Filed under: notes
If you’ve ever tried to meditate, you may have experienced all sorts of thoughts scurrying around in your head. According to one school of Buddhist meditation, five general categories exist:
1. Sensual desire (abhidya)
2. Ill will, hatred, or anger (pradosha)
3. Laziness and sluggishness (styana and middha)
4. Restlessness and worry (anuddhatya and kaukritya)
5. Doubt (vichikitsa) — doubt, skepticism, indecisiveness, or vacillation, without the wish to cure it, more like the common idea of cynicism or pessimism than open-mindedness or desire for evidence.
Interestingly, I think these sorts of thoughts arise often during the workday. I’m partial to Doubt as a distracting thought during the day, but also entertain Restlessness and Worry on a regular basis.
In any case, one of the first things that you can do when you meditate or when you sit down at your desk to begin your workday is begin to pay attention to the thoughts that flitter across your brain. Are you worrying about money? Concerned about your spouse? Anticipating a phone call from your daughter?
Rather than trying to resolve each of these questions, you can identify it, which, oddly enough, allows you to move on into your work. Ah, yes, another thought worrying about money. All right. Yes, I know I’m worried. And another thought worrying about fires and dry brush. Yes, I know I’m concerned about that, but there’s little to do except keep my property free of brush.