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Creatively Engage Your Thoughts
I think one has to be careful not to think that meditation is about getting rid of thoughts. On the contrary, I would say that meditation helps us to creatively engage with our thoughts and not fixate on them. When people say they cannot concentrate I say “No no no, you are concentrating—too much on single thoughts!”
I think it is interesting in meditation is to start to notice all the different places that our thoughts lead us—what distracts us and what occupies our minds. It is important to notice these things in meditation because these will be the same things that occupy our minds in daily life. As we become more familiar with our thoughts in meditation, we will see how repetitive they are. We often think very similar things over and over again and it is actually rare to have what I would call a creative original thought.
Martine Batchelor, from the 3rd talk of her ongoing Tricycle Online Retreat
View her retreat page here. The first to talk is open to all!
This retreat has been wonderfully helpful. I have been (and will be) coming back to it again and again.
For those of us with slow Internet connections, or who want to start listening in the middle (because the phone rang the last time we were watching) it would also be great if the audio could be accessed separately from the video image. Hint. Hint.