Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. Challenges
     … Of course, aside from pain and pleasure, there’s another danger you face in concentration, and that’s distraction—particularly the thoughts that come in and say, “This is dumb” or “This is not right, you should be doing something else.” To whatever extent you can, you want to put those thoughts aside. If they’re really insistent, then you have to turn around … 
  3. The Sport of Wise People
     … Once you’ve spread thoughts of goodwill, the next question is, how are you going to stay with the breath? Where would be a fun place to focus on the breath right now? Some place you haven’t thought of before, something new, something different. Ajaan Fuang would sometimes talk about thinking of a pole of light inside the body, extending down from the … 
  4. Tap, Tap, Tap
     … I thought to myself, “This is never going to get anywhere.” Well, I came back an hour later and they were almost a foot into the rock; two hours later, they had the hole deep enough that they could stick the dynamite in and blow the rock out. It was a good lesson in patience—in being very careful and very precise about what … 
  5. Skillful Thinking
     … The first jhana has directed thought and evaluation. In other words, he teaches you where to focus your thoughts and he gives you instructions on how to evaluate what’s going on. Here you direct your thoughts to the breath, the sensation of breathing in the body. Try to broaden your concept of the breathing, so that it’s not just the air coming … 
  6. Constant, Easeful, Self
     … You finally realize that many times when a thought first arises in the mind, it’s not really a thought. It’s just a stirring of energy. Even before it’s recognized as a thought, there’s going to be that stirring. And there’s actually a moment’s decision when you decide what the thought is. You may think that you’re asking … 
  7. Meaning in a Meaningless Universe
     … A lot of people find that thought chilling, but it’s directly related to the issue of suffering. If this universe had a purpose, and your suffering were part of the purpose of the universe, there’d be no way out. You’d have to continue suffering. But here, there’s no purpose, so you’re free. If you want to put an end … 
  8. Look After Yourself with Ease
    There’s that phrase in the chant when you’re spreading thoughts of goodwill to yourself: “May I look after myself with ease.” As with all the thoughts of metta for yourself, it’s not selfish. Think of times in the past, or sometimes in the present, when you’re with someone you love, and they’re suffering. And there’s nothing you can … 
  9. Habits of Perception
    Habits of Perception November 27, 2004 What have you got here in the present moment? You’ve got the body, you’ve got the breath, you’ve got thoughts, and you’ve got your awareness. But you’re also carrying a lot of habits. In fact, this is the main issue in the meditation. If you didn’t have certain habits of perception, you … 
  10. Magha Puja
     … If it’s scattered around, who knows what the different thoughts are getting into? You clean up one set of thoughts and you find another’s gone out playing in the mud again. When you’ve got everybody right here, that’s when you really can cleanse the mind. This leads to that other teaching about the mind: lifting the mind so that it … 
  11. On Denying Defilement
     … And as the Buddha said to Rahula, everyone in the past who has cleansed his or her thoughts, words, and deeds has done it this way. Everyone in the future who’s going to cleanse his or her thoughts, words, and deeds will do it in this way. And in the present, anyone who is cleansing his or her thoughts, words, and deeds is … 
  12. The Image of the Raft
     … As for skillful thoughts, he says it’s like being a cowherd during the dry season. The rice has been gathered. There’s no danger. The cows can go into the fields, and there’s nothing for them to eat, nothing for them to destroy, so they can wander as they like. But, as the Buddha noted, you can think skillful thoughts all day … 
  13. Cutting Edge Perceptions
     … Any thought that’s going to inch out into the future, you just cut it off. Any thought that inches out to the past, you cut it off. Anything in the present that connects any patterns of tension or pain in the body so that you feel like you’ve got whole bands of pain or whole bands of tension, just cut, cut, cut … 
  14. Smart About Lust
     … There’s a thirst, a sense of lack, and then there’s the thought that “Well, I could fill in this lack with thoughts of sensuality. Even if I can’t get what I want, I can fantasize.” Of course, fantasizing leads the mind to think more and more in terms of actually acting on those fantasies. So, what’s the origination? Can you … 
  15. A Basis in Well-being
    When you settle into the meditation, you remember those thoughts of goodwill we chanted just now, “May I be happy. May all living beings be happy.” This is the motivation that underlies all our practice. You look at the teaching on the four noble truths—which we take as the Buddha’s most basic teaching, most comprehensive teaching—and what is it but the … 
  16. Unraveling the Present
     … Verbal fabrication is directed thought and evaluation, because those are the two mental qualities you need in order to speak. The basic structure of sentences: Directed thought points to the subject of a sentence. Evaluation describes the subject, talks about it. Both of those activities are right here. You’re directing your thoughts to the breath and you’re evaluating the breath. Then there … 
  17. Goodwill as Restraint
     … You’re not going to go into thoughts of ill will. Or if thoughts of ill will do come up, you’re going to deal with them, try to root them out—because if you let any ill will linger in your mind, it might come out in ways that you might not anticipate. It comes out in times of weakness, times when you … 
  18. Heedful of Death
     … the ability to step back from a thought and not go jumping into it. So you can take a step back and say, “I don’t have to go there”—especially if it’s a thought of regret, a thought of remorse, fear, surprise. It’s good not to be surprised by death when it comes, because if you’re too surprised, there’s … 
  19. Training the Mind to Train the Mind
     … As for any thoughts that may come up while you’re working with the breath, thoughts that are not related to the breath, you can just let them go. It’s very common that all kinds of random things will come up. Especially as there’s less and less surface activity in the mind, things will come bubbling up from within. This is another … 
  20. Noble Happiness
     … As you begin to notice how your thoughts, words, and deeds affect yourself and affect other people, and you make up your mind to act only on the things that really do cause happiness and to try to avoid anything you notice that causes harm: That, he says, is how you develop purity in your thoughts, your words, and your deeds. So all the … 
  21. The Need for Stillness
     … You’ve got to turn around and look at that and recognize: “Oh, there’s this movement here.” Everything else seemed to be still, you thought that everything was nice and still, but there’s still this happening. Discernment lies in seeing both sides: seeing whatever movements of thought, or feeling, or perception are going on, and also the part of the mind that … 
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