Two Kinds of Thoughts in Practice
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Quite recently I made an app. The app was inspired by MN19, Two Kinds of Thought, and was meant to make it easier to practice doing what the Buddha taught, for us to be aware of what goes on in our mind and to classify our thinking into two kinds: thoughts of sensual desire, ill will or cruelty, and on the other side thoughts of renunciation, non-ill will, and non cruelty.
Bhikkhus, before my enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, it occurred to me: ‘Suppose that I divide my thoughts into two classes. Then I set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill will, and thoughts of cruelty, and I set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non-ill will, and thoughts of non-cruelty.
In this modern day and age, it is quite challenging for us to remain mindful and aware, given how we are constantly bombarded by stimulation from from all sensors at almost all times with our phones and other devices. So hopefully this is one contribution I make that allows us to use digital technologies for the reverse: for us to use digital technologies to cultivate the mind and to improve our awareness of what goes on in our mind, rather than for our minds to be stimulated and driven wild by Technology.
To that end, the app design is very simple: all it does is to allow the user to log whether they had a “good” thought (of renunciation, non-ill will or non-cruelty) or “bad” thought (of sensual desire, ill-will or ruthlessness). The mechanism was inspired by the legend of Upagupta, King Ashoka’s teacher, when he was still a layperson; he was told to use black stones to keep track of unwholesome thoughts, and white stones to keep track of wholesome thoughts. In the legend, the increased awareness and mindfulness of the physical stones caused him to improve his thoughts over time.
Hence, the app I made is called “White Stone”, and allows the user to use virtual stones to track one’s wholesome or unwholesome thoughts.
This app is for the user to track their “White stones” or “Black stones” through out their day, and to see the trends over the past 14 days:
The app can be found here in the Apple App store: https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/white-stone/id6759218807. Currently I only have the iOS version; the Android version is still WIP. You can read here about the making of the app, on my other blog
I hope this app helps you with your practice of Sila! Wishing you a fruitful practice.