THINK ABOUT YOUR INTENTIONS
"Think about your intentions. Do you search for your happiness in sensual fantasies or do you realize that there’s a better happiness that comes from letting go of those things, not being attached to them? Do you search for your happiness in trying to get revenge on other people, wishing them ill, being careless about how you treat them? You’ve got to change those ways of thinking, because you realize that they’re like boomerangs. They come back at you and knock you on the head.
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So the first thing, when understanding that this is a path to put an end to suffering, is that you have to work on your intentions. Even though right resolve is a factor of discernment, it’s also—as Ajaan Lee likes to point out—a factor of a virtue. In other words, you want your thoughts to be virtuous, harmless, the kind of thoughts that create an environment conducive to meditation. So don’t assume that you can go around thinking very sloppily and carelessly throughout the day and then, when you can sit down, you’ll be able to get the mind into good shape. You can bring it down through your force of your will, but it’s not going to be the kind of concentration that really leads to discernment. It’s the concentration that’s built on denial, that’s built on pretense.
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So it does matter what you think. It’s not that when we meditate we just turn off our thinking and it doesn’t really matter what we’re thinking before we turned off the thoughts. We have to very carefully consider how we look for happiness in sensual things and sensual fantasies and remind ourselves that that’s not the true source of happiness. The happiness that comes from sensuality carries all kinds of drawbacks and fosters all kinds of delusion. So we have to look for those drawbacks. See the kind of delusion that goes into sensual thinking, and remind yourself that that’s not what the best part of life is about. That’s not where true happiness is going to be found.
There’s got to be something more.
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As for ill will, this is where the practice of metta, or goodwill, comes in. Ask yourself, is there anybody out there, or anybody in here, that you feel ill will for, that you would be happy to see suffer? Then ask yourself, what would you gain from that person’s suffering? Because as we all know, when people are suffering, they tend to lash out. When they feel threatened, when they feel insecure, that’s when they do cruel and heartless things. If they aren’t in a position to do cruel and heartless things now, they’ll carry a grudge and look for revenge down the line. So why would you wish ill on anyone? It’s better for the whole world that everyone learn the causes for true happiness and act on them. That’s what you wish when you extend thoughts of goodwill.
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The same with harmfulness: You’ve got to have compassion if you want your mind to be a good mind to meditate with. Is there anybody you’d like to harm? Ask yourself, do you want to have that kind of kamma?
This is why right resolve builds on right view. You realize that the harm you do to yourself just keeps coming back and back and back again, like a boomerang that hits you in the head.
You get angry at it so you throw it away to be rid of it, and of course, it’s going to keep coming back to hit you again.
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So right view leads immediately to right resolve, the intentions around which you shape your life…"
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Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Excerpt from "Eight Folds, One Path"
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You can read the complete talk here:
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