Guest guest Posted March 20, 2006 Report Share Posted March 20, 2006 Friends: How to remove recurring Disadvantageous & Distracting Thoughts? What to do if evil thoughts mixed with hate, greed & confusion keeps coming back? 1: Redirect attention to a different advantageous object:Like when driving out a coarse peg from a piece of wood, using a fine peg, one cansubstitute and thereby replace : A: Desire for living forms with thinking on a disgusting rottening corpse...B: Desire for inanimate things with thinking on their impermanence...C: Aversion towards living beings with the mental release of universal friendliness...D: Aversion towards inanimate phenomena with noting their composition of elements...E: Delusion, doubt, uncertainty & confusion with thorough scrutiny of the Dhamma... If this does not help, then one can furthermore: 2: Consider the Danger in thoughts mixed with hate, greed & ignorance:These thoughts of mine are disgusting, dangerous, bringing much misery now & later,just like a young man or woman is disgusted & humiliated, if somebody hang a rottening carcase of a snake, dog or human around their neck, so should one regard distractions!!! If this does not help, then one can furthermore:3: Stopping all flow of thought by Non-Attention and Non-Reflection: Like a man not wishing to see close his eyes and turn away from the place of the object. If this does not help, then one can furthermore:4: Repeat reflection of the Root Cause of these Distractions: Searching for the reason of these mental afflictions - in itself - can cure them: Like a running man wishing calm finding no reason to run, starts walking... Then finding no reason to walk, he sits down, finding no reason to sit, he lies down... If this does not help, then one can furthermore:5: Beating the evil mind down with the force of the good mind:By clenching the lower teeth against the upper teeth, and pressing the tongue upagainst the palate, like a strong man holds down a weak man by the shoulders soshould one beat down mind with mind. Then these evil detrimental thoughts rootedin greed, hate, & ignorance are eliminated, & they vanish. By their evaporation mindsettles down, becomes focused, concentrated & unified on the purely good thought! Source: Moderated speeches of the Buddha: The Removal of Distracting Thoughts Majjhima Nikaya 21: Full text and commentary is found here: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soma/wheel021.html PS: Please include the word Samahita in any comment, since then will my automatic mail filters pick it up and I will see it & respond!! Bhikkhu Samahita, Sri Lanka. Friendship is the Greatest ... Let there be Calm & Free Bliss !!! http://What-Buddha-Said.net Buddha-Direct What_Buddha_Said Dhamma-Questions sent to my email are quite Welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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