Search results for: "Thought"
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- Obsessive Thinking… It’s the same with any kind of thought, whether it’s specifically a thought of “this is me,” “this is mine,” or more generally a feeling that “this is my thought.” Now, it is possible to have something that you say is “mine” that comes and goes. But seeing it come and seeing it go, where you previously thought that it was a …
- Established in Full… But the chanting is usually useful for helping to put aside any thoughts about the world right now. Think thoughts of goodwill for all beings, including the people you’ve been arguing with or having fights with in the course of the day. You realize you don’t want those thoughts to come and invade your mind right now. There’s an example in …
- Doubting the Buddha… You get totally involved in a little thought world. Instead of looking at it as an instance of suffering or something to analyze as a way of putting an end to suffering, you enter into the thought. Suddenly the issues in the thought become very real, very important. So it takes a real reorientation to get out of those thought worlds, simply to see …
- Not Swept Away… In other words, whatever thoughts come up, you say, Where is that thought going to lead? And look at it as a pattern of cause and effect, so that you don’t identify with the thought. When you don’t identify with it, then when the wind comes and catches the thought and the world gets swept away, it sweeps the thought away with …
- Chopping Off Thoughts… The same with the thoughts of the mind: Many of them you’ve thought through before. They’re like old movies you’re showing again. You know how they end, and yet once a thought starts, you feel obligated to follow it through. This is where you can change your mind. As soon as a thought comes up, you can chop it up into …
- Safe at Home… Thoughts come, thoughts go, you latch on to something, and you don’t really know where it’s going to take you, because you’re not paying careful attention. So for the time being, make it a rule inside your mind that you’re not to go with any thought. If you catch yourself slipping off, just come right back to the breath. The …
- Thinking Your Way to Stillness… Maybe the thoughts going through your brain are their thoughts. Even if you don’t resonate with the idea of germs in your brain having thoughts, the same basic principle applies to the people in your background: Their thoughts have somehow gotten planted in your brain. The fact that the thoughts are planted in your brain isn’t your responsibility right now, but it …
- False Friends… Whatever is necessary—but only as much as is necessary to get the thought to go away. Then you get back to the breath. Try to develop a taste for seclusion. That way, you’ll ultimately be in charge of your thoughts. You’ll think the thoughts you want to think, and you won’t have to think the thoughts you don’t want …
- Mindworms… You have to learn how to be discerning as to which thoughts you hold on to and which thoughts you’ve got to get out of. But it is possible* *to step out. As I said, this is where the image of the committee of the mind is useful. Not everybody in the mind has to be in that thought, and not every member …
- Fabrication Theory… No matter how compelling your thoughts may be, you’re going to stay with the breath. Remind yourself that even though there is a thought going through the mind, it doesn’t destroy your breath. The breath is still here. So the thought hasn’t pushed you off the breath. You’ve gone running after the thought. As soon as you catch yourself doing …
- Protecting Yourself Against Yourself… If you keep thinking thoughts of sensuality again and again and again, it gets easier and easier to think those thoughts. If you think thoughts of renunciation again and again and again, it gets easier to think those thoughts. So, which is the better rut to get into? He realized that thoughts imbued with sensuality, imbued with ill-will, or imbued with harmfulness would …
- Mind Control… As soon as you notice the pattern of tension that goes along with that thought, just breathe through the tension. Allow it to relax, and the thought goes away. But if those four approaches don’t work, you can just grit your teeth, press your tongue against the roof of your mouth, and tell yourself, “I’m not going to go with that thought …
- What’s Relative, What’s Constant… This was how the Buddha got onto the path, by dividing his thoughts, not in terms of what he liked or didn’t like, or what thoughts were his kinds of thinking and not his kinds of thinking, but simply: thoughts that came from skillful mental states and thoughts that came from unskillful mental states; thoughts that would lead to good actions, thoughts that …
- Beyond Inter-eating… to keep reminding you that sitting around and thinking about whatever kind of thought you like to feed on—whether it’s thoughts of kindness or thoughts of anger; skillful thoughts or unskillful thoughts—you’re continuing the mind’s old habits. It likes to take on an identity in these thought worlds, and that taking on an identity is precisely what needs to …
- Judging the Dhamma… These standards apply not only to teachings you’ve picked up from other people, other sources, but also to thoughts that come into the mind. In other words, when a thought comes into the mind that actually helps toward dispassion, then that thought is Dhamma. If it helps to make you unburdensome, if it helps to unfetter you from things you’ve been tied …
- “May I Be Happy”… Tying yourself up in knots with thoughts of guilt or remorse, however, is not going to help either. What you should do is simply resolve that you’re not going to make those mistakes again in the future. That’s all that any human being can be asked to do. In order to strengthen that resolve, you develop thoughts of good will. This in …
- What to Keep in Mind… While you’re focused on the breath, those are the thoughts you want to allow. You don’t want to snuff out thought entirely. After all, directed thought and evaluation are parts of the concentration practice. They’re factors of the first jhāna. You think about the breath and you notice how the sensation of breath is moving through the body. Where does it …
- Effort against the Hindrances… As for unskillful thoughts that get in the way of concentration, we want to make sure they don’t arise. If they do arise, we want to speed up their passing away. As a group, those thoughts are called hindrances, and there are five altogether: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and anxiety, and uncertainty. These things, when they take over the …
- Insight Is a Judgment Call… And you’re looking from a much fairer, or a much more objective point of view, but still you’re engaging in right resolve, looking at your thoughts and seeing where they come from, where they go, instead of asking yourself how much you enjoyed that particular thought, how much that thought is really your thought, the kind of thought you would think where …
- The Challenge… If it’s a choice between staying here and watching the thought go, focus on staying here. Let the thought dissolve. The basic stance you take is being able to stay right here no matter what. The deeper the concentration becomes, then the easier it is to withstand the thoughts, and the more clearly you can see the process of how a thought lures …
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