Zen thought of the day
 

"When you are practicing zazen, do not try to stop your thinking. Let it stop by itself. If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out. It will not stay long. When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer."

~Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

Thanks for that TC. It sounds really great. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way for me. I can deal with my thinking OK during the day but it's at night when I'm trying to sleep that the unwelcome thoughts move in and take over. They do stay too long. They come in, but they don't go out. Any advice on how to be ¨not bothered by the waves¨? By the way, I'm not being a smartass, this is a serious question. I would love to be able to have my thinking on certain subjects stop by itself, become calmer and calmer.

Confusing. I was taught monkey mind was to be resisted, bringing concentration back to center. Not so?

I try to actually picture the thoughts as waves that get weaker and weaker... Until the water is absolutely still...

Sometimes it works.

What we resist, persists......

L

We do not fight monkey mind, we simply teach it how to be calm. After all monkey mind is part of us.

akalacha, what worked for me was whenever I started fussing about a person, place, thing or time I would remind myself that it wasn't real. I'm not there now, they are not here now, it isn't happening now or it hasn't happened yet. I made a practice of doing this every time it happened and I noticed it. After a while it got to the point i was intercepting the thoughts and defusing them before I even noticed they were happening.

Also, at night I would just lay there and count breaths. When ever my mind wandered I would just go back to 1. When I got to 10 and that didn't happen much in the beginning I would go back to 1 and start over.

Your friend,

LTD, I think you would like this.

When we sit to meditate we sit like a mountain and our thoughts are clouds.

The mountain doesn't grab the clouds.

The clouds can't move the mountain.

Your friend,

Zen ... does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

Watts

You're right Mike, I do like that. Although sometimes the mountain stops the clouds and ponders them for awhile. ;)

Awesome picture and very appropriate.

I do confess to having pondered a few clouds myself. As long as I don't get attached it can be quite enjoyable. :)

Your friend,

BTW, that picture is now my computer wallpaper. Thanks. :scoregood

Thanks Mike. I'll give it a try tonight when I'm trying to go to sleep.