As good people, we wish for all our actions and thoughts to be good as well. But this often means that we try to force bad thoughts out of our minds, and this pressure just creates more bad thoughts. Then we end up hating ourselves. Ajahn Chah said that the way to overcome this is to just know these thoughts for what they are—yet another phenomenon that arises and ceases and doesn’t belong to us. This way, the mind can have bad thoughts in it, and we don’t suffer.

To join Ajahn Anan and the Wat Marp Jan Community online for daily chanting, meditation, and a Dhamma talk, you can email wmjdhamma@gmail.com for the link. Daily live sessions at 7pm - 9pm, Indochina Time (Bangkok, GMT+7).