Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. Discernment
     … This is what directed thought and evaluation are all about. As Ajaan Lee points out, directed thought and evaluation are the work of discernment—trying to figure out, if the mind’s not settling down, why. Is the problem with the breath or is the problem with the mind? If the problem is the breath, work with it. Breathe in different ways: long, short … 
  3. A Gift of Well-Being
     … This way you begin to notice when certain types of thoughts or emotions rise up inside you. What do they do to the breath energy, and how can you use the breath energy to undercut the unskillful emotions and thoughts? In this way, you’re not wounding yourself as you go through the day. And you’re less likely to wound others. If you … 
  4. Good Traditions
     … You don’t give in to the thought that says, “I can’t manage this. This is too much for me.” You do what you can, and often you find that you end up doing a lot more than you thought you could. This is how your powers of endurance develop. When they’re developed, and we meet up against the inevitable problems in … 
  5. Maintenance Work
     … Sometimes the mind is getting ready to jump off to something and you wonder, “Where is it going? Anyplace interesting?” Or when a thought begins to form: It’s just a vague, inchoate sense of a thought, and the mind puts a label on it. Then you want to see, “Does this label really fit?” And that means you’re fully entangled. If you … 
  6. When Things Aren’t Going Well
     … Most of them thought they were doomed. But even when they thought they were doomed, they kept going because of one thing: their sense of discipline, realizing that as long as you stay disciplined, you can take advantage of whatever opportunities do arise. That’s the first lesson to take from these stories: a strong sense of discipline. As you dig down into this … 
  7. Conspiracies in the Mind
     … We’ve been disappointed many, many times in the past, but we keep going back to the same old thoughts of greed, same old thoughts of aversion, same old thoughts of delusion, as if somehow, if we rearranged the elements a little bit, they’d turn out a lot better this time. But it’s really the same old stuff, just over and over … 
  8. Peace of Mind
    Start the meditation with thoughts of goodwill. Just tell yourself, “May I be truly happy. May the people around me be truly happy—the people in my family, and then spreading out in all directions to all beings everywhere.” And think about what true happiness might be. It has to involve peace of mind, because if the mind is agitated, if the mind is … 
  9. Secluded from Sensuality
     … Learn to really appreciate how good it is for the mind just to be able to settle down and not have to do anything but be with one thought. Learn to develop it in such a way that there’s a strong sense of well-being that comes as you let that one thought, along with the pleasure of the breath, permeate the body … 
  10. Practical Wisdom
     … to see how the mind shapes its concepts, how different thoughts come into the mind. What are the stages by which they do this? This is something really worth knowing, because our thoughts have fooled us for so long, and here’s our chance to see through their subterfuges, their tricks. So if you find yourself getting bored with the practice or tiring of … 
  11. Fabrication at the Breath
     … How does the mind fabricate things? How does the breath fabricate your sense of the body? How do feelings and perceptions fabricate your mind? The way you direct your thoughts and the way you evaluate things: How does that effect the mind too? That’s another kind of fabrication, verbal fabrication. They’re all right here. It’s not that nothing is going on … 
  12. Breaking the Arrows
     … No matter what the thought may be, you just don’t continue weaving it. Let the frayed ends blow in the wind, but you come back. The thing is, you don’t have to pull the mind back. As soon as you drop the thought, you’re back here with the breath automatically. Each you come back, reward yourself with a comfortable breath. And … 
  13. All for the Sake of Freedom
     … Any thoughts that go outside, just tell yourself, “Not this time. Not right now; maybe later,” because the mind will keep churning out thoughts for a bit. Some of them will be useful, and some of them not. But anything that’s not related to this sense of the body as you feel it from within right now is not in line with the … 
  14. Together but Separate
     … You can latch on to a thought construct, or just latch on simply to awareness—or any combination of these. And even within a particular perception, it’s not always the same perception. Or with a thought-construct, it’s not always the same thought-construct. Sometimes you find that you can switch the perception around the pain. You can ask the question, “Does … 
  15. Basic Breath, Basic Insight
     … You don’t say, “Well, wait a minute until I’ve finished this thought. Then I’ll come back.” Because usually that thought ties into another thought and then another thought. It just keeps wandering off to who knows where. So stop the thought mid-sentence. Just drop it, no matter how important or wonderful or necessary it may seem. It’s not what … 
  16. Where Perceptions Can Take You
     … So counteract thoughts of ill will with thoughts like these. As for the perception of harmfulness, that’s counteracted by the principle of kamma. If you harm others, the harm is going to come back at you. Do you want that? If not, you can’t tell yourself that other people don’t matter. You have to take their well-being into consideration. Those … 
  17. Less is More
    Less is More July 2, 2009 We spread thoughts of goodwill for all the world, that we don’t wish anyone any harm. We wish that all beings could find happiness. So why are we sitting here with our eyes closed? Why aren’t we going out there, making people happy? Because happiness is something that has to come from within. It’s based … 
  18. Things that Arise & Pass Away
     … They hadn’t thought I would focus on karma; they thought I’d focus on emptiness or something of that sort. And I was surprise that they were surprised. The whole point of the Buddha’s teaching is that it is possible, through your actions, to find happiness in a way that develops noble qualities in the mind and actually has a good impact … 
  19. Guardian Meditations
     … If you really have goodwill for yourself, would you let yourself get bound up, say, in lust or anger, greed or jealousy, or whatever the unskillful state maybe? When you find yourself able to kindle some thoughts of goodwill for yourself, some genuine goodwill for yourself, then it’s a lot easier to feel goodwill for the people around you—the ones who are … 
  20. The Karma of Pain
     … As for any thoughts that are pulling you away, let them go right now. Gradually, things will begin to separate out. There’ll be the breath and then there’ll be the thinking. You want your thoughts to be directed to the breath, but you begin to realize that they’re not quite the same thing as the breath. As for any thoughts that … 
  21. Shoot Your Pains with Wisdom
     … The other way we fabricate our experience is through the way we think, so you can shoot yourself with skillful thoughts. Learn to think about the breath in a way that makes it easier to breath. For example, you can try holding in mind the perception that your body is like a big sponge, and the breath is coming in and out every pore … 
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