I just did a search for the phrase “wandering thoughts” and found that I have written about them twenty-five times on this blog. Actually, that is a small percentage compared to how often my teacher, Venerable Master Chin Kung, mentions wandering thoughts in his talks. Perhaps one of the reasons I mention them less is that “wandering thoughts” is difficult to understand. (Or maybe it works better in Chinese.)
What is a wandering thought?
If it's getting close to meal time and I intentionally think of a veggie burger for lunch, is that a wandering thought? What if I think I’d like to do something nice for someone, is that one? Or how about when I'm working on one project and think of something I need to do for another? Is that a wandering thought? Or simply multi-tasking?
In a recent discussion about thoughts and feelings and wandering thoughts, the question arose as to whether feelings fit into this category. Then the suggestion was made that perhaps “distractions” would be easier to understand.
It was a very good suggestion because we all understand what distractions are.
When we’re at work and concentrating on a project that is due at the end of the day and notice that it's getting close to lunchtime and that we’re hungry and we start thinking of a veggie burger and onion rings, the feeling of hunger and the resultant thoughts are distractions because they broke our concentration. (And yes, we ate a good breakfast so we're in no danger of starvation. ;-))
If we're doing our practice of chanting "Amituofo" and remember we wanted to stop by the store on the way home and get a birthday present for a friend, yes that's a distraction because we were supposed to practicing. And in this situation, the feeling that we wanted to something nice was also a distraction.
And one we all do. If we're working on one project and think of something for another, then our train of thought was broken and we were distracted. It will take effort to get back into what we were previously doing. So no matter how brilliant the distracting idea was, it was still a distraction.
So try thinking of wandering thoughts as distractions, whether they are feelings or the thought that immediately follows the feeling.