constructing thoughts, or being conscious in that particular way. So you let go, let go, let go, as you’re holding on to other things that are more and more refined, more and more skillful. Without good things to …
- Alone & Together… constantly dealing with other people’s issues, you don’t know about the committee in your own mind. Voices come up, and you don’t know where they’re coming from. Thoughts come into your mind. Who are they? Who do they represent? Where did you pick up those ideas? You want to be able to track it down. You can’t track it …
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