Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 49
  2. The Current News
     … And you begin to see the stages by which you get involved in the thought and how the thought goes out into a desire to do something. It’s something you want to see, because the mind plays a lot of tricks on itself as it goes from just a stirring to a decision to do something. All too often those stages are totally … 
  3. Stretch Your Mind
     … What kind of thoughts does it tend to go toward? What thoughts are running through the mind that have some Velcro on them that pull you away? Try to think in a way that pulls you away from those thoughts, strips off the Velcro. Think of the Buddha on the night of his awakening. If you think you have narratives coming in from the … 
  4. Sophisticated Dhamma
     … If you can learn to view your thoughts this way, to see how jerryrigged they are, how deceptive they are, that’s one way of pulling yourself out so that you don’t get so absorbed, you don’t get so fascinated with them. You don’t get carried away with the emotions. You learn to appreciate the sense of ease and solidity that … 
  5. Seclusion Through Mindfulness
     … And whatever state that comes up in the present moment, you resist the tendency to identify with it, in the sense of going with the thought world, getting into the thought world, or just being your awareness here in the present moment. We’re not here to be the awareness, or to be the knowing—that’s a state of identification. You keep track … 
  6. Virtue
     … by keeping on top of your thoughts and your words and your deeds throughout the day. When your thoughts, words, and deeds are within the precepts, it’s easy to get the mind to settle down and to stay with the breath in the midst of what you’re doing. After all, the things that destroy your meditation, the things that destroy you focus … 
  7. Skilled in Leaving Concentration
     … The next step, of course, is to spread thoughts of goodwill. Ajaan Suwat used to talk about how in the beginning of the meditation, when we spread thoughts of goodwill to all beings, it’s primarily for ourselves, to clear away any resentments or grudges coming from the day—so that we can clear the decks before the mind can settle down. But then … 
  8. Love is Conditional, Goodwill Is Not
     … And as to whatever narratives you have regarding this person or that, you’re not going to let them get in the way, because the best narrative-dissolver is thoughts of goodwill, followed by thoughts of equanimity. That chant we have, “All beings are the owners of their actions, heir to actions,” is not meant to be indifference. But it does point you to … 
  9. Every Little Bit
     … But the vow is to get into the posture.” The guy tried that and found that he could actually sit for quite a bit longer than he thought. Some days his meditation was just a matter of getting into the posture and then getting out. But other days he found that he could sit quite a lot longer – sometimes even longer than an hour … 
  10. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … If you find yourself thinking unskillful thoughts, then, as the Buddha said: If you’re sitting, keep on sitting until the unskillful thought is gone. If you happen to be walking, well, just keep on walking until it’s gone. And then when it’s gone, the next morning when you wake up, remind yourself you’re really glad that you were able not … 
  11. Questioning Your Unconscious Actions
     … This is why the meditation involves getting focused on the breath and then being aware of the whole body, because different thoughts get associated with movements of energy in different parts of the body. They leave markers as we hold onto a thought for a bit. If you’ve got your awareness all around, and you’ve got the breath energy smoothed out, then … 
  12. Verbal Fabrication
     … Verbal fabrication—directed thought and evaluation; how you talk to yourself, focusing on a topic, making comments, asking questions. And then mental fabrication—your perceptions and feelings. As Ajaan Lee would point out, the verbal fabrications are real troublemakers. The way we talk to ourselves can create a lot of problems in the present moment, depending on the kind of commentary we’re making … 
  13. Square One
     … This involves the next type of fabrication, which is verbal fabrication, what the Buddha calls “directed thought and evaluation.” It’s basically the way you talk to yourself. You choose a topic to focus on, try to keep your thoughts directed to that topic, and then you make comments, ask questions. Evaluate things. Come up with new approaches. Use your ingenuity. All of that … 
  14. Don’t Stop with Acceptance
     … Verbal fabrication is directed thought and evaluation. Mental fabrication is feelings and perceptions. Now, there are some people who say these two levels of fabrication are totally unrelated. But how can that be the case? You can’t move your body unless you breathe. You can’t speak unless you engage in direct thought and evaluation. You can’t think unless you have perceptions … 
  15. Take Time to Evaluate Your Life
     … directed thought, evaluation and then singleness of preoccupation, which is when your directed thought gets so steady that you ’re really just with the breath, and nothing else, continually. At the same time, it means that the breath becomes an object that fills your sense of the body. As you breathe in, it feels like the breath is coming in and out through every … 
  16. Comprehending Pain
     … The mind, as soon as there’s any kind of sensation, starts fabricating thoughts and perceptions around it. So learn how to fabricate thoughts and perceptions that are actually helpful on the path. You might want to start with the perception of form you’ve got. What is form? Form is the four physical elements properties: earth, water, wind, and fire, or solidity, coolness … 
  17. Warm Your Heart
     … thinking about your generosity, thinking about your motivation, thinking about your gift, thinking about who you want to give it to; putting extra thought into your precepts; extra thought into finding the best way to develop goodwill for all beings. It’s very much a skill. If you don’t like the idea of happiness or goodness as a skill, you’re placing a … 
  18. Skills Needed at Death
     … If you had no control over the mind at all, and if the thoughts in the mind didn’t make any difference at death, then that would make sense. But in the Buddha’s analysis, the mind is making choices at that point. The problem is, it’s often making them under the power of aversion. It doesn’t want to die, but it … 
  19. The Triple Training
     … Some people find that they can get their minds to settle down really easily, without much thought. Then, when the mind is settled, it can work on discernment. Other people, though, have trouble settling down. They first need to use their discernment to think their way through the problems that keep them from settling down. Then they can settle down. Once the mind is … 
  20. Goodwill Plus
    When we think thoughts of goodwill, it’s important that we make it a comfortable place for the mind to stay. Some people have difficulty with that; other people have no difficulty at all. It depends on your attitude toward happiness. If you’ve come with the idea that happiness is something selfish, that you shouldn’t be happy when other people are out … 
  21. Not-self for the Sake of Happiness
    Our sense of self comes from the measure of control we have over our environment, over our bodies, over our thoughts. Your sense of yourself meditating right here comes at least from the fact that you know you can focus here or you could focus someplace else. You have the choice—and you’re choosing to stay here. You can change the way you … 
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