Engaging with meditative thoughts

Question: “Please could you guide how to keep away from unwanted sensual thoughts. Whenever I try to meditate such thoughts disturb me.”

Practice, practice, practice! Keeping unwanted thoughts away isn’t easy and it takes time to even get the number of thoughts to decrease. It’s important to be mindful of when these thoughts arise, so when they do, you simply acknowledge the kind of thought it is and simply move on without engaging in it. What keeps meditation full of distractions is the engagements we have with our thoughts. We might not realize it at first, but even when you’re trying to concentrate on something like your breath or a mantra, a thought always seems to arise and you’ll almost always engage in it.

So. When if concentrating on the breath and a thought arises, try as quickly as possible to be mindful that the thought has risen and take yourself back to your breath. It will take time, but eventually you’ll get to a point where you’ll be able to catch the rising thoughts as soon as they arise, then the thoughts will lessen, then maybe you’ll get one or two thoughts, and finally a calm mind. Again, this will take much practice, but with daily meditation it’s very possible and doable.

 

Smile and be well!

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