Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. The Graduated Discourse
     … Yet if you’re wise, you’ll follow the line of thought in the graduated discourse all the way through, until your mind is ready for the four noble truths. As the Buddha said, when you’re ready to see that renunciation of sensuality would be a good thing, then it’s as if your mind is like a piece of cloth that’s … 
  3. Victory over Death
     … The things we take to be really solid in the world, when you look at them carefully, are just instances of form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, and consciousness. And when you look carefully at these aggregates, seeing how ephemeral they are, you begin to realize: How could you construct anything really reliable out of them? The one reliable thing you can construct out of … 
  4. Don’t Worry, Be Focused
     … The body feels weak, and thoughts are just wandering all over the place with no specific purpose. It’s not that you feel a real need to think about these other things, it’s just that your energy is so low that whatever comes popping up through the nervous system pops right into the mind and you don’t have any defense against it … 
  5. To Stay the Course
     … And you’ll find the things you never thought you could do, you can do. You can maintain your direction. Otherwise, the Buddha said, the mind is so quick to reverse itself at the least little thing. And if you’re lacking in endurance, lacking in equanimity, you’re like those dust motes: They go to the right, then they go to the left … 
  6. The Pursuit of True Happiness
     … When you learn how to drop those thoughts, how to stay centered while you’re with others, you find that life is lighter both for yourself and for the people around you. You work step by step to try to maintain this same steady sense of center whatever the context, whatever the situation, so that even when you’re not in physical seclusion, the … 
  7. The Right Piece in the Right Puzzle
     … Fabrication consists of your directed thought and evaluation as you adjust the breath to fit with the mind, adjust the mind to fit with the breath, and then keep them there together. Then there’s consciousness, which is aware of all these things. You have to see that these things, too, once you’ve mastered the concentration, are stressful, and inconstant—and they’re … 
  8. Choosing Your Allies
     … Purity in terms of your thoughts, words, and deeds: That comes from your desire for true happiness as well, because you have to look to see, when you’re doing something, does it actually harm yourself? Does it harm others? We can’t just go on good intentions. We have to try to train them to be skillful intentions. Before you do something, ask … 
  9. The World Does Not Endure
     … It does not endure.” Something you thought was so solid, so reliable, starts failing you. “The world offers no shelter. There’s no one in charge.” Here again, he asked the king, “Do you have a recurring illness?” And the king had what was called a wind illness: shooting pains in his body. Sometimes he was so wracked with pain that all he could … 
  10. The Dhamma Eye
     … When you detect any stress in that state of concentration, you ask yourself, “What am I doing to cause that?” When you see the action—and it’s usually a perception, although sometimes it can also be directed thought and evaluation: any of the factors of right concentration that you have to let go of to get to higher levels—you just let the … 
  11. The Desire for Things to Be Different
     … You stop the directed thought and evaluation when you realize that no matter how much more you talk to yourself about the breath, it’s not going to get any better. It’s good enough as it is, so you settle in. Then you find that the rapture that comes from settling in like that becomes oppressive. It’s too strong. You want something … 
  12. Right Effort
     … directed thought and evaluation. Instead of chattering on to yourself about how much you want something, how much you’re angry about something, you start chattering to yourself about the breath. Ask yourself, “How is the breath right now? How does it feel? What would feel better?” Once you’ve got something that feels good, how about spreading it around? And how do you … 
  13. Desires Have Their Reasons
     … a particular line of thought, a particular type of action. And it’s totally random that you’ve made that connection. So you want to see the randomness and the arbitrariness of that, because that weakens the sense that this is inevitable. Then you look at the desire passing away. Why? Sometimes the mind just loses interest. Something else comes in. You forget. As … 
  14. Antidotes for Clinging
     … We feed on the form of the body, we feed on feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, and sensory consciousness. When these things are pleasant, they’re not too heavy. But they can turn around and turn unpleasant very quickly. They gobble us up, for we’ve opened the way for them to get to us. Once you start clinging to the good ones, you start … 
  15. The Particulars of Your Suffering
     … Fabrications of different kinds fall silent as your directed thought and evaluation drop away, as the motion of the breathing drops away. It’s in this way that the different aggregates separate out. You isolate them as you get the mind into concentration in the same way that someone who has to develop a physical skill has to learn how to isolate different muscles … 
  16. Long-Term Welfare
     … Then when the actual pleasure comes, it’s not nearly as satisfying as you thought it might be, but then you hold on to the idea that it was, just to convince yourself that it was all worth it. You’ve invested so much. You don’t want to see your investment vanish away like that. So there’s a basic dishonesty in the … 
  17. A Path of Skills
     … Start with thoughts of goodwill for all those who contributed with their work, their money, their time, their energy. May they all find happiness. Then focus on your breath. Take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths. Notice where you feel the breath in the body. Wherever there are sensations that enable you to know, “Now the breath is coming in … 
  18. You Can’t Relax Your Way to Awakening
     … There’ll be thoughts coming up in your mind that you would really like to think but you’ve got to say, “No, I can’t go there.” There will be discomfort of all kinds. We had that question this afternoon about dealing with mosquitoes: What way of thinking about the mosquitoes would make them go away? It’s good to think about some … 
  19. All Four Tetrads at Once
     … the act of letting go of sensuality or sensual thoughts for the time being; letting go of any other unskillful qualities for the time being; or letting go of the factors of a lower state of concentration as you’re trying to get into a higher one. It can also, though, go on to total release, which is what you want in the area … 
  20. Skillfully Shaping Your Life
     … One is called directed thought, as when you pick up a topic to think about. Then there’s evaluation: You think about it, make comments on it, ask questions about it, and make changes. So when you’re dealing with the breath, you’re thinking about the breath and you’re evaluating it. Again, the way you think sometimes depends on your picture of … 
  21. Choosing Freedom
     … You could think thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. Extend those to everybody you can think of—whatever you find calms the mind, gives a sense of well-being inside. Once there’s that sense of well-being, then turn and look. See how your breath is at that point. Has the breath changed? If it has, see if you can then focus … 
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