altar wrote:not thinking of versus ignorance and comparing...
does anyone consider the way these two might interrelate? Someone suggested, it is in many places, including pali nikayas, that this is a strategy for stilling the mind. One forgets the bad thoughts.
However at least on a conceptual and dynamic level, this seems to bear resemblance to ignorance and forgetfulness. I suppose one must be trying to understand the bigger picture and have some image of how the path is to work this out or wat they are looking for... otherwise im not sure... does anyone have any input?
i.e. some things are not worth holding on to, some are not helpful to think of, and others are worth thinking of at the appropriate time. others, it might be said, are worth considering and contemplating rather than more active engaged thinking... stops the thinking and just recollects its more qualitatively? besides these, is there anything that can be said by anyone else?
Seems like there are several types of forgetting. If you notice something arise, and then it falls... and then it stays that way... is that like forgetting?
Or is forgetting like suppressing? If so, then that seems like a form of ignorance... which would be the first link to suffering. I think that it would be better to not identify with the bad thoughts (anatta), studying how they're not permanent, how they change, or arise and then fall.
Also pay attention if it seems like you like to have bad thoughts, or feel like you must have them according to the circumstances, thinking that they're necessary to have around, or feel like your life is empty without them... that means you're still identifying with them (i.e., clinging, making dukkha).
The opposite is also true... if you only want to have good thoughts, that means you're clinging to them, making dukkha for yourself (but you still should try to make good kamma, cultivating good thoughts, weeding out bad thoughts, anyway). I think these would be more useful for developing skills (not clinging, etc.), to construct the path to nibbāna, than by just forgetting, or suppressing.