Search results for: "Feelings"

  1. Page 131
  2. A Sense of Adventure
     … But he had reached a point in his life where he realized that if he didn’t at least try it, he would feel that his life had been wasted. And so for him it was a huge experiment. There was a lot of risk and a lot of uncertainty. And yet he was willing to take the risk and to face the uncertainty … 
  3. The Logic of Not-self
     … form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, and consciousness, all of which are impermanent. Then there’s the conclusion, “Therefore, you don’t have a self.” It’s worth noting that the Buddha himself never used this argument. It started later in the commentaries. After all, he noted that many different versions of self were taught in his time, and not all of them were permanent … 
  4. True Values
     … Now, when people feel alienated like that, it’s very easy to go into despair, which is why we need an alternative set of values to remind us that there are actually good things in life, worthwhile things in life. And they’re worth putting forth an effort to gain. One of the strange features of American society is what used to be called … 
  5. The Door of the Cage
     … So when the Buddha comes and analyzes why we’re suffering, saying that it’s because we want the wrong things—we cling to wrong views about the world, to a wrong sense of what we should be doing in the world, and to a wrong sense about ourselves, and that we should let go of these things we cling to—we feel that … 
  6. One Thing Clear Through
     … When you feel you have enough to share, there’s a sense of wealth—not the wealth of material things, but just the sense of more than enough: That’s wealth. There are a lot of people who have a lot of things but they don’t have a sense of enough—and they’re poor. So you try to develop this attitude of … 
  7. A Mirror for the Mind
     … The only issue in the body right now is how it feels from within. And you want to inhabit it from within. Give the mind a good place to stay right here so that it’s not wandering around outside like an orphan. It’s got a home, a comfortable home, and it’s in charge. When the Buddha says that there’s no … 
  8. The Problem Is Birth
     … Notice that when he was asked, “What happens when a being goes from one body to another?” he didn’t say, “There’s no such thing as a being.” He said that wherever there’s attachment to the aggregates—form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, consciousness—there is a being. It’s in taking on that identity as a being: That’s why we keep on … 
  9. The Energy You Broadcast
     … I want to get involved with the happiness of form, the body as I feel it from within.” Try to keep that particular current as consistent as you can, and the mind can’t help but get into concentration. So keep your determination strong. Keep the quality of your determination as consistently wise, discerning, compassionate, and benevolent as you can. That way, you protect … 
  10. The Pursuit of Happiness & Goodness
     … In other words, you’ve secluded your mind from unskillful states, and you’re just here with the body as you feel it from within. This requires mindfulness, ardency, alertness—all the qualities you need to develop a skill. That right there makes you a different person. Because when you develop a skill, you have to develop patience, you have to have a clear … 
  11. Mindful All the Way
     … If you feel any tension or tightness in those parts of the body, allow it to relax. Go up your arms to your shoulders and then start again at your toes. Work up through your feet, ankles, legs, pelvis, up the spine, one vertebra at a time. Up through the neck, up into the skull. In other words, as the mind settles down, give … 
  12. Protection Through Mindfulness
     … Or that person did something really awful, that’s worthy of my will.” Sometimes we don’t even think about our ill will as ill will—we just go for the feeling and we side with it, we take it on, we identify ourselves with it. The image of the gatekeeper is to remind you that you have to keep asking yourself: What’s … 
  13. Learn from Your Mistakes
     … Otherwise, you feel that you as a person are blotted out by the mistakes and so in order to maintain your identity you blot the mistakes out. Or you get tied up in regret about all the many years you’ve wasted over a mistake, because sometimes mistakes do take up a lot of your life. Think about the Buddha: six years of austerities … 
  14. Against the Grain
     … Whatever work they put into getting that concentration, they feel that’s plenty work enough. As for the ease they’ve found, they don’t want to be told that there’s anything better. So it’s a cautionary tale. When you gain some ease in the meditation, when you gain a sense of well-being, don’t rest satisfied. If you really want … 
  15. Noble Contentment, Noble Discontent
     … When the breath is not going well, when it feels uncomfortable, laborious, strained, you watch it for a while, but not so that you just sit with it. You watch it so that you can try to figure it out and then improve it. “What is it about the breath that’s uncomfortable? Why is it uncomfortable? Is it the way I’m holding … 
  16. Like Earth and Space
     … It’s an amazing paradox that space should feel so grounding. There’s no place to land, no place to be established, but it’s a more calming state of mind, a more calming perception. The Buddha uses it, too, as an image for goodwill. He says people can try to write things on space, but the letters don’t stick. In the same … 
  17. Noble & True
     … past or future.” Then he asked the man, “Are there people in your home town for whom, if you heard that they were imprisoned or fined or had died, you would feel nothing at all? And the householder said, “Yes.” “And why is that?” “Because I have no craving for them, no desire for them.” “And how about someone like your wife or your … 
  18. Protection from Fools
     … So why do we feel compelled to act on things just because they come into the mind? Often it’s because we don’t see any alternative. Yet when you step back like this, you begin to see that this is one very useful alternative: the ability to step back. When you have a different perspective, you begin to see other things as well … 
  19. Straightening Out the World
     … My first feeling—hearing them every day, every day—was one of impotence. I felt like there was something I should be doing out there to stop this, and that by staying on that little mountain in Thailand I was neglecting my duty. I mentioned this to Ajaan Fuang, and he said, “You know, you can only take on so many things in life … 
  20. Heedful of What’s Precious
     … They feel good and warm and fuzzy all over. They’re trained in learning how to speak in a way that’s good and warm and fuzzy. But it doesn’t get anywhere. It doesn’t lead to any understanding. So an important quality in gaining wisdom is learning how to ask questions, trying to figure things out. When a skillful state arises in … 
  21. A Good Purpose in Life
     … The mind has to develop in a direction where it feels that it’s really accomplishing something good, something solid. That’s what the Dhamma offers us, not just neat experiences in the meditation, but an opportunity to develop good qualities in the mind, qualities that can ultimately take us out of this need to consume so that we’re not feeding all the … 
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