Search results for: "Thought"

  1. Page 86
  2. Your Duty Lies Right Here
    We spread thoughts of goodwill, wishing for all beings to be happy, to have good fortune. Then we look at beings who have good fortune, and in many cases, it’s very dismaying. They gain wealth and then they do everything they can to hang on to their wealth with no thought of morality at all. They gain beauty, they gain power, and do … 
  3. The Web of Pain
     … But here you’re sitting with nothing to distract you, except for your own thoughts. It’s just you and the body sitting here breathing, and you’re going to start noticing that there’s a pain here, there’s a pain there, or there’s a little pain in your leg. Part of those pains is based on actual physical conditions, but the … 
  4. Training for Dispassion
     … There will be thoughts that come up that wander away from the breath. For the time being, nothing but thoughts about the breath are relevant, so with any desires that would pull you away from the breath, you’ve got to say No. It’s in saying No that you learn about them. The Buddha gives the example of using mindfulness to cut off … 
  5. Meaning & Happiness
     … They can live deliberate lives—lives where they’ve thought through all the implications of what they’re doing, what they really want, and trim things down, pare things down, that get in the way of that object, get in the way of that purpose, that meaning. The Pali word, attha, means many things: meaning, purpose, and benefit. So what is your attha, what … 
  6. Awakening Is in the Details
     … But if you tell yourself, “Any thought that’s not related to the breath, I will not tolerate it. If it comes in, I’ll try to figure out where in the body there’s a tension—a little knot of tension that corresponds to that thought—and then disperse it by the way I breathe.” Be vigilant. You’re guarding your meditation. You … 
  7. Equanimity After Victory
     … You have to do battle with your defilements, do battle with your hindrances, the parts of the mind that want to go off and think of something else—want to think about sensual pleasures, want to think about thoughts of ill-will, or are happy to be sleepy, so that you can just drift off. Or feel responsible when you’re restless and worried … 
  8. The Awful Truth
     … Because the main issue doesn’t lie outside, it lies right here, in the way the thoughts of the mind interact. This is what determines what we’re going to experience in life, what we’re going to look for in life, what our intentions are, which issues we decide are important, which issues we decide are unimportant. Everything comes down to the actions … 
  9. The Missing Truth
     … We’ve listened to a lot of Dhamma, we’ve thought a lot about the Dhamma. What remains is the third level, the discernment that comes from developing. We may have started developing already. I don’t think there’s anybody sitting here who’s brand new to meditation. It’s simply a question of how much energy you put into it, and how … 
  10. The Flow of Time
     … The things you’ve done, said, and thought. These are the things you gather out of the water as it passes. So you have to ask yourself, what are you gathering? Gathering good things out of the water or just gathering the scum and weeds? Think of time as presenting you with opportunities. You have choices. Each time you breathe in, each time you … 
  11. Concentration as a Skill
     … It can be thoughts of goodwill. The important thing is that it allows you to have an expanded sense of concentration. They use the word ekaggata to describe the state of concentration. Sometimes it’s translated as one-pointedness, but the word agga in there, which is said to be “point,” can also mean “gathering place.” That seems to be the meaning here, actually … 
  12. Three Stages in the Practice
     … As the Buddha said, if you were to sit there and think about that kind of thinking for a long period of time, where would it lead the mind? To a place you want to go or to someplace you’d rather not go? Remember, your thoughts are not just little bubbles that appear, go pop above your head, and then disappear without trace … 
  13. Delight in the Dhamma
     … It wasn’t just thought up by somebody someplace. It was discovered, after lots of experimentation, on the part of the Buddha. And it’s been verified by many, many other people over the centuries. Think about the Buddha’s position after his awakening: He had found a state that was not conditioned by anything at all. Most of our ideas are conditioned by … 
  14. Don’t Get Discouraged
     … You keep creating the worlds for yourself, first through your thoughts, then through whatever you grab on to as you die from one life and go on to the next. This is a habit we’ve developed really, really well. And it’s something we’re good at, or at least we’re really used to it. It’s going to take a while … 
  15. Medicine – Timely & Timeless
     … So when you read that the Buddha saw the world in this way, or he thought this, he thought that, you have to ask yourself, “To whom was he saying that, in what situation, under what conditions?” Because as a doctor he had to be strategic. If you’ve ever had traditional medicinal treatments, you know that they’re a lot more varied and … 
  16. The Buddha’s Compassion
     … There was one guy who went around with the thought, “I’d like to go out and stir up some trouble. I’ll find some contemplative and whatever he has to say, I’ll argue with it.” There’s a lot of that kind of thinking in the world even today—or maybe I shouldn’t say “even.” So the guy came to the … 
  17. Happy to Be Here
     … If there are any thoughts that go wandering off, you don’t have to pay them any attention. You’ve got lots of choices in the present moment, so make the most of them. This is an important principle to keep in mind. Some people think that we’re taught that everything we experience in the present moment is totally determined by past karma … 
  18. Joy & Discontent
     … It’s called directed thought and evaluation. That’s part of right concentration. And even before right concentration, it’s how you talk to yourself throughout the path. People sometimes come and ask, ”How do I do this directed thought and evaluation?” Well, you’re doing it all the time. You pick up a topic and then you comment on it. Pick up another … 
  19. Near to the Buddha
     … But through your actions—your thoughts, your words, and your deeds—you can do yourself a lot of damage that goes beyond just this lifetime, so you need a source of safety that’s nearby. It’s like the ground squirrels and the rabbits. You drive down the road, and suppose the rabbit is on the left side of the road but its hole … 
  20. Intelligent Equanimity
     … Instead of saying, “All living beings can just go to hell, I don’t care,” the chant says, “All living beings are the owners of their actions, heirs to their actions.” Exactly how is that thought related to equanimity? Notice that it comes last in the list. In other words, you first cultivate goodwill, compassion, and appreciation. But then there comes a point where … 
  21. The Mind’s Ostinato
     … There will still be some questions as you’re staying with the breath, as how to get settled in with the breath, and how to deal with other thoughts that come up. But as long as you’ve established your priorities clearly, then the mind will feel more at ease. You’ll be at ease to think about the breath, evaluate the breath, make … 
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