Wandering or Proper?

 

Question: I have difficulty telling wandering thoughts from proper thoughts. How do I differentiate between them?

Response: Wandering thoughts are selfish thoughts of benefiting oneself. Proper thoughts are thoughts of solely benefiting others. To determine which we are having, we need to examine our intentions. Am I doing something just to help another or is there some bit of selfishness involved. It takes mindfulness and honest examination to root out our true intention, and lots of practice.

It is like slowly peeling away the layers of an onion. With each layer we think, is this my true intention or is there something more underneath?