260515 Training Your Minds \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu \ \ Dhamma Talk

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:04]When you sit down to meditate, you have to figure out what kind of mind you're training tonight.

[00:00:10]Cuz you do have many minds.

[00:00:14]There's the mind of lust, the mind of anger, the mind of fear, greed, jealously, the mind that's tired from a long day, the mind that's wired and overactive.

[00:00:28]There are lots of yous in there. So, you have to ask yourself which you is going to be the subject of your training tonight.

[00:00:37]And then try to remember that the Buddha has lots of checklists, lots of different ways of dealing with the mind when it's obstreperous.

[00:00:52]In terms of the seven factors for awakening, there are the factors that help to solve the problem when the mind is too active and too energetic.

[00:01:06]There are others that are for when the mind is too sluggish.

[00:01:09]So, you may want to have a nice quiet mind tonight.

[00:01:13]But it turns out the mind is too sluggish and you just go to sleep.

[00:01:21]Other times the mind is thinking all over the place.

[00:01:27]Now, the Buddha says in cases like that you want to emphasize calm, equanimity, concentration.

[00:01:34]I've also found there are times that the mind is going to think, well, I'll give it something good to think about.

[00:01:45]If it's yelling at you or telling you that you can't settle down, you've got to think about something.

[00:01:49]You can respond, "It's okay. I'll think about something, but I'll think about a better topic."

[00:01:55]Or if the mind is telling you you've got to think about one particular thing, and you realize you've thought through that thing many, many times, tell the thought it's not going to help.

[00:02:04]Then whatever it says, repeat it back to it with a sarcastic tone of voice.

[00:02:11]That usually puts it down.

[00:02:19]As for things to think about, this is where we get into the Buddha's five ways of dealing with distractions.

[00:02:25]And it's good to remember these.

[00:02:29]So, as he says, these are the five ways in which you can deal with almost anything in the mind.

[00:02:35]The first one is if the mind is going off and thinking about something unskillful, give it something better to think about.

[00:02:45]Now, if you're working with the breath, this might mean changing the way you breathe.

[00:02:50]If the breath is calm, you may need to breathe in a more energetic way.

[00:02:54]Or vice versa.

[00:02:57]Or you may decide that tonight's not a night for the breath.

[00:03:01]If the problem is lust, well, then you think about the different parts of the body.

[00:03:09]Make a thorough survey.

[00:03:11]Think of taking them out of your body and putting them on the floor in front of you.

[00:03:15]Because as the Buddha said, lust starts with being attracted to your own body, and then goes to somebody else.

[00:03:22]So, work with your own body first.

[00:03:26]Ask yourself when you are lusting for somebody, which part of the body is it?

[00:03:33]Well, just take that part and make it separate. On its own, would it be something that's attractive? Well, no.

[00:03:42]And then you think about the parts inside the body, the liver, the intestines.

[00:03:48]That's all part of the package, too. And yet, could you have a body without those things? Well, no.

[00:04:00]Think about this in different ways.

[00:04:01]Sometimes, of course, the problem with lust is not the object of the lust, it's the stories you tell around it.

[00:04:07]Part of the stories get their attraction from the object.

[00:04:11]And part of them have the their attraction in how you play a role in those fantasies.

[00:04:16]So, try to poison the fantasy.

[00:04:24]If anger is a problem you've been dealing with difficult people, think good will as a standard solution.

[00:04:34]Remember that as you're sitting here thinking black thoughts about those people, who's suffering? You're the one who's suffering. They're pretty oblivious, usually.

[00:04:44]And you are all worked up.

[00:04:47]For what purpose?

[00:04:50]Have some compassion for yourself.

[00:04:57]Part of my own self will say, "If I don't think about this hard enough, justice will not be done."

[00:05:03]That's when you have to call into question the whole idea of justice, because you don't know when the story started between you and those other people.

[00:05:12]How many lifetimes it goes back.

[00:05:19]It's a bad game. Either way, whoever's coming ahead in the game, it's a bad game. And how do you just pull out?

[00:05:31]As for fear, ask yourself, what are you afraid of losing?

[00:05:35]What do you have that you feel threatened about?

[00:05:39]You think about the world outside, things could fall apart pretty easily.

[00:05:43]They are falling apart.

[00:05:48]And your only safety is to develop in qualities inside that the world can't touch.

[00:05:54]They can take your things. They can harm your body, but they can't take your virtue.

[00:05:59]They can't take your concentration. You lose those things only if you throw them away.

[00:06:05]So, work on some genuine wealth.

[00:06:08]So, that's one way of dealing with an obstreperous mind.

[00:06:12]Find something else to think about.

[00:06:14]You may have had me thinking, "I just want to settle down and have a nice peaceful time with the breath.

[00:06:18]Getting into a couple nice jhanas."

[00:06:22]Breathe in and out really satisfied with the breath, but the mind is just not willing to settle down, okay?

[00:06:29]Do you think whatever the thinking is, take it apart.

[00:06:34]Think in a way that's opposite.

[00:06:38]And so, you lose interest in the first kind of thinking.

[00:06:42]And then maybe you will be ready ready to settle down and really enjoy the breath.

