One peg drives out another
Today, when an unhelpful thought takes hold, give the mind something better to hold.
- Read · about 2 minutes
Take a mendicant who is focusing on some subject that gives rise to bad, unskillful thoughts connected with desire, hate, and delusion. That mendicant should focus on some other subject connected with the skillful.As they do so, those bad thoughts are given up and come to an end.Their mind becomes stilled internally; it settles, unifies, and becomes immersed in samādhi.It’s like a deft mason or their apprentice who’d knock out or extract a large peg with a finer peg.MN 20 · Vitakkasaṇṭhāna Sutta · “How to Stop Thinking” · tr. Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0)
From the text
The passage says that when a mendicant is dwelling on something that gives rise to unskillful thoughts connected with desire, hate, and delusion, they should turn to a different subject connected with what is skillful. Doing so, the passage says, the bad thoughts end and the mind settles, like a mason knocking out a large peg with a finer one.
In everyday life
The passage gives a method for dealing with a thought you do not want, and it does not rely on force: do not wrestle with the thought, replace it. 'Unskillful' here means leading toward harm; 'skillful', leading toward welfare. 'Samādhi' is the text's word for a mind that has gathered and settled. The image of the mason is precise. You do not remove a stuck peg by hitting it harder. You drive in a finer one, and the old one comes out on its own. In today's sit with the breath, this is the move you make every time attention has drifted into planning or worry: you do not argue with the worry, you offer the mind the breath instead. It is the same in the day. When a resentment or a craving has set up in your head, give the mind something concrete and wholesome to attend to, and let the peg loosen.
- Sit · 3, 5 or 10 minutes
Breath Awareness
Sit comfortably upright, hands in your lap or on your knees. After reading a cue, you may close your eyes and rest with the breath until the next one appears.
- Live · during your day
When a thought you would rather not feed keeps returning today, deliberately give your attention something else that is real and wholesome: the feel of your feet, a task, or a kind message to write.
- Reflect · this evening
What did you turn your attention to today, and did the old thought loosen its grip?
Answer on paper, or in the app’s journal, which stays on your iPhone.