Sunday, January 15, 2017

Thinking (2)

Watch deeply the following Thay's Dharma talk video on 'Taking Care of our Thinking'. 
https://www.facebook.com/thichnhathanh/videos/vb.7691064634/10154446854299635/?type=2&theater
The followings are excerpts from the above video.

Quotes:
(from -52:03)
The Buddha proposed the practice of Right Thinking. During sitting meditation or during the time of walking, ideas like that, thoughts like that may arise and you don't allow yourself to be victims of thoughts even if they are negative. You just allow them to come and you recognize them. This is enough. "This is a thought. And this thought is just a thought, not a reality." ... When you are capable of recognizing your thought, you are no longer a victim of it. You are yourself.

(from -48:30)
When you are able to produce a thought that goes in the direction of understanding and love, the direction of Right Thinking, that thought will have an illuminating effect on your health, physical health and mental health. Right Thinking, thinking in the direction of the Kingdom of God, thinking in the direction of understanding and love, that thought has an effect right away on your mental and on your physical health. And at the same time, it has an effect on the health of the world.

When you produce a thought that is negative, that has arisen from your fear, your anger, your pessimism like "I'm not worth anything. I can not do anything. My life was a failure.", that kind of thought will have a very bad effect on your health, mental and physical. And the practice offered by the Buddha is not to suppress these negative thoughts but just to be aware of them. "This is a negative thought. I allow it to be recognized." 

(from -46:01)
And when you are able to recognize the thought, you enrich the degree of freedom, because you are no longer a victim of the thought. But if you are not a practitioner, you allow these kind of thoughts to get you. You continue to illuminate about the negative situation that will make you fall into the state of depression. To recognize the presence of a thought, to recognize the presence of a feeling, is very important. And that is the basic practice of a practitioner of meditation. You do not try to suppress the feelings and the thoughts. Allow your feelings and thoughts to manifest. But you have to be there in order to recognize the presence. In that case, you are cultivating your freedom.

(from -44:15)
In our daily life, we may allow these thoughts and feelings to appear, to be born, to stay, to go away, to go back, and we are not capable of recognizing the presence. And because of that, we become the victims of these thoughts and feelings and emotions. We get lost in the realm of feelings and thoughts and perceptions. We become victims of our thoughts, our feelings and our perceptions because we are not truly present. The practice is to stay present in the here and the now to witness, to examine, to be aware of what is going on. And that is the practice of freedom.
:Unquote

(To be continued)

(My Commentary)
In this Thay's Dharma talk, there are two versions of self, namely separate self (ego) and non-separate self (true self, awareness). In order to recognize or witness our feelings, perceptions, thoughts, we need to return to true self first. In other words, we need to be mindful by stopping thinking first. So, this Thay's Dharma talk is based on the revival of thinking, or ego after establishing true self in the present moment.

This revival of thinking, or ego occurs because this enlightenment (returning to true self) was the temporary enlightenment, not the full enlightenment. That's why the part-time Buddha has to keep taking care of his or her feelings, perceptions and thoughts whenever they arise. Without the constant practice of mindfulness, the part-time Buddha will be covered up by ego again. However, if we attain full enlightenment by the extinction of all notions, we will never be covered up by ego again.

(Cf.) http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/3-versions-of-oneself