Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 22
  2. The Precepts
     … It’s not that you’re just supposed to snuff out thoughts of past and future, and be totally aware in the present moment. Now, if you could do that, or if you did do that, you’d have to go down to the looney bin. That’s where people who are totally in the present moment stay: no thoughts of past, no thoughts … 
  3. How to Be Happy
     … and thoughts imbued with harmfulness. The discernment here lay not only in realizing that these were unskillful, but also in learning how to keep them in check so that they didn’t take over. As for thoughts that were skillful and imbued with renunciation—in other words looking for a pleasure elsewhere than in sensuality; thoughts of goodwill; and thoughts of harmlessness: Those, he … 
  4. Five Precepts, Five Virtues
     … Our thoughts are in charge. A thought comes into the mind and you can’t shake it. It seems to follow you around wherever you go. It’s not necessarily a thought that you like, or necessarily a thought that’s actually good to be thinking, but it’s there. And the reason it has power is because you haven’t learned the powers … 
  5. Cherish Your Friends
     … If you listen to certain thoughts, where are they going to take you? All too often, when a thought comes up in the mind, it’s like someone driving up in a car. You’re standing on the side of the road, someone drives up and says: “Hop in.” And so you hop in without asking, “Where are you going? Who are you?” If … 
  6. Patience
     … And don’t use that thought to get down yourself. Use that thought to give yourself hope: There must be a way around this. There are no insoluble problems in the meditation. And you can also think of this as paying homage to the Buddha. There’s a nice passage at the end of the Buddha’s life when he’s lying down for … 
  7. Goodwill in Action
     … If you really seriously want to be happy, do you want to continue acting the way you are? Or is there anything you want to change? This means that metta is not an idle thought. It’s a motivator, but also a reality check. Are your actions in line with the statement, “May I be happy”? What kind of thoughts do you indulge in … 
  8. Persistence
     … Another use is that when you get really sensitive to the breath energy, you begin to notice that when a thought forms in the mind—especially when it takes hold—there’s going to be a little bit of tension in the body. It’s the mind’s way of using the body to anchor a thought so that you can look at it … 
  9. Clinging & Its Cure
    One of the methods that the Buddha recommends when dealing with distracting thoughts is the relaxation of fabrications. What that comes down to is that you notice how, when a thought comes into the mind and it grabs your attention, there’s going to be a little pattern of tension someplace in the body that’s your marker for keeping that thought in mind … 
  10. People Suffer from Their Thinking
     … For instance, thoughts of goodwill: It’s good to think thoughts of wishing happiness for everybody, starting with yourself and then spreading it around, because that kind of thought holds no harm. It reminds you that you don’t gain any advantage from anybody else’s suffering, so why would you want to wish suffering on anyone else? This helps give you a larger … 
  11. The Larger View
     … Everybody, except for the arahants, has all kinds of unskillful thoughts, so in that way we’re all in this together. This is also why we have the chant spreading goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, extending these thoughts, these attitudes, to all beings. Because again, it helps us to see the larger picture: We’re all suffering. We all want happiness and yet … 
  12. Tranquility & Insight Through Jhāna
     … As certain things come up, there’s a feeling tone in the body that goes along with them—a breath-energy feeling—and sometimes a certain thought is appealing just because of that. Other times, the allure is in how you talk to yourself about it—directed thought and evaluation—the stories you can tell yourself, say, around a particular object of lust. You … 
  13. Control
     … As for any thoughts that go off toward the pain, you have to say, “Nope, I’m going to direct my thoughts to the breath. I’m going to direct my thoughts to making the breath comfortable. And I’ll evaluate the breath and evaluate the success of my efforts.” Because the breath is something that responds to your intentions. It does have its … 
  14. A Safe Place
     … The focal point, the concentration is not quite so intense, and it’s still there, it’s still very still, but it’s not so all-consuming that thoughts won’t be able to come in. When a thought does comes in, sometimes it will have an allure; it’ll have a hook. You want to ask yourself, “Why? What’s there? What of … 
  15. Skillful Papañca
     … That’s what comes from seeing where these thoughts will go. This thought looks entertaining? Let’s follow it and see where it goes. You end up taking on identities that can lead to a lot of suffering. You can ask yourself, as an agent: What do I want to do? And how can I best do it? And take as your identity the … 
  16. How to Think about Death
     … One of the most important skills we need to learn is how to turn off thoughts, or at least how to choose the thoughts we’re going to focus on. Even when you meditate, there’s going to be some thinking. Just the bare thinking of breath, breath, breath, or when you’re evaluating the breath, or just staying with the perception of breath … 
  17. Evaluation
     … On the one hand, you have the causes, which are directed thought, evaluation, and singleness of preoccupation. On the other hand, there are the results: pleasure and rapture—and the word “rapture” can be translated in lots of ways, including “refreshment” and “fullness.” He also noted that, of the causal factors, directed thought and singleness of preoccupation are on the tranquility or concentration side … 
  18. Mindfulness of Death
     … There’s a lot of good I can do with this breath.” That thought brings you right into the present moment. But you notice, the thoughts on death don’t stop with death. Then turn around and focus on your mind: the work that needs to be done with the mind—and the work that can be done. It is work you can do … 
  19. Training in Commitment & Reflection
     … Another technique is to realize that distracting thoughts require energy. There’s part of the body that will tense up as soon as you start a thought. That’s your way of marking the thought so that you can keep with it. So try to figure out where in the body the tension comes—and it can come in any part of the body … 
  20. Take Your Time
     … Then I found that as time went on, as soon as a question would come into my mind, my first thought would be, “Let’s take this to Ajaan Fuang,” but then the second thought was, “I know exactly what he’s going to say, so why bother him?” Occasionally I’d test it. But you find after a while that if there’s … 
  21. Kindness in the Light of Karma
     … When you can make the mind like this, that’s when you’re ready to look at what else is going on in the mind, so that you can look at things in terms of cause and effect, and figure out which thoughts you should side with and which thoughts you should try to get out of. That’s why the Buddha talks to … 
  22. Load next page...