Search results for: "Thought"

1. Page 44
2. Play AudioMindfulness of Death & the Deathless
    … It creates a thought-world and then it goes into that thought-world. That’s the process of what the Buddha calls “becoming,” followed by “birth.” So the process that would lead to rebirth is happening right here, all the time. All the “becomings” that we create in the course of the day are simply small versions of what’s going to happen when … 
3. Play AudioAllowing the Breath to Spread
    … Because of the craving, you have your perceptions of your feelings that are based on craving, you have thought-constructs about your feelings that are based on a craving, even the ways you breathe are based on craving. Those are going to make the pain even worse. So remind yourself that the pain is not necessarily totally a given. Some of the pain you … 
4. Play AudioFighting Attitude
    … You could have the physical symptoms—because, after all, the hormones are still there in your bloodstream—even though the actual thought of anger has gone away. An example of having a hindrance when you don’t think it’s there is when you start thinking about things, insights into the Dhamma seem to be coming, and your thoughts swerve off into abstraction. If … 
5. Play AudioJust One Person
    … As the Buddha said, try to be committed to relinquishment because it’s so easy to follow a thought as it “sprouts,” you might say. Little thoughts come sprouting up here and there. You want to look carefully: “Where is this one going to take me?” “Where’s that one going to go?” If you look at it out of curiosity or out of … 
6. Play AudioA Friend to the World
    … Metta is the quality of a good friend, which is what you’re trying to develop as you develop thoughts of goodwill. Now, there are all kinds of friends. There are true friends and false friends. There’s skillful friendship and unskillful friendship. And it’s obvious, of course, that the Buddha wants us to develop the qualities of true and skillful friends. So … 
7. Play AudioGlad to Be Here
   The Buddha’s instructions on how to get the mind in concentration start, on the one hand, with the reminder that you have to get past sensuality—your fascination with thinking thoughts about sensual pleasures. You can’t let the mind wander off in those areas. The Buddha says you should have a definite sense of the dangers of those places. That’s why … 
8. Play AudioCutting Through the Hype
    … Notice which thoughts keep you with the breath, which thoughts pull you away. For the time being, side with the thoughts that keep you with the breath. You want to make it more pleasant to be here. Try to keep the breath comfortable. Don’t force it too much. There’s a tendency when we decide to concentrate on something that we clamp down … 
9. Play AudioOnly Natural
    … When the Buddha talks about directed thought and evaluation as one of the factors of right concentration, if you’re not familiar with what he’s referring to, it sounds as if you’re going to have to do something new you’ve never done before. But the phrase, “directed thought and evaluation,” is simply another name for talking to yourself. So now, as … 
10. Play AudioTo Gladden the Mind
     … With those thoughts in mind, then you can get back to the breath and develop those qualities: the qualities that the Buddha developed himself and that he didn’t lay exclusive claims to. He opened the path to everybody. So here it is, open to you. Let these thoughts be uplifting.
11. Play AudioGuided Meditation
     … So start off with thoughts of goodwill, wishing for your own happiness and the happiness of everybody around you. The first place to start is with thoughts of goodwill for yourself, because if you can’t wish goodwill for yourself, it’s hard to wish goodwill for anyone else. Just tell yourself, “May I be happy. May I find true happiness,” with an emphasis … 
12. Play AudioA Producer Mentality
     … being resolved on giving up sensuality, in other words, giving up your fascination with thoughts of sensual pleasures; giving up ill-will; giving up harmfulness. These are precisely the things you need to give up in order to get the mind to where it’s secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful thoughts, unskillful mental states, so that you can get into the first jhana … 
13. Play AudioBefore Your Face Was Born
     … When you can admit that to yourself—that what you thought made you special was really a waste of time—that’s when you learn humility. And when you learn humility, you’re ready to learn what you really need to know. So it’s good to come to the practice with an attitude of humility. We’ve been making mistakes all along. It … 
14. Play AudioThe Energy to Be Generous
     … You’ve got burdensome thoughts, burdensome attitudes. That’s already weighing down the mind. Then when someone else says something you don’t like, you feel like you’re being oppressed. Well, part of the human world is that people are going to say a lot of things you don’t like. That’s one of the reflections that the Buddha has you think … 
15. Play AudioPut Some Heart into Your Practice
     … You see this especially when the Buddha talks about thoughts of goodwill. He says that if you think that ill will is appropriate in any situation, that’s wrong view. Your tendency to dismiss other people, to say that they’re not worth your attention, they don’t deserve to be happy: That’s wrong view. It makes it impossible to get on the … 
16. Play AudioBecomings
     … That’s a scary thought. Just as scary is the thought that you could actually go where you really crave to go, but then you learn the fine print only after you get there, and the fine print is all about more aging, illness, and death. So you want to be able to understand these processes as they’re happening right now so that … 
17. Play AudioThe Field Hospital
     … And we’re attached especially to our thoughts about those things, our plans for those things—we crave the craving. This is where craving gets tricky: We have to deal with many layers all at once, even with just this one kind of craving. As the Buddha said, you can’t get past it unless you have a pleasure that’s not sensual: in … 
18. Play AudioSkillful Effort
     … There’s a very common line of thought here saying that there are two ways of approaching the practice. One is trying very hard, exerting an effort, and being miserable, with all your thoughts focused on the future. The other is relaxing into the present, into the Dhamma that’s already here. Now, if those were the only two choices, it’s obvious which … 
19. Play AudioThe Mind Like Water
     … Just because a thought labels itself as your thought, that this is what you think, doesn’t mean that you have to believe the label. There are some thoughts that keep coming through the mind and you’re familiar with them because they come so many times that there’s the attitude that, “Of course, these are my thoughts; of course, these are my … 
20. Play AudioConcentration Teamwork
     … In other words, you’re secluding your mind from thoughts about the sensual pleasures you might want to enjoy. You’re secluding it from unskillful states. And the fact that you’re not bothering the mind with those things gives you a sense of ease, a sense of well-being. In Ajaan Lee’s explanation, the sense of rapture and pleasure comes from the … 
21. Play AudioWorlds
     … Our bodies are filled with thoughts. We ordinarily think of thoughts as filling the mind, but they also take place in the body as well. The mind is what does the thinking, but parts of the body get involved in the process. This is how we carry those whole worlds around. You sit here with your body, and all of the sudden it turns … 
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