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Ask A Monk: Correct Observation of Thoughts

Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu | 3:45

Transcript

Hi, today's question comes from X, zma X. Hello, uam. My question is based on Sathi Patan, 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. Um, in meditation, our. Practice is going to, um, 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, um, attention is going to be, um, soft. Sometimes our attention is going to be strong. Uh, sometimes weak, sometimes strong. Um, the important thing is not to worry.


The quality of the, the, the acknowledgement. The important thing is to see how the mind reacts, see how the mind works, um, when it, when it makes the acknowledgement. So for instance, when you're watching the rising and the falling, um, or, or in, in your example, when you're watching the thoughts, sometimes you'll find that you're forcing yourself trying not to think or trying to, um, cut off the thought or, or train the thoughts trying.


Uh, stop them from going in a certain direction. Uh, 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, uh, experience in the meditation practice where you experience these states where you, uh, find yourself forcing things where you find your, your.


Um, fixing heavily or fixing very strongly on the object or other experiences where the mind is weak, where the mind is wandering away. The, the most important thing is to watch and see what those states are like. What happens when the mind is weak? What happens when the mind is strong? Meditation is a practice of contemplating, of, of observing, of, of, of understanding, not, of changing or, or fixing or perfecting.


Um, 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, um, a situation, this is how we should approach it and experience your mind will naturally, um, um, uh, react to things and, um, respond to experience in a way that is natural, in a way that is harm.


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