[00:06:48]You might also want to look into your whole attitude about meditating. If you feel that it's a chore, you've got to change the attitude. Think of it more of a here is your opportunity to breathe.

[00:06:58]Breathe in a way that's fulfilling.

[00:07:01]Breathe in a way that's satisfying.

[00:07:03]Gratifying.

[00:07:08]Think of your whole body as just wanting more breath.

[00:07:12]And you can provide it.

[00:07:16]And you have no other responsibilities right now.

[00:07:23]So, that takes care of the first two steps the Buddha has. One is just going back to a skillful thought.

[00:07:28]And then two, thinking about the drawbacks of the unskillful thinking that's got you enmeshed.

[00:07:34]Now, there are times when no matter how much you think about the drawbacks, the mind still goes for it.

[00:07:41]And that's when you can tell yourself, "Okay, it can those thoughts, but I don't have to get involved."

[00:07:46]This is where the committee of the mind is a good image.

[00:07:49]The committee's going crazy.

[00:07:51]They've latched onto one of those topics that has endless debates.

[00:07:57]You can say, "I'm out of here."

[00:08:01]It's as if you're in a large hall.

[00:08:04]They're on the other end of the hall arguing, but you don't have to get into that part of the hall.

[00:08:08]You don't have to get involved.

[00:08:11]You stay over here where it's more quiet.

[00:08:14]And even if the conversation seems to be coming at you stereo from all sides, you can just let it go through you.

[00:08:22]You've got work to do.

[00:08:25]You try to tamp down the discussions. As John Lee says, it's it's like chasing your shadow.

[00:08:33]The more you run after the shadow, the more the shadow's going to run away from you. It'll pull you away, pull you away.

[00:08:39]So, the shadow wants to go run and let it run, and it's on you. You don't have to run after it. Of course, when you don't run after it, the shadow has to stop.

[00:08:47]It'll take a while.

[00:08:51]It may come around.

[00:08:53]Here we have to change the analogy.

[00:08:57]It's like a dog that you fed in the past. It's coming around. It's a stray dog, and flea-ridden.

[00:09:02]And you decide you don't want it around anymore.

[00:09:05]But it'll keep whining and whining for a while.

[00:09:11]Or we think about it as a crazy person coming wanting to talk to you. The crazy person will start saying things that are crazier and crazier to get your attention. You have to be resolved that you're not going to get involved.

[00:09:22]And if you're patient enough, resilient enough, then after a while that other thinking will fall away.

[00:09:33]The fourth technique is to recognize when a thought comes up, it's going to be tension in the body.

[00:09:38]It's It's as if the mind has to use tension in the body as a marker to keep track of the thought from moment to moment to moment.

[00:09:48]And if you're sensitive to the breath in the body, you can figure out where that pattern of tension is. Sometimes it doesn't require that you be all that sensitive though.

[00:09:55]It's pretty obvious.

[00:09:58]Tightness in the chest, tightness in the stomach.

[00:10:01]Tightness around the wrists and the hands.

[00:10:09]Wherever the tension is, breathe through it. Disperse it.

[00:10:15]Think of each breath flowing right there, right there, right there.

[00:10:19]Say it's in your wrists.

[00:10:21]You don't have to think of the breath flowing down the arms to the wrists and have it flow right into the wrists and right through the other side.

[00:10:33]That way the thought has no place to stand.

[00:10:36]You just start losing the train of thought.

[00:10:40]Then you have some time to breathe.

[00:10:42]And then of course the fact that it feels really good to relax those patterns of tension.

[00:10:48]We'll remind you breathing meditation really can be fun.

[00:10:52]It can be enjoyable.

[00:10:55]Even though it's part of the duties of the Four Noble Truths, it doesn't have to be a chore.

[00:11:02]There are lots of duties that you can learn how to enjoy.

[00:11:05]The fifth approach is to stamp down on the thoughts.

[00:11:09]Put his image as of two strong men beating down a weaker man.

[00:11:15]He says to press your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

[00:11:21]And just tell yourself, "I will not think that thought."

[00:11:25]This is where having a meditation word that you repeat rapid fire like a machine gun is useful.

[00:11:31]Buddho Buddho Buddho really fast.

[00:11:34]You may tell yourself that you don't like that kind of meditation. It feels like you're applying a sledgehammer to your mind.

[00:11:39]Well, sometimes the mind needs a sledgehammer.

[00:11:46]You don't have to keep it up all through the period. After a while, the mind will get tired.

[00:11:52]And then it'll be more willing to settle down and rest.

[00:11:59]So, take stock of which mind you're working on tonight.

[00:12:06]And use some of the Buddhist checklists.

[00:12:10]There's a list of the four bases for success.

[00:12:13]When things are not going well, ask so which one is missing.

[00:12:18]If you sit down telling yourself, "Well, I have to sit down because it's time to sit down."

[00:12:23]There's no real desire to sit down.

[00:12:25]Talk to yourself for a while to remind yourself of why it's good to be meditating.

[00:12:30]Learn to generate desire. That's part of our right effort.

[00:12:34]Generating the desire to do this one.

[00:12:38]See, this is a rare opportunity. You've got time, you've got the ideal place.

[00:12:46]You've got the opportunity to meditate.

[00:12:48]How often does this come?

[00:12:52]If you're not doing it now, when are you going to do it?

[00:13:01]So, desire is weak, strengthen it.

[00:13:05]If the desire is too strong, you want to sit down and say, "I want to gain at least the the third jhana tonight."

[00:13:11]Remind yourself if you're going to get the third jhana, you've got to get the causes right. And what are the causes?

[00:13:15]They don't lie in thinking about the third jhana.

[00:13:20]Jhana is not the topic of jhana.

[00:13:24]The topic of right concentration is your breath.

[00:13:28]So, channel all your interest into the breath.

[00:13:31]Channel your desire into the breath.

[00:13:35]And whether you gain this or that level of concentration, that's not the issue.

[00:13:43]You want to make sure that you got your attention on target.

[00:13:49]And keep it on target. That's how you get results.

[00:13:55]The same with the other bases for success.

[00:13:59]Are you being persistent enough?

[00:14:02]Sometimes you put away a thought.

[00:14:04]It goes away for a while, it comes back again. You put it away, it comes back again. You begin to feel that you're going to lose out to it.

[00:14:10]You've got to show you're more determined than it is.

[00:14:16]So, keep at it. Every time it comes up, you put it away. It comes up, put it away.

[00:14:20]You tell yourself, "I want to be quiet.

[00:14:21]I don't have to be struggling like this." We're not going to get to the quiet until you really are sincere in your struggle.

[00:14:31]As for intent, are you really paying attention or you just going through the motions?

[00:14:38]And your powers of analysis, sometimes you try to analyze things too too much, too quickly.

[00:14:45]Have two or three breaths and then you check if it's going well. Well, give it some more time.

[00:14:51]If you're trying out different kinds of breathing, give them each a time to show that they can have an effect on the body. Some ways of breathing will be obviously uns- unpleasant, unskillful.

[00:15:01]Others, it will take a while.

[00:15:10]Then there's the opposite problem, the lack of balance in your powers of analysis. If you're not analyzing anything at all, you're just chugging away, chugging away, not happy with how things are going.

[00:15:20]You have to step back and ask simple, "What's the problem?

[00:15:24]Where is the mind fixated?"

[00:15:31]Sometimes it'll be willing to tell you very quickly. Other times it's going to be a little more secretive.

[00:15:36]So, you have to watch.

[00:15:39]What this means is you can't sit down and determine ahead of time, "Tonight's going to have to be this this this way."

[00:15:45]You have a plan, but you also have to prepare for the fact that the mind you thought you were going to train is not You've got another mind.

[00:15:55]When you begin to realize, "Okay, you have a certain repertoire of minds." And you begin to develop a repertoire of techniques, that's when the meditation goes better.

[00:16:10]But you also have to be prepared for the fact that sometimes something brand new will come up. A new member of the committee will show itself.

[00:16:18]I know someone who went to study a potter in Japan with a living national treasure.

[00:16:24]She'd make her pots, put them in a kiln, and they'd come out burned or raw or twisted. And he would put his pots in, and the living national treasure's pots in would always come out perfect perfect perfect every time.

[00:16:38]Until one day she came early in the morning. They'd just opened the kiln, and it turns out his pots had burned.

[00:16:46]So, even a living national treasure can make mistakes. But how he responded to the mistake was the important thing. He was in the kiln trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

[00:16:59]So, that's what mastery is. It doesn't mean that you've got every situation nailed down all the time.

[00:17:07]It does mean though that when something goes wrong, you don't get knocked off by it.

[00:17:12]Knocked off balance.

[00:17:13]Try to figure out what went wrong.

[00:17:16]You're always ready to improve your skill, expand your skill.

[00:17:22]So that you can deal with a wider and wider range of situations.

[00:17:28]Just think about when you're going to die. You don't know how you're going to die. You're going to die on the side of the road, die in a hospital, die at home, after a long illness, die suddenly.

[00:17:40]You don't know.

[00:17:43]So you have to be prepared for all kinds of possibilities.

[00:17:46]So sitting here meditating and different possibilities come up.

[00:17:49]The possibility of a lustful mind one night, the possibility of an angry mind the other night.

[00:17:54]The possibility of a mind that is just tired of meditating another night.

[00:18:03]Master those possibilities first, then you'll be ready to master some of the bigger ones, more challenging ones.

[00:18:11]The important thing is you don't let them get you down.

[00:18:16]There's no problem in meditation that somebody hasn't solved at some place.

[00:18:23]So when a new problem comes up, ask yourself, somebody's done this before.

[00:18:30]Mastered this before.

[00:18:32]How could that possibly happened? When you believe there's a way out, then you're going to find it.

[00:18:40]It's like being lost in the forest.

[00:18:43]You believe there's no way out, then you're going to give up with the slightest challenge.

[00:18:49]If you tell yourself, there must be a way out. I I got my way in here to begin with, there must be a way out.

[00:18:57]You always keep open the possibility that you can get out.

[00:19:05]So with the right attitude, it's what makes all the difference.

[00:19:21]>> Hey.