Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. Past Intentions, Present Intentions
     … That means you’re totally free to do as you like with those thoughts as they come up. You can ignore them if you like. You can counteract them with thoughts that run in the opposite direction. In other words, if a thought of greed comes up, think about the disadvantages of struggling to find the object you’re greedy for. If lust comes … 
  3. Don’t Objectify
     … You thought they were things. You thought they were objects that were just givens, without realizing how much you’ve done to create them and how you don’t have to. That’s the lesson all along the line. When you let go, it’s not that you’ve been holding a thing in your hand. You’ve been doing an activity over and … 
  4. The Brahmaviharas Are Not a Complete Practice
     … Some people find that they can get the mind into concentration when they think thoughts of goodwill in this way. As for other people—as in the instructions to Rahula, the Buddha’s son—once you spread thoughts of goodwill in all directions, then you focus on the breath. We’re here both to gain the sense of well-being that comes from concentration … 
  5. Voices in the Mind
     … One is to try to develop thoughts of goodwill. Another’s to try to develop thoughts of compassion; thoughts of equanimity; paying them no mind and no attention. And then reflecting on the principle of karma, that if you get involved with them it’s just going to be an endless round. Whatever they may have done to you can probably be traced back … 
  6. The Path of Mistakes
     … There are the directed thoughts: the way you direct your thinking around that topic. There’s the way you evaluate what’s happening, and there are also your feelings and perceptions about what’s happening. These are all the elements of fabrication that go into any thought, any emotion. So, to begin with, you want to learn how to take your unskillful emotions apart … 
  7. A Full Range of Archery Skills
     … If it didn’t lead to good results, you have to go back and say, “Okay, I thought I understood things. I’ve got to go back and reassess my powers of judgment.” This is how you grow. This is how the Buddha grew. He went into his practice with some preconceived notions. He studied with some teachers who he thought would be good … 
  8. Respecting Death
     … But he began to realize, “This is a wrong message.” Or vice versa, when he actually said something when he thought he had only thought it, and people started reacting. He realized, “The brain is not sending me good information.” He had the mindfulness and alertness to step back and not get taken in by the misinformation he was getting from his brain. Ultimately … 
  9. Not Getting What You Want
     … As you’re meditating right now, you’re focused on the breath, but in focusing on the breath, there’s already directed thought and evaluation. You’re directing your thoughts to the breath, and the Buddha encourages you to evaluate it. It’s not just in, out, in, out, and being with whatever comes up. You have to realize: You can change the way … 
  10. To Discern Suffering
     … Last night we talked about how unreal our thoughts can be. They seem to have a huge reality, but there’s no way that a thought can really correspond to the reality out there. The idea that truth is an issue of total correspondence is reminds me of a friend I had in high school. He told me that when he was a little … 
  11. Effortlessness Through Effort
     … The other effortless meditation comes after you’ve actually put in a lot of effort to solve the different problems that come up in the mind until you’ve worked through the various hooks of the different thoughts and emotions that pull you away from the present moment, so that the next time that particular thought or that particular hook comes up, you know … 
  12. What You’re Responsible For
     … Thinking about the future or the past? Put those thoughts aside. Too much energy or too little energy? Focus on the breath in a way that compensates. Breathe in a way that gives you more energy if you need it. If you have too much energy already, breathe in a calming way. Use the breath to bring the mind into balance. Then take an … 
  13. A Skillful Heart
    Start with thoughts of goodwill. That’s the beginning phrase for many meditation instructions. But it should apply to all your activities as you go through the day. You want to act on intentions of goodwill. Always have that as your original motivating force. After all, that was the Buddha’s basic motivation. After he gained awakening, he was totally free. He could do … 
  14. Know the Dhamma by Its Results
     … So when you can recognize a thought going through the mind that helps loosen up some of your attachments, encourage that thought. Obviously, of course, letting go deals initially with unskillful thoughts. You hold on to the skillful ones as long as you need them. But there will come a point where even the skillful thoughts have to be let go. We have this … 
  15. Generating Desire
    Generating Desire November 28, 2008 Part of the definition of right concentration is that you seclude your mind from sensual thoughts, from sensual obsessions, and it’s not easy. The mind likes to spend a lot of time planning sensual pleasures. A man once came to see Ven. Ananda and said, “I hear that the monks, even the young ones, train their minds to … 
  16. Mindstorms
     … The reason these characters can surprise you is the same reason that you get surprised by things coming into the mind in normal world-creating thoughts. You’re so oblivious to what you’re doing that it can actually surprise you. That’s when these thoughts begin to seem very real, to have an independent existence. What’s happened, though, is that the part … 
  17. Mindfulness Aims at Concentration
     … Then, once that happens, the next step is to keep track of the body in and of itself, but don’t think any thoughts about the body or of any other frames of reference. That gets you into the second jhana, which is free from directed thought and evaluation. Which obviously means that before that, you were in the first jhana. You’re getting … 
  18. Endurance Made Easier
     … Then, as the Buddha says, spread thoughts of goodwill to all beings starting with the person who’s harmed you. Keep spreading those thoughts to include everyone, including yourself. All of this applies to the physical pain that comes up in the meditation as well. Part of the mind says, “Why am I doing this? Why am I torturing myself?” Look at that thought … 
  19. Joy in Getting It Right
     … In other words, you stop and give some thought to what it means to be generous, and how generosity can give rise to happiness. As you develop that skill, you get even more thoughtful. You see implications in the act of generosity that you may not have thought of before. The same with the precepts: In the beginning, you simply abide by the rules … 
  20. The Riddle Tree
     … You have to find out.” The young monk hearing, “I don’t know,” thought it meant that “I don’t know anything about meditation.” He ended up disrobing and going someplace else. But that’s not what the ajaan meant. What he meant was that each of us has to find out what’s going to work for us as we meditate. You have … 
  21. Kind & Happy
     … That’s a comfortable thought. You don’t need to harm anybody, you don’t need to abuse anybody else or harm their hopes for true happiness by wanting true happiness for yourself. So you think thoughts of goodwill for other people as well, because this is something we all have in common: the desire for happiness and the ability to find happiness without … 
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