What does it mean when Buddha says about thoughts, "he pays attention to the stabilizing of the thought-producers of those thoughts"

Discussion
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In MN 20, the Buddha states five ways to get rid of sensual, angry, or delusional thoughts. I am confused about the fourth way. The ways are basically:

  1. Think something wholesome instead
  2. Reflect on why the unwholesome thoughts are not beneficial
  3. Ignore the thoughts
  4. “Pay[ing] attention to the stabilizing of the thought-producers of those thoughts”
  5. Clenching the teeth and destroying the thoughts

What on Earth is the Buddha recommending in the fourth strategy?

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There is some discussion on this by Than. Geoff here - around min. 11

Basically - looking into the sensations in the body such as tension underlying the thought and working to calm that.

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I’m not sure whose translation that is. This step is about slowing down the thoughts. So just like slowing down one’s movement, one slows down one’s mind.

This is Bhante Sujato’s note

Multiple methods of quelling thought have failed, so this method focuses on gradually slowing down rather than stopping all at once. Asking “why am I thinking so much?” turns attention around, focusing on the previous thought rather than the next thing.

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Yeah, this is not a good translation. The Pali is:

tesaṁ vitakkānaṁ vitakkasaṅkhārasaṇṭhānaṁ manasikātabbaṁ

  • vitakka = “thought”
  • saṅkhāra = here has the sense “generative energy”, “force behind something”. “Thought-producer” is correct if over-literal. Pali often uses these duplicated phrases (“thought-generator of thought”) where English prefers economy.
  • saṇṭhāna = “stop” not “stabilize”. See AN 2.5:1.4 where the meditation will not “relax” or “relent” or “stop” until their meditation is successful. Cf. Saṃsthāna in the sense “termination, conclusion” in Sanskrit.

Should focus on the termination of the thought-generation of those thoughts

Or more idiomatically:

They should focus on stopping the formation of those thoughts.

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They should focus on stopping the formation of thoughts.
As they do so, those bad thoughts are given up and come to an end.

As someone who was afflicted with living in their head from the earliest childhood memories, I appreciate this translation. Some years ago, I was on retreat with a very skillful and wise teacher. I went into story, as they say, painting a graphic picture of something particularly traumatizing.

She said " Beth, stop."

Honestly, it was the most effective medicine for that moment.

Ever since then, in practice there are times when I simply stop the thought. I can tell: This isn’t the time for The Other Three Approaches. (Ths fifth approach would not be helpful for me.)

Interestingly in MN 20 the instructions on reflecting on the Why Happening? also seems similar to slowing down the thought. Maybe in walking meditation moreso than sitting?

In psychology research there’s this idea of “cognitive shuffling” which I reduce to seeing thoughts arise and leave much like shuffling or dealing a deck of cards. That’s more for insomnia but on the cushion it resembles a form of stopping and moving on.

:folded_hands:

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