Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. Facing Your Responsibilities
     … And the whole point of the meditation is to take responsibility for your intentions and learn how to shape them into something better, something more responsible, more harmless—to admit that not every thought that comes into your head is a good thought, and that you are responsible for creating a lot of suffering for yourself and sometimes for people around you as well … 
  3. Observe Your Concentration
     … You realize that to maintain the mind in the first, you have to use directed thought and evaluation. In other words, you have to talk to yourself on a very subtle level about what’s going on. But the directed thought and evaluation is not a constant drone. There’ll be some comments, and then you’ll watch. There’ll be some comments, then … 
  4. Adjust the Flame
    The mind’s like a fire, with flames shooting out, thoughts shooting out, in all directions. When we meditate, we’re trying to adjust the flame so that it’s steady, focused on one thing: the breath here in the present moment. Try to stay with it consistently. Start with a small flame. Find one spot in the body that’s sensitive to the … 
  5. Positive Right Speech
     … You put extra thought into your true speech. Is it beneficial? Is this the right time to speak in terms that are pleasing, or terms that are displeasing? You’re showing respect for your own speech. You want it to have a good effect. And you’re showing respect for others. You don’t want to waste their time with words that you think … 
  6. Freedom Undefined
     … You let go of the patterns of thought, speech, and action that get in the way of clear knowing. You develop the qualities that encourage clear knowing: Right View, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration. You learn to take enjoyment in these things. You let them capture your imagination. They’ve done studies of people who are expert in fields involving skill and dexterity … 
  7. Patience & Consistency
     … And it’s the same with us as a thought arises. We’re were so used to just going into the thought and inhabiting it. It requires a real training in new habits for the mind not to get pulled in, for us to stay and just watch these things as events coming and going in the mind. So you’re trying to get … 
  8. Fire Escapes
     … The four brahma-viharas are another way of getting the mind into jhana, because even with them, you have to practice developing concentration with directed thought and evaluation, without directed thought and evaluation, with a sense of pleasure, with a sense of rapture, with a sense of equanimity. In other words, you take these attitudes through the jhanas. The three formless attainments—infinite space … 
  9. Metta Means Goodwill
     … There are three places in the Canon where the Buddha recommends what you might call metta phrases—phrases for directing thoughts of goodwill. These are a good guide for gaining a clear idea of what metta means. One is that set we chant every day: “May all living beings be happy, free from stress and pain, free from animosity, free from oppression, free from … 
  10. Breath Meditation
     … It’s easy to get lost in other worlds—worlds of thought, worlds of emotion, issues of the past and the present—but the breath is always there, waiting for you. Whenever you feel a need to let the mind settle down, it’s always at hand. The important thing is the relationship you develop with the breath. To begin with, it’s good … 
  11. What You Can’t Change, What You Can
     … That wasn’t a possibility that the number crunchers had thought of. So the software rejected the data. It wasn’t until the data were overwhelming that they began to realize, okay, there was a problem with the software. Our awareness of our body and our awareness of our mind are often like that. Things are going on, but our sense of the possibilities … 
  12. The Rivers of Karma
     … Vagrant thoughts will come into the mind about tomorrow, about today, yesterday. And you’ve got to realize that those thoughts are not in line with the original intention. No matter how useful or important they may seem, they’re not what you want right now. You’re trying to be very clear about what your intention is right now and how to stick … 
  13. Shoulds & Ideals
     … You don’t want to get involved in restless and anxious thoughts, or tied up in uncertainties: “Is this going to work? Is this not going to work? Am I up to it? Am I not?” Just learn how to put those thoughts aside. Just focus on the question of how you can stay with the breath in a way that feels really good … 
  14. Not Just a Witness
     … those who thought too much and those who didn’t think enough. The ones he was concerned about were those who thought too much, because they would find it difficult to get the mind to settle down. In cases like that, you have to keep encouraging them, he said. If the teacher is not around to encourage you, well, learn how to encourage yourself … 
  15. Reclaim Your Breath
     … Just hold the thought in mind, “Breath can flow there, it doesn’t push anything.” The simple thought of allowing can relieve a lot of the pressure. So do your best to get acquainted with the breath energy issues in the body, what it means for the breath to flow well, and be ingenious at finding new ways of solving new problems as they … 
  16. Reflect on Your Actions
     … But it’s also good to have someone you can talk these things over with, to get some ideas you may not have thought of before or to open up some possibilities that might not have occurred to you. Or to be a little more demanding in your sense of what you want—or sometimes less demanding: Sometimes we hold up unrealistic ideals for … 
  17. Change Your Perceptions
     … bodily fabrication—the way you breathe; verbal fabrication—technically, it’s directed thought and evaluation, but in plain terms, it’s the way you talk to yourself; and then mental fabrication—perception and feelings. As you look at the Buddha’s teachings, you can see that a lot of them have to do with instructions on how to fabricate all these things more skillfully … 
  18. To Know the Unconditioned
     … The first thing to go is the directed thought and evaluation, because their purpose is to fit the mind with the body, fit your consciousness with the breath, so that they stay together comfortably, with a sense of interest. Once they’ve been adjusted to a snug fit, you can drop the layer of directed thought and evaluation, and then just hold on to … 
  19. Basic Intro
     … It doesn’t always go slipping off to thoughts of the past, thoughts of the future. It stays right here. Why is it important to stay right here? Because the intentions of the mind are happening right here, and we tend to miss them. We do things and say things and often don’t know why. It’s as if we’re on an … 
  20. The Joy of the Battle
     … And when you can get one reason—as when you say, “Oh, I thought that this particular type of desire made me attractive. This particular desire appealed to this, this, this”—you’ve learned something important. It’s like learning a language. You don’t learn the whole language all at once. You learn it a few words at a time. Sometimes it may … 
  21. Just-Right Concentration
     … That requires some thought. How are you going to breathe? What way of breathing is just right, right now? What do you need in terms of the breath? Do you need to be energized? Okay, breathe in a way that’s strong. Long in, short out. Do you need to relax with a short in, long out? One of Ajaan Lee’s observations is … 
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