top of page
  • Writer's pictureYadid

Two Types of Thinking


In the Dvedhavitakka Sutta, the Buddha gives some great instruction and a story about his path before he attained full awakening:


"Before my self-awakening, when I was still just an unawakened Bodhisattva, the thought occurred to me: 'Why don't I keep dividing my thinking into two types?' So I made thinking imbued with craving, thinking imbued with ill will, & thinking imbued with harmfulness one sort, and thinking imbued with renunciation, thinking imbued with non-ill will, & thinking imbued with harmlessness another sort."


These instructions are encouraging us to boil thoughts into two types: those that lead to our own and others' affliction, and those that do not.


"As I noticed that it leads to my own affliction, it subsided. As I noticed that it leads to the affliction of others... to the affliction of both... it obstructs insight, promotes stress, & does not lead to awakening, it subsided. Whenever thinking imbued with harmfulness had arisen, I simply abandoned it, dispelled it, wiped it out of existence."


The second point in these instructions is that sometimes it may be sufficient to simply notice whether a thought leads to suffering or freedom, in order to dispel them.




88 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page