Stop Thinking
"And what, monks, is Right Concentration? Here, a monk, detached from
sense-desires, detached from unwholesome mental states, enters and remains in the
first jhana [meditative absorption], which is with thinking and pondering, born
of detachment, filled with delight and joy. And with the subsiding of thinking
and pondering, by gaining inner tranquility and oneness of mind, he enters and
remains in the second jhana, which is without thinking and pondering, born of
concentration, filled with delight and joy. And with the fading away of delight,
remaining imperturbable, mindful and clearly aware, he experiences in himself the
joy of which the Noble Ones say: 'Happy is he who dwells with equanimity and
mindfulness,' he enters the third jhana. And, having given up pleasure and pain,
and with the disappearance of former gladness and sadness, he enters and remains
in the fourth jhana, which is beyond pleasure and pain, and purified by
equanimity and mindfulness. This is called Right Concentration. And that, monks,
is called the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering."
--Mahasatipatthana Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of
Mindfulness, in Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha, trans. by
Maurice Walshe
From Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith
