The Buddha's Path To Wisdom: Heedfulness

I am reading the Buddha’s Path to Wisdom right now, and I came across these remarks about heedfulness: “The foolish and ignorant indulge in heedlessness, but the wise one keeps his heedfulness as his best treasure. Do not give way to heedlessness. Do not indulge in sensual pleasures. Only the heedful and meditative attain great happiness.”

It is amazing how easily I can get distracted from the path of salvation. Even in my meditation, thoughts always interrupt me. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, and neutral thoughts. I just can’t stop the thoughts. Even more so as I walk about and fulfill my daily functions. I easily get distracted and forget about the path. So I easily become disturbed and agitated if something doesn’t go my way.

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Dont get discouraged bro, it gets better. Like an archer gets better by practicing, practicing and practicing. :dart:

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Trying to think or talk yourself into non-thinking is a bit like beating a dusty old carpet for clarity–you end up coughing and spluttering a lot. Effort in mindfulness is not really so much of an arduous impassioned quest of great heroic deeds of glory and conquest. Instead, it’s a bit more like noticing that your fly is open and maybe you should zip it up. That’s what mindfulness is like–taking care to notice and adjust.

Just mindful, they breathe in. Mindful, they breathe out. –MN118

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Thank you, Karl. I just read what you posted about Mindfulness of Breathing. I think I’ll need to re-read it several times. It is very helpful.

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The Buddha addressed this very common problem. Read MN-20 How to Stop Thinking (a newer translation). Even better, watch Ajahn Brahmali’s talk on MN-20 from 2012 because there are some fine points that require explanation. He was using Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation, MN-20 The Removal of Distracting Thoughts.

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This is very helpful. Thank you.