Search results for: "Feelings"

  1. Page 138
  2. The Carrot & the Stick
     … It’s possible.” Now, what would that be like? What would it feel like if you were actually breathing in and out through every pore? You notice that just the thought changes the way you breathe. That means you’ve uncovered a perception or a particular mental picture that you didn’t realize was there, by challenging it. There are lots of ways to … 
  3. Saying No to Distraction
     … So you work with the breath; you work with your perceptions of the breath, keeping track of body—in other words, the breath itself and its relationship to the body—the feelings that arise, and the mental state that’s watching over this. You want to bring those three things together. And get interested in this. This is a big problem that a lot … 
  4. How the Dhamma Protects
     … The reason the mind is attached is because it feels that its happiness has to depend on these things, and that if it were forced to leave them, it would be miserable. Well, as long as you think that, you’re going to force yourself to be miserable, because you have to leave these things. Sometimes gradually, sometimes suddenly. But if you can begin … 
  5. In Search of What is Skillful
     … This is in line with the passage in the Canon where you’re spreading feelings of rapture and pleasure throughout the body. And of course you’re directing your thoughts to the breath, to the state of the mind, as you evaluate them. So this engages ardency, alertness, mindfulness, all together. And as long as you have to think about the breath so that … 
  6. Random Word Generators
     … And, of course, in treating this problem, you begin to realize, as the Buddha said, how qualities like feelings and perceptions and fabrications really do depend both on contact and on attention. If you give attention to these things, they’re going to grow. If you don’t give attention, they don’t grow. But they may have some momentum from all the past … 
  7. Acceptance
     … If the mind won’t stay with the breath, is there something wrong with the breath? How about the mind? Is it carrying around some moods from the day? What can you do to put those moods aside? You can change the way you think, you can change the way you breathe, you can change the feelings and perceptions you focus on and hold … 
  8. Bringing Right resolve
     … There’s a large part of society that gets into our own psychological makeup, saying, “You’ve got deny yourself happiness for the sake of other people.” It gets so ingrained that we feel embarrassed about wishing ourselves well. Other people, of course, totally resist that message from society. All they can think about is gratifying any little desire that comes up. Both attitudes … 
  9. Bad Stuff Happens
     … That’s when it’s very easy to say, “Well, this is getting boring,” or “Nothing’s happening,” or “I need some entertainment.” But when you can drench the body in a sense of well-being and the mind feels refreshed, you’re a lot less likely to go with whatever the excuse is, a lot less likely to believe it. So we work … 
  10. For When the World Can’t Help You
     … Breathe in, breathe out in a way that feels good all the way through the body, because there will be those tendencies that will run out after the world again, and you need something to counterbalance the forces that point outside, outside, outside all the time. You want something that points inside instead, because if you want to get some control over the mind … 
  11. Bare Attention
     … So you can’t just go on good intentions alone, or on a nice fuzzy warm feeling about people. You have to be responsible to see what works and what doesn’t work in putting an end to the causes of suffering: When is it better to be quiet; when is it better to be more proactive? The four noble truths provide the framework … 
  12. Investigative Work
     … Who’s making this suffering? Feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs—they’re not making the suffering. It’s the clinging. When you can separate that out, then the aggregates are freed, and you’re freed from them. Ajaan Lee makes this point: He talks about the different consciousnesses in your body. When you learning how to stop laying claim to them, you have your freedom … 
  13. Doing Meditation
     … It’s no wonder we feel such a lack of peace in our lives, because the mind is constantly coming up with things to do. Even when things are peaceful, after a while the mind says, “This is getting boring. Let’s try something else.” So the trick is to learn how to take this doing of the mind and turn it to our … 
  14. The Four Precepts
     … Afterwards, one of the people who’d organized the retreat was very upset, feeling that Ajaan Suwat was talking down to the laypeople, assuming that all they could handle was the precepts, and they couldn’t handle “real meditation” in daily life. Which was not his purpose at all. His purpose was to point out that the precepts form a very important part of … 
  15. The Karma of Not-self
     … The skills you learn in trying to attain your desired feelings or objects or whatever: That’s another form of I-making and my-making. In this way, you make lots of different selves. And given that part of your sense of self is based on the things you can control, the things you can manipulate, your sense of self depends to a great … 
  16. True & Beneficial
     … What do you make the raft of? You make the raft out of the twigs and branches on this side of the river, which the Buddha identifies as form, feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, consciousness of the senses—in other words, the things that you ordinarily cling to that cause suffering, but now you’re going to cling to them strategically as you make this … 
  17. What We Have in Common
     … I’ve run into some nominal Buddhists who thought that their actions were totally determined by their genes, which means that deep down inside they don’t feel that they’re responsible for what they do. It’s hard to live with someone who thinks like that. If you want to live together, you have to admit, “I do make choices and my choices … 
  18. When Aging Closes In
     … It’s a matter developing the mind to the point where you no longer have to identify with the body, with feelings, perceptions, thought-constructs, or consciousness. That way, when these things change, as they inevitably will, the mind won’t be affected by the change. That’s a really healthy mind. This is what we’re working on as we meditate. We develop … 
  19. Pleasure & Pain
     … You have to take an inquisitive attitude toward what it’s doing: “What here is the pleasure in this thinking? Why am I attracted to it? Why does it capture my imagination? What about it makes me feel that it’s worthwhile?” If you find you’re beginning to get answers to that, then it’s worth investigating. Otherwise, if no answers are coming … 
  20. Consistently on the Path
     … bodily fabrication, the way you breathe; verbal fabrication, the way you talk to yourself; and mental fabrication, the feelings you focus on and the perceptions you hold in mind, the images you give to yourself of the world and of yourself. As long as we do these things in ignorance, they’re going to cause suffering. If we bring some knowledge to them, they … 
  21. Intelligent Effort
     … focused on the body in and of itself—or feelings or mind states in and of themselves—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. It’s good to know, to have a sense of which world you’re living in. If you’re living in the world of the media, there’s so much that has to be done to fix … 
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