Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 139
  2. Skillful Selfing
     … The path that did work was to focus his desires on taking these aggregates, these raw materials from which we create our sense of self—the form of your body, feelings, perceptions, thought fabrications, and consciousness: taking these things that we normally grab onto to create a sense of self in a particular becoming, and turning them into a path. Even though there may … 
  3. Stand Your Ground
     … ve developed in the mind, the ability to keep your mind centered regardless of what’s going on around you. Like the skill we’ve been developing here as we meditate: Thoughts come up in the mind, but you don’t have to pay them any attention. One of the best ways of dealing with distractions is not try to chase the distractions down … 
  4. Broaden Your Range of Choices
     … So it’s good to come back as an adult and look at these things with new eyes, because the real problem, of course, is not the energy; it’s how you interpret it and the kinds of thoughts and perceptions that spark a feeling of imbalance in the body. You want to look into those. And again, having the skills of the breath … 
  5. Inconstancy
     … As Ajaan Lee explains it, analysis of qualities is directly connected with directed thought and evaluation, which are factors of jhana. Those are things you need to help you get into the meditation, to get solidly with the breath. So you’re dealing with two different frames of reference right there: the body in and of itself and these mental qualities in and of … 
  6. Start the Year Right Here
     … Persistence is the effort to keep with the path, to try to keep trying to be more skillful, finding out what’s the most skillful thing to do right now in your thoughts, your words, and your deeds. In particular, in the meditation, persistence means sticking with it, sticking with it, keep coming back, because it’s the ability to build a consistent and … 
  7. Getting Connected Inside
     … This is a lot of what directed thought and evaluation for, because as you move through the body you find there are certain parts that are difficult to focus on, or difficult to stay centered in, and all too often you go back to the old model of being up in the head, and this other spot that you’re looking at is someplace … 
  8. A Slave to Craving
     … In fact, I was so strong sometimes I thought I had the strength of two men.” And the monk says, “How about now?” The king says, “Oh, no, I’m eighty years old now. Sometimes I think to put my foot in one place, and it goes someplace else.” That’s what’s meant by the world is swept away: It’s inconstant. You … 
  9. Beneficial Thinking
     … The potential for those unskillful thoughts is there. But for the time being, you’re not touching them. This gives the mind a sense of well-being in and of itself. And it’s good to learn how to appreciate that. All too often, we tend to overlook the subtle levels of pleasure, the almost ordinary-seeming sense of well-being that comes when … 
  10. Jhana: Responsible Happiness
     … Responsible Happiness July 13, 2009 We start each session with thoughts of goodwill, reminding ourselves of why we’re here, and of the fact that the happiness we’re looking for here is harmless. That’s what goodwill is all about: May all beings find happiness in a harmless way. Of course that means we need to find our happiness in a way that … 
  11. Large-hearted Goodness
     … So the slave went outside with her head broken open and called to all the neighbors, “Look, ladies, at the handiwork of this woman who you thought was so mild and good-mannered.” The Buddha told this story as a lesson. You want to learn how to make the goodness of your heart something that’s not dependent on other people’s goodness. Otherwise … 
  12. Insight Is a Judgment Call
     … And that thought frees you. It frees you from all the extra work you’d have to do to get things that are basically extraneous, that are there only for show. That allows you to focus on the most important of the customs of the noble ones, which is to delight in developing skillful qualities and to delight in abandoning unskillful qualities. In other … 
  13. The Wisdom of Merit
     … They thought he was talking down to them, that he didn’t realize that lay people were capable of more than the five precepts. But that wasn’t the implication. The implication was that these precepts are an important part of the practice. These are an important part of meditation because they teach you these crucial lessons about what you hold onto so that … 
  14. The Boundaries of Mindfulness
     … Otherwise, while you’re with the breath, you don’t have to give the fence any thought at all. If there’s anything in the talk relevant to what you’re doing, it’ll come right in. As for anything else, let it go pass. You don’t want it to disturb your meditation. It’s there simply to make sure that you stay … 
  15. Dependable Friends
     … This is called directed thought and evaluation, two of the factors of right concentration. When you’ve got them going well, then the other factors come along, too. There will be a sense of refreshment, ease. The mind will feel able and ready to settle down and just be with one topic, and that one topic will fill your awareness. That’s called singleness … 
  16. The Freedom to Give
     … But he was countering a thought that was widespread or at least had some adherents in that time: that everything in life was deterministic, that causality was a mechanical process, that the stars acted through you, or there were other outside forces that had totally determined from the very beginning from the design of the universe, that things were going to have to work … 
  17. Encouraging Perceptions
     … In this way, the perceptions you hold in the mind are a kind of mental chatter, a kind of inner speech—the words that go into the sentences of your directed thought and evaluation—and the same principles apply to inner speech as the Buddha applies to outer speech. In other words, before speaking, you have to ask yourself three questions. The first question … 
  18. Frame Your Questions Well
     … They thought they had him. So when they asked him the question, he replied, “That doesn’t deserve a categorical answer. It deserves an analytical answer.” He stepped out of the false dichotomy. As he said, there are times when it’s for the good of the other person that you say something displeasing. He gave the example of a baby who’s gotten … 
  19. To Keep You Going
     … That thought will bring a lot of regret or denial, neither of which is anything you want to develop. So these are some of the ways in which the Buddha has you motivate yourself to develop patience, so that you actually do find a sense of joy, a sense of well-being, even at the points where the path seems pretty hopeless, where you … 
  20. Karma & Gratitude
     … So let that thought be uplifting.
  21. The Path of Adventure
     … Just the thought of thousands of steps can get discouraging. What you do is that you don’t focus on the thousands of steps, you focus on the one step you’re doing right now. Make sure that when you place on foot in front of the other, you’re placing it well and you’re going in the right direction. That’s all … 
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