{"id":362,"date":"2018-01-20T04:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/?p=362"},"modified":"2022-01-09T21:59:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T03:59:50","slug":"2018-01-20-working-with-mental-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/2018-01-20-working-with-mental-states\/","title":{"rendered":"January 20 &#8211; Working with mental states"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends,<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Goldstein has said, &#8220;For the purpose of meditation, nothing is particularly worth thinking about.&#8221; This means thoughts can come and go as they wish, but we don&#8217;t need to become involved with them. (Joseph also says, &#8220;it&#8217;s simple, but it&#8217;s not easy.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>Bhante Gunaratana lists five ways to work with mental states, based on the instructions in the discourse on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accesstoinsight.org\/tipitaka\/mn\/mn.020.soma.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Removal of Distracting Thoughts<\/a>. Josh Korda of Dharma Punx NYC wrote an <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150313131406\/https:\/\/www.dharmapunxnyc.com\/blog\/2014\/2\/3\/my-adaptation-of-the-buddhas-vitakkasanthana-sutta-how-to-remove-unwanted-and-obsessive-thoughts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">adapted translation<\/a>, which I find easy to read and understand.<\/p>\n<p>I found a <a href=\"http:\/\/wisdomthroughmindfulness.blogspot.ca\/2010\/10\/methods-of-getting-rid-of-distracting.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blog post<\/a> that summarizes these five as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Replace it<\/li>\n<li>Reflect on the disadvantages of the unskillful thought<\/li>\n<li>Reject (or ignore) the thought<\/li>\n<li>Remove the source of the thought<\/li>\n<li>Restrain the thought<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To elucidate on each of these and to list the simile used for each:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Replace it &#8211; Cultivate a skillful thought to take the place of the unskillful thought.\n<ul>\n<li>Like when a carpenter uses one peg to knock out another peg that is stuck.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reflect on the disadvantages of the unskillful thought &#8211; Notice how the unskillful though causes agitation and stress in the present, and suffering in the long term.\n<ul>\n<li>Just as when someone who likes to wear jewelry would be put off if a rotting snake carcass was offered for wearing as a necklace.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reject the thought &#8211; Acknowledge such thoughts while disregarding their content.\n<ul>\n<li>When we see someone disagreeable we acknowledge them, then look somewhere else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Remove the source of the thought &#8211; Focus on alleviating the physical stresses hidden beneath the thoughts.\n<ul>\n<li>Someone hurrying about in a frantic, busy state, might finally think &#8220;Why don&#8217;t I slow down? Maybe even take a seat, even lie down for awhile?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Restrain the thought &#8211; If all else fails, one should clench and constrain the unskillful obsessions with willpower.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What techniques of working with sticky thoughts have you tried? Feel free to share a comment.<\/p>\n<p>With best wishes,<br \/>\nAndrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, Joseph Goldstein has said, &#8220;For the purpose of meditation, nothing is particularly worth thinking about.&#8221; This means thoughts can come and go as they wish, but we don&#8217;t need to become involved with them. (Joseph also says, &#8220;it&#8217;s simple, but it&#8217;s not easy.&#8221;) Bhante Gunaratana lists five ways to work with mental states, based on the\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/2018-01-20-working-with-mental-states\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[102],"tags":[103,117,143,311,140,24],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2018","tag-henepola-gunaratana","tag-joseph-goldstein","tag-josh-korda","tag-mind-states","tag-third-foundation","tag-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}