Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 74
  2. A Sense of Duty
     … But he does know that if they follow the path—as he expressed it, the path of skillful action, thoughts, words and deeds; the four establishings of mindfulness; and the seven factors for awakening—then they’ll get to awakening. So it’s up to us to make the choice. We should ask ourselves, “Where are we going to place our hopes?” The only … 
  3. Booster Stages
     … directed thought and evaluation. There’s a passage where the Buddha says that if you find that the way you’re focusing on the body makes you anxious, irritable, uncomfortable in the present, try to focus on a theme that inspires you, that gives rise to a sense of clarity, confidence in the mind. Then, when that theme has done its work, you can … 
  4. Nothing Wrong with Right & Wrong
     … When the Buddha was judging his own thoughts, he judged them both by where they came from and by where they led. If the thoughts came from sensuality, ill-will, or harmfulness, they were to be abandoned. That’s because they gave bad results, unskillful results. They led you to do bad things. If they were based on renunciation, goodwill—or non-ill-will … 
  5. Determined to Make a Difference
     … Other thoughts will come up, and you have to remind yourself, they’re not worth it right now. The Buddha gives some principles for your speech, and they also apply to your thoughts when you meditate: Is it true? Is it beneficial? And, is this the right time? There are a lot of thoughts that might be true and beneficial, but this is not … 
  6. Working with Nature
     … As Ajaan Lee points out, when you’re trying to get the mind into concentration, directed thought, evaluation, and singleness of preoccupation are the causes. You keep directing your thoughts to the breath and evaluating it to make it a good place to stay. All of this may involve some activity. You want to get the mind still, but to get it still, you … 
  7. Developed in Body & Mind
     … If your frame is moving all around, then it’s very easy for the mind to slip in some extraneous movements and then suddenly be off, hopping from one train of thought to another train of thought, like a hobo. So you want to be right here, anchored. And ask yourself, how can you give rise to a sense of fullness? What are the … 
  8. Free Like a Wild Deer
    Start with thoughts of goodwill for all beings. Goodwill is our protection. Sometimes you hear people saying that as meditators we should let ourselves be vulnerable. What that means—or what it should mean—is that we have to think of our old defenses, realize how poorly they work, and try the Buddha’s defenses instead. In the beginning we may feel vulnerable because … 
  9. Full, Focused Attention
    Try to let go of all other thoughts and focus on thinking about the breath. Pose a few questions in the mind: Where do you feel the breath? Where do you feel the process of breathing? Pay attention right there. Try to develop a quality of intentness in what you’re doing, giving it your full attention. Be very careful to keep this in … 
  10. Feed the Hungry Mind
     … Someone raised his hand: “I thought Buddhism had no ‘shoulds.’” It took the poor teacher a whole morning to explain how there could be “shoulds” in Buddhism. But it’s full of “shoulds.” Kicca, “duty”—that’s what the Buddha talked about with his four noble truths. The big teaching has duties. Karaṇīya, “what should be done.” There’s a verb form that ends … 
  11. Pride, Good & Bad
     … Is this beneficial? Does it really help other people that this particular thought or this particular idea is getting out into the world? And then checkpoint number three: Is this the right time and place? Even though this is less efficient than the fast lane, it does mean that your speech takes on more value, and it’s speech you can be proud of … 
  12. The Burning House
     … Get to know how thoughts arise in the present moment, how they take shape, how they get nourished by your attention, and how you can starve some thoughts if you find that they’re unhealthy or unhelpful. There are lots of things to learn here. But even though this is our home, we won’t be spending all of our time at home. There … 
  13. No Happiness Other than Peace
     … So you have to learn how to dissociate from any thoughts of boredom or thoughts of impatience. You’ve got to learn how to be here, not just because it’s a really pleasant place to stay, but because the more pleasure you have, the more stillness you’ll experience. The two go together. And the more stillness, the more clearly you can see … 
  14. Patience & Hope
     … In his own case, in his awakening he thought back many, many lifetimes, thousands and thousands of eons—thousands and thousands of universes, actually, forming and then falling away—back so far that he said that the beginning point is not only unknowable, it’s also inconceivable. In the course of that long, long time, you’ve probably done lots of things, you’ve … 
  15. Worry vs. Heedfulness
     … What often happens, though, is that you stay with the breath a couple of times, and then another thought comes in and it seems more interesting, more important, and you go with that. It’s called a hindrance. It’s the normal way of the mind, and in everyday life it doesn’t seem like much is being hindered. But when you’re trying … 
  16. Friends
     … Of the things that you’ve internalized, which thoughts are your friends, which thoughts are your enemies? You have to be clear on that: Meditation is not an issue of just learning how to accept everything, good and bad. You have to have a very strongly developed sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s helpful, what’s not. The places … 
  17. Don’t Clap Hands with Pain
     … The fact that you’re breathing involves some fabrication, and there are perceptions, and there are thoughts, and there are intentions: All of these things are types of fabrication. So hold the perception in mind that there is space permeating the body. That will help fabricate the present moment in a useful way. It’ll loosen up any tightness or heaviness in the body … 
  18. Sensuality
     … Could there be another way? He thought of a time when as a child. He was sitting under a tree while his father was plowing, and his mind spontaneously entered the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born of seclusion accompanied by directed thought and evaluation. That’s the standard description. So he said to himself, “Here’s a pleasure that’s not sensual.” It … 
  19. Right Action
     … As the Buddha pointed out, when a hindrance is particularly strong—as when there’s the desire to get engaged in sensual passion, or you’re feeling thoughts of ill will, restlessness, and anxiety—you don’t recognize the fact that those thoughts are unskillful. That’s one of the main problems with the hindrances: They blind you; they get you to see things … 
  20. Rooted in Desire
     … the way you talk to yourself—what the Buddha calls directed thought and evaluation*—*as you focus your thoughts on a topic and then make comments about it, ask questions, answer the questions. Then there’s mental fabrication: perceptions and feelings. Perceptions are the labels you put on things, the images you use to identify what they are and what their meaning is. Then … 
  21. Patience
     … Don’t allow yourself to be patient or tolerant about vagrant thoughts that will pull you away from the breath. Patience relates to the process of causality in the sense that you can’t push the results to appear unless the causes are right. Sometimes the causes take a while to come together. But you can rest assured that when they do they’ll … 
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