Thinking and Thoughts

This category gathers excerpts on thinking, thoughts, and conceptual proliferation — how to understand them, how they condition experience, and how to relate skillfully without getting lost in stories.

051 ‣ When There’s Awareness, Thinking Mind Can Be Noticed (370) 052 ‣ Recognizing that the Mind is Thinking (371) 053 ‣ We Cannot Trust Defilement Thinking (376) 054 ‣ Staying Alert at the Mind Door (382) 055 ‣ The Idea of Self is Strong when Not Realizing Thinking Mind is Happening (389) 056 ‣ Emotions Arise Because of Wrong Thought About the Memories (390) 057 ‣ Be Truly Interested in Learning the Nature of Mind as Anger Unfolds (392) 058 ‣ Chronic Tension and Anxiety Whenever Meditating (395) 059 ‣ Recognizing Awareness Distinct from Conceptual Knowing (397) 060 ‣ Meditation Cannot Improve without Right Understanding and Right Attitude (421) 061 ‣ Fear and Anger Arise when Memories Are Believed to Be Real (424) 062 ‣ Yogis Can Get Depressed when They Identify with Unpleasantness (438) 063 ‣ Emotions Arise Because of Thoughts (440) 064 ‣ Whenever Pain Appears Continuous, the Mind is Paying Attention to Concept (441) 065 ‣ Intense Concentration Makes the Thoughts Appear Real (449) 066 ‣ How to Improve in Meditation? (452) 067 ‣ Knowing What is Happening in the Mind is Awareness (467) 068 ‣ When We Learn to Watch Realities Instead of Concepts, There’s Less Suffering (473) 069 ‣ Reality Objects Are Not as Obvious as Conceptual Objects (474) 070 ‣ Direct the Mind to Watch with Wisdom (481) 071 ‣ When Emotions Are Strong, Ground Awareness on the Feeling (496) 072 ‣ The Mind Base is Nowhere, Not in the Heart or Brain (503) 073 ‣ Breath Can Be Either a Vipassana or Samatha Object (506) 074 ‣ It is Natural for Thinking to Happen During Meditation (507) 075 ‣ Shifting from Wrong View to Right View (514)
076 ‣ When You Don’t Focus, the View Becomes Wider (515) 077 ‣ When We Label, We Tend to Get into the Concepts or Thinking (533) 078 ‣ Important to Recognize Which Reality is Being Aware of (534) 079 ‣ Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw’s Advice: Ground Our Conceptual World on Reality (539) 080 ‣ Why Does the Yogi Feel Like the Body Has Grown Huge? (543) 081 ‣ When Cannot Sleep, Make it an Opportunity to Be Mindful (545) 082 ‣ Understanding How the Mind Gets Lost in Thoughts (549) 083 ‣ The Value of the Practice is in the Awareness, Not in the Pleasant Experiences (561) 084 ‣ How is the Mind Observing Right Now? (599) 085 ‣ Questioning is to Direct the Attention Inwards (602) 086 ‣ It’s How the Mind Views that Gives Rise to Emotion (606) 087 ‣ Sayadaw Teaches How Not to Enter Handphone Jhana (634) 088 ‣ Working with Unwholesome Thoughts (637) 089 ‣ Repeated Awareness of Reality Erodes the Idea of Self (642) 090 ‣ Awakening from the Past or Future (644) 091 ‣ Always Bring in Right View to Anchor the Observing (665) 092 ‣ Telling Apart Wholesome and Unwholesome Recollections (670) 093 ‣ Notice the Intention to Think (673) 094 ‣ Learn to Discern What’s Reality and What’s Concept (674) 095 ‣ Learning to Die Well (684) 096 ‣ Wrong Ideas Make the Mind Suffer (685) 097 ‣ An Object is Just an Object (688) 098 ‣ Yogis Naturally Pay More Attention to Concepts in the Beginning (689) 099 ‣ No Need to Stop Ideas, Notice These Thoughts and Check Feelings (694) 100 ‣ Learning to Repeatedly Recognize Seeing and Hearing as Natural Processes (695)
