Search results for: "Feelings"

  1. Page 101
  2. Seriously Happy
     … He says that the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, fabrication, consciousness—the things out of which we create our sense of self—have their pleasures and their pains. He says that it’s because of their pleasures that we get stuck on them. It’s because of their pains that we look for a way out. So when you find yourself missing a particular … 
  3. Food for the Mind
     … If the mind feels well-fed, well-rested, it’ll be in the right mood for dealing with these things, for admitting its own foolishness, its own stupidity, its own dishonesty in the past. That’s another reason why it’s so important that the mind gets nourished from the practice of concentration. The Buddha actually talks about five qualities of mind that nourish … 
  4. Make a Difference
     … This is the state in which the Buddha said you’re focused on the body in and of itself, or feelings, or whatever your concentration object may be, but you’re not thinking thoughts about the object, and you’re certainly not thinking thoughts about anything else. You’re getting the mind still. It’s only when the mind is still that you can … 
  5. The End of Uncertainty
     … When there are feelings, be alert to what you’re doing in the feeling, in the perception, in the thought fabrication, in the consciousness. Each of these things contains an element of fabrication, an element of present intention. Do you ever notice that? Do you see it happening? If you can’t yet see it happening, look at what you can see that you … 
  6. A Heart Bigger Than the World
     … In other words, compassion is what goodwill feels when it sees that people are suffering or creating the causes for suffering. Empathetic joy is what goodwill feels when it sees people happy already or acting on the causes of happiness. But these attitudes have to be backed up by equanimity, remembering that there’s a lot in people’s actions that you cannot change … 
  7. Being Responsible
     … This tendency we have to say, “Well, this is the sort of person I am,” or, “This is what I feel like doing,” or, “This is what I feel like saying”: This is what stands in the way of purity. It’s as if you basically don’t care. You hold to the rightness of your ideas. And you can talk yourself into believing … 
  8. The Taste Is Release
     … So you learn how to breathe in ways that feel really good. When your mind doesn’t have walls inside, it’s able to be aware of itself all around the whole body, just sitting here breathing. Think of the breath as surrounding you. We talk about watching the breath, which sometimes is unfortunate. It can give the impression that you’re in one … 
  9. Perception
     … The way you perceive the breath has a huge impact on what it feels like to breathe and on your ability to settle down with the breath. If you feel that you have to fight for your breath, and that there’s only a little channel by which the breath can come in and out of the body, it’s going to be hard … 
  10. At Normalcy
     … The reason we keep doing this is because we feel that moods at least create the spice of life. If the mind didn’t have moods, we’d feel like we were robots. The idea of a mind without moods sounds like oatmeal nothing added to it, i.e. pretty miserable, pretty dull. But stop and think about the dangers of our moods. They … 
  11. Cutting the Fetters
     … You’ve got the feeling of pleasure that goes with the breath: That’s feeling. You’ve got the perception that holds you with the breath — how you visualize the breath coming in and going out, where it goes in the body, how it goes in the body, which sensations in the body can be labeled as breath sensations: All that is perception. Then … 
  12. Gradually Sudden
     … You do the work, the gradual work, feeling your way. We’d like to see that it’s orderly, with nice steps going nowhere but up, and there actually are suttas in the Canon that talk about how orderly the path is. Well, in retrospect it’s orderly, but as you’re feeling your way, you don’t see the order yet. But you … 
  13. The Size of Your Eyes
     … It helps you get past any feelings of lust for other people’s bodies, or any feelings of pride that your body somehow makes you better than other people. It’s the same with listening. Sometimes you listen to aggravate your anger; sometimes you listen to aggravate your desire. You’ve got to retune your ears. If something sounds nice, well look for its … 
  14. Mange in the Mind
     … The body is getting ready to die, you feel abandoned, you feel betrayed. It’s not as if the body made a pact with you. It didn’t sign an agreement that it was going to look after you and respond to all the good things you do for it. It just does its own body thing. It develops for a while and then … 
  15. In Restraint Is Strength
     … We feel suffocated. But remember the Buddha’s image: Household life is confining. The life gone forth, the life where you can dedicate your life to the practice, is the open air, in which the restraint is to free you from all the unskillful things that drag you down. So it’s good to see restraint as freedom—and also as a strength. You … 
  16. For Your Benefit Here & Now
     … Notice how you feel the breath in the chest, how you feel the breath in the abdomen, how you feel it in your shoulders, your arms, your legs—“breath,” here, being the energy that allows the air to come in and out of the lungs, more than the air itself. This energy flow can be anywhere. As you get more acquainted with this breath … 
  17. Generating Desire
     … But now I sit under a tree with my wants satisfied, my mind like a wild deer, feeling no fear from any direction: That’s the bliss I’m thinking about.” That’s the bliss of renunciation, a possibility that doesn’t even occur to most people. We see this so many times: People who’ve amassed wealth, amassed power, realize that they’re … 
  18. The Need for Stillness
     … seeing whatever movements of thought, or feeling, or perception are going on, and also the part of the mind that seems to be humming along with them, or following along with them, commenting on them. You can see the first kind of thing arising and passing away, and that is an important element of insight, but the other element lies in seeing the part … 
  19. Mindful to Be Skillful
     … When the Buddha talks about right mindfulness, he talks about being mindful of the body, feelings, mind states, and mental qualities in and of themselves. But there’s more to it than just that. You’re mindful, which means that you keep these things in mind. You’re alert, which means that you watch their behavior. And then you’re ardent. “Ardent” here means … 
  20. The Dualistic Path
     … As he said, even in feelings of pleasure, there is stress. We want to sensitize ourselves both to the distinction of the presence and absence of stress, and to the issue of cause and effect. To this end, the Buddha teaches you to meditate, to develop the sense of pleasure, ease, refreshment that can come with concentration. It’s part of the path. So … 
  21. The Kamma of Concentration
     … And you’re not going to be able to feel immersed in the water of pleasure unless you’ve worked it through the body. This is why Ajaan Lee talks about the various breath energies and breath channels in the body. His instructions give you some ideas about how you might direct that sense of ease through the body or think of it spreading … 
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