Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. The Power of Attention
     … In fabrication, there’s the directed thought—the act of choosing something to focus your thoughts on, which counts as part of verbal fabrication. In name and form, there’s attention, how you pay attention to things, the questions you ask. These two go together. As you’re focusing on the breath, that’s the first choice you’ve made. You’re going to … 
  3. A Tale of Two Kings
     … And there is that line of thought in a lot of Buddhist circles. It’s because we try to fight against these facts that we’re miserable, they say. If we simply accept them, go with the flow, there’s no stress in flowing along. That’s what we’re told, but it’s still pretty miserable. You’re finding happiness by lowering your … 
  4. Goodwill as Wealth
     … And it’s the same when we’re spreading thoughts of goodwill, thoughts of compassion to other people, thoughts of empathetic joy. You first want to have something good inside to spread. It’s a lot easier to feel happiness for them when you you’ve got some yourself, and you’ve got more than enough. You’ve got enough to share. This way … 
  5. The Uses of Concentration
     … And you’ll find that as you’re giving it some space, vagrant thoughts may come into the mind. If you were to focus on those thoughts, you’d have to squeeze off that sense of wellbeing. This means you’ve got to develop a new habit. Realize that the thoughts are not all that important, especially not now as you’re meditating. You … 
  6. Think Your Way to Stillness
     … If you slip off, you drop whatever the thought is, and you’re right back. You don’t have to pull the mind back. Just drop the thought, and here you are. This is the natural place for you to be. And when you are here, ask yourself, “How can I maintain this? How do I maintain this sense of balance?” We are working … 
  7. Scribe Knowledge, Warrior Knowledge
     … All too often our attitude is, “It’s just a little tiny thought of greed. It’s not much of a problem.” Or even just the thought that you’d like to think a thought of anger, you’d like to think a thought of lust: It comes and whispers and then it goes away. And if you don’t immediately counteract it, you … 
  8. Questioning Everything
     … As you’re focusing on the breath, the only thoughts that are really relevant are the ones that help you stay focused on the breath, the thoughts that ask questions about: How is this breath? What’s going on with that breath? How’s the mind right now? Is it staying with the breath? What do I need to do in order to help … 
  9. Metta Through Samvega
     … So on days when you find yourself tied up in thoughts of ill will, think about that image of the fish, realizing that you don’t want to be one of those fish. There must be something better. If you’re tied up in thoughts of ill will, you’re like a fish upset at another fish for taking that gulp of water. But … 
  10. Not Getting What You Want
     … This is one of the reasons why we spread thoughts of goodwill in all directions. Spread the mind out in wide circles. Circle around to the east, south, west and north, thinking of all living beings. That helps to put a lot of your issues into perspective. Then when you’ve done that, can you genuinely say that you have no ill will for … 
  11. The Arrows of Emotion
     … We have this brain that has neurons firing all the time, so thoughts are bound to come up. Every now and then you trip over a thought that’s really painful. There’s nothing much you can do about that, it’s just what happens. But it’s what you do next: That’s your kamma in the present moment, your new kamma. This … 
  12. Harmony, Right & Wrong
     … Otherwise, it floats around here, floats around there, as if it gets into bubbles of thought worlds. Then the bubbles burst and you land wherever. Ajaan Lee’s image is of your needing a safe landing strip. When the mind wanders around in thoughts and concepts, it’s like a plane flying around in the air. If it doesn’t have a safe landing … 
  13. The Thinking Cure
    The Buddha once said that he got started on the right path of practice when he learned to observe his thinking, noticing which kinds of thoughts were skillful, which kinds were unskillful. In other words which kinds of thinking lead to harm, which kinds of thinking didn’t lead to harm. Notice that: He didn’t say he got on the path when he … 
  14. Think Calmly about Death
     … So this practice of meditation, where we’re letting go of our thoughts of past, letting go of our thoughts of the future: That’s a really useful skill right there. That’s a major part of your preparation. But then there are special fears that come up around death. The Buddha identified four. First is fear that you’re going to be losing … 
  15. Negotiating with the Committee
     … If any unskillful thought comes up, you just say, “No, no, no. I am not going there.” Sometimes you have to reinforce that determination with reasons. As the Buddha said, one of the ways of dealing with unskillful thoughts is to look at their drawbacks. Tell yourself you’ve been watching these old movies many, many times. You know exactly what Humphrey Bogart is … 
  16. Discernment Performs
     … You want your thoughts to be true—to represent things as they are. And you want your thoughts to be beneficial—to actually help you. This is where the Buddha gets into the area of what’s called performative speech—and also, performative thoughts. In other words, he’s not simply interested in describing things, or seeing how words may or may not be … 
  17. A Taste of Freedom
     … It’s not the case that you have to go running with whatever comes floating up into the mind in the present moment, because a lot of thoughts come in from the past—your past kamma, your old habits. And the reason we’re meditating is because we realize we don’t want to stick with our old habits. There’s that saying: Don … 
  18. Brahmaviharas at the Breath
    I came across an interesting Dhamma talk by Ajaan Suwat in which he reverses the usual order for spreading thoughts of goodwill. He says, “First you start with other people.” You’re planning to sit down to meditate; you don’t want thoughts of issues from the day to get in the way of your meditation. So you clear the decks, remind yourself: You … 
  19. Patience & Urgency
     … It means that you simply have to pay very careful attention to your actions, to your words, to your thoughts. Because your thoughts come quickly, you have to be quick in your discernment, quick in your alertness. And you have to learn how to judge things. The judgment here is especially important when you find issues in the mind that you would like to … 
  20. Metta Can Hurt
     … When is it skillful and when is it not skillful to hold to mettā? When is it more skillful to hold to upekkhā, equanimity? And how do you make sure that your actions are based on mettā* *for others? When thoughts of greed come into the mind, when thoughts of lust come into the mind, and you think, “Well, that’s okay. It’s … 
  21. Strength of Concentration
     … The work here is directed thought and evaluation: how we talk to ourselves. And what do we talk to ourselves about? The formula says that we should put aside all thoughts of sensuality, all concerns about the sensual pleasures today, sensual pleasures tomorrow, and we’re going to focus on three things. The themes of right concentration are the frames of reference in establishing … 
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