151 ‣ Bits of Wisdom Arise when Awareness is Consistent (1123) 152 ‣ Be Simple and Open when We’re Aware (1130) 153 ‣ Be Willing to Face the Challenging Scenario (1132) 154 ‣ Try Not to Identify with the Unwholesome Qualities (1136) 155 ‣ Seeing the Way the Mind Works (1147) 156 ‣ When the Mind Gets Distracted into Thinking Instead of Meditating (1167) 157 ‣ Believing a Thought that We’re Not Good Yogis (1168) 158 ‣ Seeing All Objects Are the Same is the Result of Right View (1172) 159 ‣ Notice that the Mind Relaxes Whenever a Right Thought Arises (1176) 160 ‣ Right View Shows Up as a Right Thought (1180) 161 ‣ Dealing with Tiredness (1190) 162 ‣ Pure Awareness Has No Meaning (1197) 163 ‣ Ignite the Interest with Curiosity (1205) 164 ‣ Any Solid Experience is a Conceptual Object (1218) 165 ‣ Discern the Difference Between Awareness and Thinking (1232) 166 ‣ Don’t Follow the Imagination, Stay with the Awareness (1235) 167 ‣ Reality and Conceptual Experiences (1246) 168 ‣ When Thoughts Disturb the Mind, Direct Attention to the Thinking Process (1275) 169 ‣ Past Lives Disturb the Mind During Meditation (1280) 170 ‣ Feeling is Different from Lobha, Dosa and Moha (1344) 171 ‣ The Awareness is More Consistent If We Can Watch Unclear Objects (1353) 172 ‣ Defilement Pays Attention to Concept; Wisdom Pays Attention to Nature (1391) 173 ‣ Watch Reactions Via Pleasant and Unpleasant Feelings (1392) 174 ‣ Understanding Why Not to Judge the Object as Good or Bad (1396) 175 ‣ Paramattha (Nature/reality) and Paññatti (Concept) (1406)
176 ‣ Be Aware of Pain, Not Think About the Pain (1411) 177 ‣ If You Watch Objectively, the ‘I’ is Not Yours (1415) 178 ‣ Learn to See the Correlation Between Feeling and Ideas (1424) 179 ‣ The Thought Comes Again, but the Mind is New (1429) 180 ‣ Discern the Difference Between Concepts and Realities (1443) 181 ‣ Seeing the Concept and the Mind Together (1458) 182 ‣ Every Mental Process is New; Only the Concept is Old (1464) 183 ‣ The Teacher and Student Are Both in Our Mind (1465) 184 ‣ Don’t Rush – Just Practice Steadily (1523) 185 ‣ We’re Practicing the Dhamma (1528) 186 ‣ Check Expectations Consistently (1542) 187 ‣ Knowing All Happenings is Practicing the Dhamma (1543) 188 ‣ Nothing Outside Can Upset Us Except for the Views We Uphold (1547) 189 ‣ We Meditate Watching the Natural Process (1570) 190 ‣ As Long as Awareness is Present, We’re Not Lost in Thought (1586) 191 ‣ Can I Only Watch the Breath when I Sit and Meditate? (1593) 192 ‣ The Right Attitude to Watching Pain (1594) 193 ‣ The Connection Between Thinking and Feeling (1597) 194 ‣ Remember that the Mind is Impermanent (1600) 195 ‣ If Our Bodily Form Disappears when We Meditate (1602) 196 ‣ Remind Ourselves that the Mind is Impermanent (1613) 197 ‣ The Nature of Reality (1616) 198 ‣ Be Familiar with the Intention Mind (1618) 199 ‣ The Meditating Mind is Important Because it Thinks the Right Way (1639) 200 ‣ Don’t Lose the Awareness; Take Care of it (1651)

THE DISCUSSIONS