Incessant Thinking and Peace Are Both Within the Mind

Date: Thu, May 22, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Subject: Incessant Thinking and Peace Are Both Within the Mind

Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. May 22, 2025 Thinking, including incessant thinking, is within the mind. Peace, too, is within the mind. Understanding this allows you to watch them both as objects of the mind, rather than as   something personal—as "mine."    To subscribe to The DailyTejaniya, click here.   To support Sayadaw's freely- given teachings, click here.  Sayadaw's website is here. Wisdom's  Roar compiles quotes and resources.  Photography by Tuck Loon Hor  An archive of The Daily Tejaniya since 2015 is here. The editor's website is www.dougmcgill.com. Queries: doug@dougmcgill.com  Unsubscribe

Hugh Byrne - May 22

Live Session Summary, Sunday, May 22, 2022: The theme of today’s Live session was ‘Two Kinds of Thought.’ I spoke about how certain kinds of thinking—such as complaining, blaming, judging, clinging, worrying, etc.—lead to suffering, while thoughts of compassion, gratitude, generosity, loving-kindness, joy, and peace lead to happiness and greater freedom. 

Each kind of thinking becomes a habit of mind, but the first kind keep us locked in an illusion of a separate self and in suffering, while the second kind becomes a wholesome and beneficial way of living. As the Buddha said, ‘What a person thinks about and frequently ponders on, that becomes their inclination of mind.’ It serves us, then, to abandon or let go of the unwholesome thoughts and cultivate beneficial ones. 

I quoted from a discourse of the Buddha called ‘Two Kinds of Thought’, which highlighted how the Buddha, before his enlightenment, divided his thoughts into these two classes or categories. As he meditated and reflected on thoughts of craving, aversion, and cruelty, he saw the affliction they caused to himself and others and abandoned them. With thoughts of letting go, kindness, and non-harming, he saw they didn’t lead to harm, but rather led to happiness and freedom. These latter thoughts should be cultivated. 

His practice of abandoning the unskillful thoughts and cultivating the wholesome ones created the conditions for his awakening. Abandoning longstanding habits of mind is not easy, so we need a clear intention, wise effort, attention, and kindness to see certain thoughts and the harm they cause—and let them go.

I discussed how we can bring greater awareness to the kinds of thinking that keep our mind entangled or hooked—and working with them in meditation and daily life, we can choose not to fuel this kind of thought and, when they arise, to let them go. And we can choose to develop and nurture thoughts and intentions of kindness, gratitude, compassion, joy, etc., that enhance our well-being and help us abandon the unskillful thoughts. For example, consciously cultivating gratitude can shift the mind away from thoughts of self-judgment, anger, craving, etc., allowing us to appreciate what we have rather than being fixated on what is ‘wrong’ or what we lack. 

Poems I shared today included ‘There was a time I would reject those…’ by Muhyiddin Ibn al-‘Arabi (this is included in ‘Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems’, edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson); and Mary Oliver’s ‘I Worried’.

Have a safe and joyful week—and see you next Sunday, May 29, at 9am eastern. I’ll be teaching a workshop at Kripalu in Massachusetts and the session will be a little shorter this week. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏼 🌻

On thoughts, meditation

Learning to let your thoughts go.

"The thought of your mother isn't your mother. "

Wumen -

• 10000 flowers in Spring
• If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season ...

Antonio Muchado - 'Walker'

Antonio Machado: "Walker"

Walker, your footsteps

are the road, and nothing more.

Walker, there is no road,

the road is made by walking.

Walking you make the road,

and turning to look behind

you see the path you never

again will step upon.

Walker, there is no road,

only foam trails on the sea.

TNH: For Warmth

I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep the loneliness warm –
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.

~Thich Nhat Hanh
(written after the bombing of Ben Tre, during the Vietnam War)

Rita Dove: Green Koan

Green Koan/ Rita Dove

That the mind can go
wherever it wishes
we’ve come to rely on;
that it returns
unbidden to the soul
it could not banish
and learns to thrive there
is life’s stubborn mercy–given
to soften or harden us,
as we choose.

Thinking by Danusha Lameris

 Thinking

BY DANUSHA LAMÉRIS

Don't you wish they would stop, all the thoughts

swirling around in your head, bees in a hive, dancers

tapping their way across the stage? I should rake the leaves

in the carport, buy Christmas lights. Was there really life on Mars?

