Two very different types of thoughts during meditation

[Plato5v]

I have been meditating for a year or so.  I find that I have two major types of thinking that interrupts my meditation when I am focusing on my breath.  One type is the thoughts of what I might be having for lunch or what I am going to do later in the day.  These are easier to let go than the more personal one.  It is as though the ego is always monitoring and judging my efforts.  It is these frequent comments on my efforts that seem to give me the most problems retaining my concentration.  Typical of these thoughts is "you only made it through 6 breathes"; or on the positive side "you were really concentrating that time". 

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions on improving my meditation.

[stillpointdancer]

One way of looking at focusing on the breath is not to stop thoughts from appearing, but to move on from them when they do. All you need to do is gently return to the breath as an alternative to chasing down the thoughts to some kind of conclusion.

[Plato5v]

Thanks for the reply.  I work to do what you say.  To simply let the thoughts go, let the move down the river. That works fine for the one kind of thoughts but the monitoring thoughts only happen for a very short time and then are gone.  It seems from reading John Yates' book that maybe if these type thoughts are motivating and if they are positive then they are okay to just let happen.  I am working on the negative ones.   I know one is not supposed to judge how they are doing as mediators but this for me difficult to stop doing.

[cowboy4mhell]

Hi Plato, stillpointdancer has put it right. I think you are concerned about the kind of thoughts arising, and want to actively do something about them. In Ana-pana, the only thing that matters is breathing and nothing else. As long as we live, thoughts will arise, we cannot stop thoughts or control the kind of thoughts. We just need to observe the thoughts passively and realise the insignificance of the thoughts during meditation. If you focus is disturbed by that thought, the moment you realise you will get back to breathing. There will be a point, with practice, when you can analyse the thought (passively) while keeping the focus on your breath.

Hope it helps. All the best, keep practising !

[Plato5v]

Thanks very much for the help.