Search results for: "Thought"

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  2. Accepting the Way Things Function
     … He said he would hit and check his thoughts in the same way that you would hit and check the cows at that time, if those thoughts were involved in sensuality, ill will, or harmfulness. But if the thoughts were engaged in renunciation, non-ill will, and harmlessness, then he said it was like a cowherd during the dry season, when the rice has … 
  3. Stay with the Breath
     … We spend most of our day getting into our thoughts, but we very rarely look at the process of how a thought forms. Yet the only way you can get around unskillful thinking, any kind of thinking that creates suffering, is to look at the process, to see how jerry-rigged the whole thing is, how arbitrary it is: all the make-believe that … 
  4. Wearing the Breath
     … Where are you in relationship to that world? Usually, once your thought has gotten to that point, you’re in the thought; you’re out of your body. Then the thought can take you anywhere. But there are stages leading up to that point. In fact, the Buddha said, seeing the stages leading up to that is the way of getting round the dilemma … 
  5. A Warrior’s Strengths
     … When the storms in your mind are blowing and they seem really strong, just say, “I’m going to stay right here with the breath and focus on that and not get involved in anything else.” As soon as you have the complicating thought or the proliferating thought that “I am the thinker,” then the thoughts become your thoughts and you’ve got to … 
  6. A Good Place to Stay
     … If you have trouble staying with the breath, ask yourself, are there any leftover thoughts from the day that are impinging on your mind and keep getting in the way? If there are, stop and think about them for a minute. How useful are these thoughts? Are they thoughts that you really want to get involved with? Every kind of thinking has an antidote … 
  7. Resistance
     … Whether we’re contemplating the body; issues of aging, illness, death, and karma; thoughts of goodwill; reflection on the nature of the world: All of these thoughts are designed to remind you of how important it is to meditate. They also remind you of your motivation for meditation. Whether you’re here to find something solid in the midst of the world, or as … 
  8. Leaving Distractions Alone
     … One of the reasons we come into physical seclusion like this is so that we can deal with the distractions in the mind—learn how not to be pulled away by thoughts of the past, thoughts of the future, or thoughts of other places right now. There is that temptation as soon as a thought comes up. You see it’s unfinished, and you … 
  9. Getting Untangled from Thorns
    Getting Untangled from Thorns May 26, 2013 As we meditate, we try to stay with the body because otherwise we’re swimming around in our thoughts. Our thoughts are like many different currents in a river or an ocean. This current goes north; that current goes south. This other current spins around, and it spins you around so that you begin to lose track … 
  10. An Inner Revolution
     … The conclusion is that when you want to think a thought, you can think it; when you don’t want to think a thought, you don’t have to think it. And you get wiser in deciding what kinds of thoughts are worth wanting. In other words, you really are in control of your thought processes. This can mean that when you want to … 
  11. Observing Thoughts
  12. Distracting Thoughts
  13. Distracting Thoughts
  14. Into the Cave with the Tiger
     … But if you look at the thoughts and they’re enjoyable thoughts, honorable thoughts, thoughts you can be proud of, thoughts that lift up your spirits, then it’s a lot easier to settle down. Remember the Buddha talking about how he got on the right path. He divided his thoughts into two types. Thoughts that were not skillful—based on sensual desire, ill … 
  15. Heart & Mind
     … In other words, we’re dealing both with thoughts and with emotions, because there’s no radical difference between the two. If you look at any emotion, there’s going to be a thought triggering it. And if you look at a thought, there’s usually a feeling, a whole complex of associations, that go along with it. So it’s not as if … 
  16. Directed Thought & Evaluation
  17. Mastering Your Thoughts
  18. Directed Thought & Evaluation
  19. Don’t Be Afraid of Mistakes
    When we talk about the committee of the mind, or when Ajaan Lee talks about all the various consciousnesses that may be hovering around your body, or when the Buddha talks about your thoughts being not-self, the purpose is to get some distance from those thoughts. But it doesn’t mean you have to distrust them. It simply means that you want to … 
  20. The Buddha’s Tools
     … form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness. That kind of analysis has a lot less friction to it, again, a lot less drama and blame. If we have a bad ego or a poor struggling ego, that frames the issues in one way. But if we say, well, there’s a feeling, there’s a perception, and there’s a way of fabricating thoughts, it … 
  21. Being Somebody, Going Somewhere
     … Where are your actions taking you? Where are your thoughts taking you? After all, your thoughts don’t just sit there. They take you in a certain direction, they “bend the mind” in a certain direction. That was one of the realizations that got the bodhisatta on the correct path to begin with: realizing that his thoughts led either to happiness or to suffering … 
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