Some suggestions for noting and noticing thoughts

If we are suffering, we are believing an interpretation of reality that is limiting and untrue. At these times we are imprisoned in a painful looping of fear-driven thoughts and feelings. This talk explores the ways our practices of mindfulness, compassion and loving presence can guide us from addictive thinking to perceiving life with a wise heart.

Q1 You mentioned vedana as the knowing of a feeling tone. I always thought that vedana occurs very fast and almost unconsciously How could one practice or investigate vedana a more deeply? 23:51 Q2 What is conscience from the Buddhist point of view? 28:21 Q3 How come the mind prefers to get involved with negative instead of positive stuff? 30:31 Q4 What actually do we need a mind for? In another words is there a quick and easy way to distinguish useful and harmful thinking? 40:24 Q5 Where do you see similarities and differences between dhamma practice and positive neuroplasticity? How can we cultivate more joy? 37:01 Q6 If I don't proceed according to the map, then how do I know if I'm doing something wrong or whether it just takes time? 54:16 Q7 Is it easier to stay grounded when speaking to others? It seems easier to say grounded when not speaking to others.

If we can recognize thoughts as thoughts, it becomes possible to open from virtual to living reality. This meditation guides us in awakening the senses and discovering the freedom – the awake space of Being that is beyond the confines of thoughts. “Relaxing back into the space between thoughts. Relaxing with what’s right here…” The poet Rumi writes, “Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought. Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking, live in silence, flow down and down in always widening rings of being.”

This meditation guides us in embodying loving presence through a body scan, and then meeting whatever arises with a tender heart. “Resting in the awareness that includes this changing life, regarding the changing waves with care, moment-to-moment. The moments of waking up out of thought are actually profoundly transformational. If you notice thinking and then plant the seeds of kindness, that becomes the habit of the heart.” ~Tara We close with a beautiful blessing-poem from John O’Donohue, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace.

Part 1 of 2 days of instructions on mindfulness of thinking.