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Honeyball Sutta: Papanca

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Teacher: Rodney Smith
Date: 2002-10-29
Venue: Seattle Insight Meditation Center

Series

Homework

Papanca or the proliferation of thought is the topic of this sutta. Notice the difference between thought that describes an event accurately and thought that adds neurotic personal beliefs to the event. An example might be when you look at someone sitting very still and you feel restless and irritable, a realistic thought sees just what is occurring without the addition of, “Oh, she is a better meditator than I am. I will never be as good as she is. I will never be able to do this.” This week watch how any subjective statement of “I” added to an experience is a distortion. Papanca needs “the story of the me” for energy and continuity. Stop the papanca in its tracks by asking, “Is this true?” Let the thought end without pursuing its conclusion, and come back to the simplicity of the moment.

TalkID=712 SeriesID=30

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