What will I cook for dinner? I walk up the driveway,

put out the garbage bins. I should stop using plastic bags,

visit my friend whose husband just left her for the Swedish nanny.

I wish I hadn't said Patrick's painting looked "ominous."

Maybe that's why he hasn't called. Does the car need oil again?

There's a hole in the ozone the size of Texas and everything

seems to be speeding up. 

Come, let's stand by the window

and look out at the light on the field. Let's watch how the clouds

cover the sun and almost nothing stirs in the grass.

Poem copyright ©2013 by Danusha Laméris, "Thinking," from The Moons of August, (Autumn House Press, 2013). Poem reprinted by permission of Danusha Laméris and the publisher.

offered by Hugh Byrne on Dec 13, 2020 via Insight Timer

Recognizing, encouraging Uncertainty

When you question your stressful thoughts, the freedom that comes out of that graces the world for all of us. ~ Byron Katie

Frank Herbert on Right Speech

“Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.” - Frank Herbert

Thinking

“Overthinking ruins you. Ruins the situation, twists it around, makes you worry and just makes everything much worse than it actually is.” - Anon

Projecting thoughts

I choose not to project my past onto my future. ~ Jonathan Lockwood

Rumi on 'thinking'

Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of this moment. ~ Rumi

Song of the Grass-Roofed Hermitage

How wonderful that you've made the effort to study this marvelous text!  Memorizing it is a good idea.  Just living with texts such as this one is the best way to understanding.

As to the two lines you quote:

I basically agree with what you say about the first line.  Awakening is not something to be "achieved."  If we see it as something to go after, we are going off in the wrong direction.  This way of understanding is nothing but our usual way of thinking:  we do x to get y.  We go to school to get educated to get a job, e.g.  This is ok for usual things, but not for the Ultimate (and even for relative things, the awakened approach is to act  wholeheartedly in all situations).  We can't "achieve" awakening" because we are already awake.  It's more a matter of giving up, letting go than of striving.  Everything we need is right here, every moment.  Of course, we shouldn't be lax either.  Being awake requires some effort, but it must be right effort, the effort to be aware, mindful moment to moment. All the rest is the result of a confused mind that looks for satisfaction in "outside" things including spiritual things.

The second line, as I see it, continues that theme.  "Guest" is often used to mean seekers, students.  It also implies seeking for fulfillment outside of our own homes, i.e. ourselves.  It seems to refer to teachers whose aim it is to entice students to study with them.  It implies duality to me--as if there are separate beings called teachers and students.  As if a teacher can bring a student to awakening.  As you say and as Shitou says, just "shine the light within".  Dogen tells us to "learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self.  Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest."

The main thrust of the poem, as I read it, is to point us to learning that backward step.  Ultimately, as Linji says, there's "nothing to do, nowhere to go."  If we just settle the mind, well-being will arise of itself, "body and mind will drop away."  It's so simple, but we constantly miss it, getting tangled in our own thinking, our own views.  Dukkha, as Dharma Field teacher Bev Forsman put it, is living in the container of our thoughts.

Those are some thoughts that arise from your question.  I think they are close to what you too are saying.  Anyhow, let the words point you to that which is beyond words.

As to other works by Shitou, he also wrote a wonderful poem called The Merging of Difference and Unity.  I've attached a copy.  There's a book of Suzuki Roshi's commentaries on this poem called Branching Streams Flow in Darkness.  I have a copy.  I was thinking perhaps we could study that book and meet a few times to discuss it.  What do you think?

'via Blog this'

Thoughts to Flow

Whenever thoughts and emotions arise in meditation, allow them to rise and settle like waves in an ocean. Whenever you find yourself thinking, let that thought arise without constraint. Don't grasp at it, feed it or indulge it, don't cling to it and don't try to solidify it. Neither follow thoughts nor invite them: be like the ocean looking at its own waves, or the sky gazing down on clouds that pass across it.

You will soon find that thoughts are like the wind; they come and go. The secret is not to "think"  about the thoughts but to allow them to flow through your mind while keeping your mind free of afterthoughts.

Sogyal Rinpoche in Glimpse After Glimpse

First Thought

By Dr. Jeremy Hayward

"In order to communicate very openly with the world, you need to develop fundamental trust. This kind of trust is not trusting“in”something, but simply trusting. It is very much like your breath. You do not consciously hold on to your breath, or trust in your breath, yet breathing is your very nature. In the same way, to be trusting is your very nature. To be trusting means you are fundamentally free from doubt about your goodness and about the goodness of others."

