Bahiya, this is how you should train yourself: Whenever you see a form, simply see; whenever you hear a sound, simply hear; whenever you taste a flavor, simply taste; whenever you feel a sensation, simply feel; whenever a thought arises, let it be simply a thought. Then “you” will not exist; whenever “you” do not exist, you will not be found in this world, another world or in between. That is the end of suffering.
As a practice for this week, we were looking at how we elaborate every seeing, hearing, tasting, sensing, or cognition to build a story and how that creates the sense of a “self,” an “I”.
As I listened to Rodney Smith’s talk on the sutta, I saw that thoughts kept arising. Each thought would result in a host of new thoughts and I’d be carried away with thinking about things “I” was doing. When I returned to listening, an unknown period of time had passed. I don’t know how much of the talk I actually heard—a third, a quarter, less? I’ve always had problems with lectures and recorded talks and this experience has helped me understand better what is happening. Mindful listening is something I must pay more careful attention to.
I can relate to the mind wondering. I notice for me, if I have a fear about something, it wonder of to it and trap and see what crazy things it can do with that fear. But like you mentioned, it’s all about coming back to the breath, or whatever keeps you centered.
If your interested I just did an interview with Noah Levine, who wrote the best seller Dharma Punx, here’s the link, it’s under latest news http://www.zmive.com
I wish you the best your journey : )