Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Batchelor explores the texture of different kinds of thoughts that arise in meditation and daily life, moving beyond the common instruction to simply suppress thinking. He distinguishes between useful planning (which becomes repetitive after about five attempts), practical thoughts we can watch and release, and obsessive thoughts that loop relentlessly after shock or obstacle. Rather than fighting obsession through force, he offers a method: give it focused attention for a set period as meditative creative thinking, then release it and return to breath or present activity. He illustrates with concrete examples from writing and gardening, showing how projection — imagining others share our thoughts — clouds presence. Throughout, he emphasises playful awareness: noticing what pulls attention away from what you’re actually doing, without harshness. The talk closes with walking meditation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 02 IT.mp3
UUID: aaa564b3-191a-4e8e-9bbc-fb82da9dc179
Teacher: Batchelor
Collection: Insight Tapes (Batchelor)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~661
Tendency to plan. And it’s gonna get a bit tiring. Maybe I could plan a little less. And I would just say with planning, plan five times any given thing. And after five times, generally, you know, gets a bit repetitive.
So in a way to see that, so in a way personally, I think in the meditation, it’s also a process. That’s why I don’t think it’s good to kind of just, no, no thought, no thought, no thought because then you don’t see what you think. I think it’s quite good actually to see, oh yes, that’s where I was going. And then to come back to the breath. And then there is a third level of thought, which then that is the most difficult.
And that’s what I would call obsessive thought. And it’s really obsessive. It’s totally relentless. And that’s when something has happened. You’ve been shocked, you’re upset, something unpredictable has happened or obstacle.
And then this is very difficult because you’re just going round and round and round. And I think then the meditation can help us to try to bring a little space. And to just say to yourself, just a little second, let it go. Let it be just for a second. And you go back to the breath or the sound.
And then you go off again. And then again to allow yourself to bring space. So I think in a way with a different type of thought, I think we can deal with them a little also differently. Because we don’t have always the same type of thinking and the same level. And so to see that if you have obsessive thought, to not be hard on yourself.
To say, ah, this happened because of that. And then I would say to try to do this, what I call meditative creative thinking. Then you cannot give time to that and then you can let it go for the rest of the day. Give time again to that the next day and then then it becomes generally a little less obsessive. Yeah.
I would say that the meditation would help you to be more present. You see, because when I write my book, I am typing. So I’m present to my body. I’m present to what is on the screen. And at the same time, I kind of try to have that creative engagement, so I kind of see different things.
But if I was thinking of some obsession, then actually I could not be present to my writing. It will kind of be in the way. But once I finish the writing, generally, this is it. I let it go then I do gardening. And then when I’m in the gardening, I’m just trying to be in the gardening.
But it’s also interesting to see if I am gardening, it is interesting. Okay. I have the time just to describe this one. So I am gardening. Hot.
It is very hot. And suddenly I have this thought. Would not it be nice if Steven brought me a nice fresh glass of water? Know? Would not it be nice?
This become, yes, Steven will bring me a nice fresh glass of water. Then Steven arrive, of course, without glass of water. And it’s interesting that, you know, you you kind of working and then suddenly, a kind of a kind of thought, which kind of what I would call projection. And then you kind of think that the other person will have the same thought when actually it’s just in your mind. So anyway, to me, the creative awareness is be present to what I do and at the same time to also look a little at what is it that takes me away.
But with this, what I would call a playful light quality. So I think maybe we have to stop here. And now there is walking meditation. Thank you.