April 16, 2023
Venerable Wuling in Wandering thoughts

Every thought is important.

What a delightfully quiet day! There’s lots of work for me to do, but no emergencies popping up in my inbox. An occasional car passes by, but mainly I hear various birds chirping and the seasonal flocks of Canada geese discussing flight plans while flying overhead. No noise to distract me. So, it’s a good day to work.

But with all the quiet (there’s always a but), I’ve been noticing my thoughts. And they haven’t been as admirable as I’d prefer them to be. Nothing too serious. A touch of sarcasm here (when I was trying for wit). A sprinkling of fleeting thoughts there. Of self-satisfaction. Others of frustration. Like I said —nothing overly serious. 

But if such thoughts arise on a good day, little wonder we think the things we do on bad days! The problem on those days is that we fail to notice what we’re thinking until it’s too late. 

So now is an excellent time to practice—when life is peaceful and I can catch and correct myself. Hopefully, I’ll prove better at it on more challenging days.

Article originally appeared on a buddhist perspective (http://www.abuddhistperspective.org/).
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