When we trust with our open heart, whatever occurs,“at that very moment that it occurs,”can be perceived as fresh and unstained by the clouds of hope and fear. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used the phrase “first thought, best thought” to refer to that first moment of fresh perception, before the colorful and coloring clouds of judgment and personal interpretation take over. “First thought” is “best thought” because it has not yet got covered over by all our opinions and interpretations, our hopes and fears, our likes and dislikes. It is direct perception of the world as it is.

Sometimes we discover “first thought, best thought” by relaxing into the present moment in a very simple way. Perhaps you are sitting in an airport looking down from a balcony onto the crowds milling around below. Suddenly your inner chatter stops. You are right there for a moment and actually see and hear. You see the pattern of motion; you hear the hubbub of voices and machines; you have a sense of timelessness and completeness.

You may also come into this open state of mind when you are suddenly shocked. Perhaps you have had the experience of slipping on ice. Without thought your whole body and mind become unified to prevent a fall. At that moment you feel completely alive and right there. Afterwards, you may get a sudden rush of adrenaline and say, “Whew, that was close,” but the feeling of energy and wakefulness lingers for awhile.

Although we call it “first“thought,”” it is not a thought that necessarily comes in words. It is just the very first inspiration, however it expresses itself to us. It may just be “aah!” - a sharp gasp as we come around a corner on a mountaintop and see the valley laid out below us. Of course, then we immediately start thinking second thoughts, and third thoughts, like “Oh my, isn’t that beautiful,” or “How stupid that I didn’t bring my camera.”

The first moment of awakening in the morning can be an opportunity to notice “first thought” because our mind is not yet so caught up in the daily round. We rarely catch the moment when we awaken from sleep, but sometimes we do. There is a kind of blank in which we often don’t even remember where we are or who we are. This moment might be frightening, or joyful, but in either case there is a vivid perception of the room around us.

I have particularly noticed moments of fresh perception during an afternoon of taking photographs. A photograph can capture the feeling at the moment of experiencing something, just as it is, but first you must open your mind and see: the afternoon sun glancing off a bright yellow-green moss-covered rock in the middle of a clearing in the pine forest; a long horizontal bulbous cloud, dark with rain, yet brilliantly lit underneath by the evening sun; white mist over the bay, through which the faint outline of an island, a boat and a lone seagull suggest something out of nothing; a pile of steaming cowdung surrounded by yellow dandelions. In order to capture these moments you look not only at the objects themselves, but also at the light shining around and within them. Then, putting the camera down and looking at the ordinary world, suddenly it too seems bright and vibrant.

When you take photographs, just before you click the shutter, your mind is empty and open, just seeing without words. When you stand in front of a blank sheet of paper, about to make a painting or a calligraphy, you have no idea what you will do. Maybe you have some plan for a painting, or you know what symbol you want to calligraph, but you don’t actually know what will appear when you put brush to paper. What you do out of trust in open mind will be fresh and spontaneous. Opening to first thought is the way to begin any action properly.

The same process happens, very fast, at every moment of our lives. Whether we are artists or not, any moment could be experienced as first thought. We have to touch first thought again and again. There is no promise of any ultimate point where you don’t have to pay attention anymore. At the moment you are about to make“any”gesture, before you actually do it, you can trust and open to “first thought, best thought.” When we are about to drink a glass of water, do we just reach for it and grab it and swallow it down? Or can there be a moment of first thought, clear perception, as we reach for the glass; and again as we touch it; and again as we lift it; and again as we move it towards our lips; and again as we taste the water on our tongue? When someone speaks sharply to us, do we immediately fire back, or can there be a moment of first thought before we respond?

Likewise, when you go about your daily business, make coffee, go to work, use the copier, attend a meeting, walk down the street, eat dinner, have an argument with your mate or make love, and so on. If you open to first thought, each of those occurrences in your life“could”be fresh and very direct. So often we ignore first thought - we think it is too silly, or outrageous. We have to be daring to catch first thought and follow it. First thought can guide our life, when we trust.

Excerpted from Sacred World: A Guide to Shambhala Warriorship in Daily Life, by Jeremy Hayward, forthcoming from Bantam Books.

Dr. Jeremy Hayward, a student of the late Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, is the Education Director of Shambhala Training International.
Image: Hazel Stick Throws, © Andy Goldsworthy, Banks, Cumbria, 1980, from Hand to Earth, published by Harry N. Abrams. Goldsworthy's latest book, Stone, is also published by Abrams.