One Thought At a Time

Thank goodness that we can only have one thought at a time.
Imagine if 84,000 thoughts assault you at the same time!
It would be impossible to cultivate the mind, to train single-mindedness.

Fickle the monkey mind is, jumping rapidly from one stray thought to another.
Even when our mind seems scattered or distracted, there is still only a thought at a time.
Thank goodness the mind can be tamed, minded with mindfulness.

May my mindfulness from moment to moment be of Amitabha Buddha
May this mindfulness bridge me across to meet him in Pureland.
May this mindfulness of Buddha-ness eventually lead me to Buddhahood.

6 thoughts on “One Thought At a Time

  1. Each time when I am mindful, I realised there is indeed only ONE thought at one time. I can’t agree more with your entry.

    With each meditation, the monkey tends to get less jumpy and could slow down the thoughts from racing.

    :o)

  2. Great! The realisation of this means there is increase in mindfulness. That would lead to better cultivation of the mind 🙂

  3. I like this post =)

    But how do we diminish those undesirable thoughts? I tried to cover up those undesirable thoughts immediately by being mindful of Amitabha Buddha. But undesirable thoughts will still come to mind. Mind seem to be very hard to control in my case.

  4. If our mindfulness is stronger, it is possible to substitute undesirable thoughts immediately with mindfulness of Amituofo, and keep them at bay too. Once the mind strays, simply return to the name. This will be easier with more practice. This link explains more:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amituofo/message/206

    But if undesirable thoughts arise way too often, it is good to take time aside to analyse the causes of those thoughts, so as to uproot them with proper understanding. Once we truly realise a thought to be harmful or useless, we are able to let it go thoroughly. Habits can die hard – so we need practice! Amituofo

    :cheerful:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.