TWISTED THINKING And Mental Suffering

"Suffering is always the effect of wrong thinking in some direction." James Allen James Allen

# 1 Thinking, regretting or feeling guilty about the past. Reflection Train the mind to be more mindful of the Present. GUILT

# 2 Speculating and worrying about things in the Future. Reflection Watch the mind when it runs into the Future. Bring it back.

FALL 2006 Abstracts Arial Font Family # 3 Thinking of and seeing only the ‘black spots (faults ) of another and failing to see his ‘white spots’ (good points) Reflection In every ‘bad’ person there is some good and in every ‘good’ person there is some bad.

# 4 Reacting negatively to the criticisms or words of others. Reflection Why should one let others control one’s inner mental peace?

# 5 Thinking of and dwelling upon one’s mistakes or points of weakness. Reflection Acknowledge the mistakes, learn from them and move on. Let go of the negative thoughts.

# 6 Expecting only positive things to happen all the time. Reflection Gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and dishonor are inevitable.

# 7 Always thinking ‘Should be like this’, ‘shouldn’t be like that’, ‘I can’t accept this’. Reflection Acceptance of things positively reduces mental suffering. Learn to forgive and let go.

# 8 Labeling another as ‘bad’, ‘foolish’, ‘hateful’, ‘problematic’ Reflection It’s not the person who is ‘bad’, ‘foolish’ or ‘proud’ but it is his unskillful action. Cultivate forgiveness.

# 9 Thinking centered on Ego and Self-interest Reflection Let us learn to think less of ‘I’, ‘My’ and ‘Mine’ but more of ‘We’, ‘Ours’, ‘Us’ and ‘Others’.

# 10 Thinking jealous thoughts of others’ success and happiness. Reflection Let us practice sympathetic or altruistic joy …rejoicing at the happiness of others. JEALOUS

# 11 Thoughts of unreasonably high expectations of people or things Reflection Thoughts of Compassion and Contentment bring peace and joy to the mind

# 12 Always thinking and desiring things and having little spirit of charity Reflection Giving and Generosity will lead to spiritual joy and peace.

The End Views, Thoughts and Aspirations of the Right Kind will lead to Happiness and Peace of Mind With Metta, Bro. Oh Teik Bin