Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 67
  2. The Four Jhanas
     … That’s directed thought and evaluation. As long as your hovering can stay with the breath and doesn’t hover off to other places, you’ve got the third factor for first jhana, which is singleness of preoccupation: the singleness here meaning both that it’s the one topic you’re interested in and that, as you work with it, it becomes more and … 
  3. Balancing Tranquility & Insight
     … But after a while, as they actually try the method, they become more and more sensitive to the element of intention in the breathing, and they begin to realize that even when they thought they were allowing the breath to do its own thing, they were actually manipulating it unconsciously. They’d been taught to overlook the extent to which they were already fabricating … 
  4. What You Bring to the Meditation
     … Other thoughts will come up, but you have to keep reminding yourself, “No, you’re not going to go with them. You want to stay with the breath. You want to explore the breath energy here.” Then, you have to be alert to notice what you’re doing, to notice how things are going with the breath, and to notice when the mind is … 
  5. Songkran
     … So, when you extend thoughts of goodwill, you’re telling yourself that you want others to be happy, and you want yourself to be happy, by doing good things. You’re not saying, “I want you to be happy just as you are.” If people are misbehaving, if they’re doing things that’re unskillful or harmful, you want them to see the error … 
  6. Breaking Old Habits
     … Even if you’re simply reacting against them, the way they think has a molding effect on your own thoughts, so you have to be careful who you hang around with. This is what you might call the social side of the practice. The second condition is that you listen to the Dhamma from your admirable friends. You really listen. And the Buddha gives … 
  7. Enlightenment is Not a Hot Dog
     … And she never thought of applying the skills of meditation to her life. She thought that meditation would automatically redo her mind, make her wiser, make her less deluded. Well, it doesn’t work that way. As my teacher said, you’ve got to take the skills of the meditation and consciously apply them. This is another way that you develop your sensitivity. And … 
  8. A Sense of Space Inside
     … You’re sitting here focusing on the breath, and other thoughts are going to come up. It’s all too easy to drop the breath and go into whatever becoming bubbles up into the mind. If you have a desire to think about yesterday, all of a sudden you’re there: yesterday. Think about tomorrow. Think about tomorrow’s meal. Think about tomorrow’s … 
  9. Immersed in the Body
     … Then, if you decide it’s going to be a thought, you nurture it and slap a few more labels on. And then you ride with it. So if you say No to these voices and resist their message, you’re going to start seeing the workings of the mind, which is precisely what we’re here for. This is one of the ways … 
  10. Questioning Your Way to Certainty
     … You find yourself wondering, is this really the right meditation for me? Is the Dhamma really right? Did the Buddha know what he was talking about? Those thoughts can really get in the way of the mind settling down. But it’s interesting to note that the Buddha’s solution for uncertainty is not just to ramp up your conviction, saying, “I believe, I … 
  11. Look Around
     … At first Ajaan Maha Boowa was upset about it, but after all, this was his teacher, so he thought about it and realized that Ajaan Mun was simply seeing things that Ajaan Maha Boowa was not seeing, because he was looking at things from all sides. How do you develop that quality? You start by developing it in your everyday activities. There’s another … 
  12. Freedom, Conditioned & Not
     … For instance, when the Buddha himself was getting on the right path, he divided his thoughts into two kinds: thoughts imbued with sensuality, ill will, and harmfulness on one side; and those that were free of sensuality—in other words, dealing with renunciation—free from ill will, free from harmfulness on the other side. Then he watched his mind. When it was going to … 
  13. Dhamma Intelligence
     … Any thoughts that go for more than a few inches outside of your skin, you’ve just got to let them drop. If you want to think inside the body, that’s fine. After all, directed thought and evaluation are factors of the first jhāna, but you want to make sure that they don’t refer to anything beyond the limits you set for … 
  14. Death Without Drama
     … Rather than “my narrative,” it’s, “This is an unskillful thought of this particular variety.” • And then three, once you recognize what variety it is, then you know what to do with it. You remember how to deal with unskillful thoughts in an effective way, and how to effectively give rise to skillful qualities. That’s what mindfulness does. It protects the fortress at … 
  15. In Context
     … As for any other thoughts that come up, you just tell yourself, “I don’t have to identify with those thoughts.” They can be not-self. Kearn how to use these concepts in context. Learn to use them at the right time, the right place, and they won’t bite you. The Buddha talks about the Dhamma as being like a snake. You want … 
  16. Part III : Daily Life
     … Because as soon as you find your thoughts wandering off in that direction, you remind yourself, “Hey, remember I don’t need to go there.” Then you’ll begin to notice how often your thoughts tend to wander in that direction. No wonder you feel frazzled by the end of the day. You have to be especially careful with the things that tend to … 
  17. Fabricating Goodwill
     … That’ll give you practice so that you can breathe calmly when the situation actually arises, and then that calm breath will become a key to the doors of your memory so that you can remember, “Oh yes, I did think about this already, and this is what I thought might work.” Then you try it out. If it doesn’t work, you go … 
  18. Owning Your Actions
     … When the Buddha was talking to Rahula about thoughts, words, and deeds, the section on thoughts had to do with the meditation. Are you getting the results you want out of your meditation? If not, what can you change? Do you want to change the breath? How about changing the point where you’re focused? Or if the mind is unwilling to settle down … 
  19. Intelligent Restraint
    There’s a saying in Thailand: “You wait until your cow disappears, and then you build a corral for it.” That’s the way most of us are with our speech, our actions, and our thoughts. We do something and then we realize, “Whoops, that was a mistake.” We decide we need to exercise a little restraint. But then we forget again. This is … 
  20. Conserving Your Strength
     … We’re responsible for our own actions, our own thoughts, our own words. Other people say and think and do things, but you’re not responsible for their choices. You can influence them to some extent, but you’re the only person whose thoughts, words, and deeds you can really control. So that’s what your first priority should be: making sure that your … 
  21. To Purify the Heart
     … Which is why, when the Buddha taught Rahula, he taught him to look at his actions throughout the day, his speech throughout the day, his thoughts throughout the day. You want to watch yourself not only while you’re meditating, but also as you go through the day, to see what you’re doing, see what you’re saying, to see what you’re … 
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