A Correct Observation of Thoughts
Yuttadhammo Bhikku | 3:47
Transcript
Hi. Today's question comes from x z mas X. Hello Youtube demo. My question is based on Sati Putana Vipassana Do you have any advice on how to observe thoughts correctly, particularly on holding the attention on the thought, being clearly aware of it without being too weak or too strong things?
In meditation, our practice is going to go up and down. Sometimes when we acknowledge something, it's going to be clear. Sometimes when we acknowledge something, it's not going to be clear, sometimes our attention is going to be soft, sometimes our attention is going to be strong, sometimes weak, sometimes strong.
The important thing is not to worry about the quality of the acknowledgment, important thing is to see how the mind reacts, see how the mind works. When it when it makes the acknowledgement. So for instance, when you're watching the rising and the falling,
or in your, in your example, when you're watching the thoughts. And sometimes you'll find that you're forcing yourself to try not to think or trying to cut off the thought or or train the thoughts, trying to stop them from going in a certain direction.
And it's it's not your job to stop that to stop yourself from trying to stop or stop yourself from trying to force things. It's your job to learn what the nature of that is. So probably your question is coming from experience in the meditation practice, where you experience these states where you find yourself forcing things where you find your, your mind, fixing heavily or fixing very strongly on the object or other experiences where the mind is weak, or the mind is wandering away.
The the most important thing is to watch and see what those dates are like what happens when the mind is weak. What happens when the mind is strong. Meditation is a practice of contemplating of observing, of understanding, not of changing or fixing, or perfecting anything, the fixing, and the perfecting comes through wisdom through through understanding, once you understand once you get it once your mind gets it, okay, this is how we should approach a situation this is how we should approach an experience, your mind will naturally react to things and respond to experience in a way that is natural in a way that is harmonious, and in a way that is perfectly balanced.
So the balance is not our work. Our work is to see what happens when we're when we're not balanced, or what is the result of the various ways of experiencing and you don't have to experiment, experiment. You just watch and see what's going on in your mind when when my mind acts like this. This is the way I normally respond to things, which the result. And what you'll see is that most of the way we respond to things is causing us suffering and that's why we suffer in our life.