Search results for: "Feelings"

  1. Page 144
  2. Yes & No
     … And that feels uncomfortable. This is why you have to learn how to keep the breath energy wide open throughout the body no matter what’s going on in the mind. And make a distinction between the thought and its relationship to the body. There will be a spot in the body that tenses up a little bit as the thought develops. It’ll … 
  3. Agreements to Perceive
     … He learned how to label the body and feelings in a different way, learned how to perceive all these processes in a different way. He came up with new agreements in the mind. So that’s an important part of what we’re doing right here: seeing how different sensations trigger perceptions but also realizing that perceptions can trigger sensations. And there’s a … 
  4. Remembering Ajaan Suwat
     … But, of course, you’re going find out that there are times when you feel tempted to snuff out little animals, take a little something that isn’t yours, or tell a little white lie and try to justify it to yourself. You’ve got to say no, no, no all the way down the line. You’re not going to give in to … 
  5. What Are You Doing in the Present?
     … The tranquility is related to the questions: “How can I get the mind to settle down? How can I get it to have a sense of ease in the present moment? Feel at home here?” Insight asks the questions of, “How am I shaping my experience here? What is just a random fabrication? How do I view these fabrications so that I can develop … 
  6. A Snare of Death Laid Out
     … It means the mind’s fascination with planning them, all the embroidery we create around them, all the perceptions and feelings and thought constructs—verbal and mental fabrications. Often that’s where our craving is focused. Often, when you desire a person, it’s not the person you desire. You desire your perceptions and thoughts of the person. So you want to get the … 
  7. The Source of Goodness
     … was dying, he was beside her bed, holding her hand, telling her, “Okay, you don’t have to hang on to things, you don’t have to be attached to things. Feel free to let go.” And the more he said, “let go,” the more she held on tightly to his hand, gripped his hand. It was only as he said, “We love you … 
  8. Chronic Pain
     … Use the breath energy in the body to try to create a place that allows you to take a stance in the present moment and not feel threatened by the pain. If, say, the pain is in the left side of the body, focus on the right. If it’s in the back, focus in the front, or anyplace in the body where you … 
  9. When Things Regress
     … They may not seem all that gratifying or special, but at the very least, find a way of breathing that feels okay. If that’s the best you can do, stay with okay breathing. The more you can stay with it, the more the mind can settle down, and the more refined the breath can become. This all comes under ardency. You try to … 
  10. A Dhamma Bucket List
     … All too many people feel that as death approaches, there’s nothing they can do, and they just give up and go wherever their past kamma may take them. In Thai, this is called yathakam: Whatever your past kamma is, that’s how you go. Usually, you slide down. Whereas if you can remember the Dhamma, it teaches you that even at the moment … 
  11. Descartes’ Error
     … After all, you feel that “If I’m the thinker, I’m responsible for making something interesting out of this.” So you lose sight of the process. How do you go from being aware to forming thoughts? What are the steps in that process? You can’t see them unless you make the mind really still, unless you raise that question in your mind … 
  12. The Dignity of Restraint
     … Even if you feel that you might get ahead or gain some advantage by saying them, you don’t say them because they go against your principles. You find that you don’t stoop to the activities that you used to, and there’s a sense of honor, a sense of dignity that comes with that: that you can’t be bought off with … 
  13. Victory
     … in seeing that there are some injustices, some unfair activities in the world, and maybe something can be done about them—if that’s an area where you feel inspired. This is the operating principle with generosity: your sense of inspiration. You want to help. You have something to give, whether it’s a material object or your time. You give that. As to … 
  14. Abandoning Effluents (2)
     … As for tolerating, that has to do with enduring painful feelings and hurtful words. This is an area where we tend to think that we’re entirely on the receiving end of bad things, and we’re not really sensitive to how much we’re contributing to the pain around those things. You have to remember the Buddha’s teaching on pain. There’s … 
  15. The Whole Story
     … But it’s enough to remind you that if you’re feeling lust for the body, desire for the body, attachment to your body, attachment to someone else’s body, it’s because you’re not telling yourself the whole story. You’re focusing on a few details and turning a blind eye to what you don’t want to see. A glance, a … 
  16. Truth as Medicine
     … Then as you apply it—either to your body, feelings, mind states, and mental qualities—you get more and more sensitive to what really is good medicine for yourself right now, and what’s either ineffective or actually harmful. You learn to read yourself better so that you know what’s the right time and place for a particular medicine. Some medicines take a … 
  17. A Well-thatched Roof
     … the breath, the directed thought and evaluation in and of itself, and your feelings and perceptions. What is it that’s out of balance? What is it that’s wrong? What needs to be changed? It’s only when you get to know the mind like this that you can get the mind into right concentration. There are other ways you can get the … 
  18. Own Your Actions
     … What are you doing right now as opposed to what’s coming in at you? Because the suffering you’re feeling right now, whatever stress or strain or sense of burden or disturbance in the mind: It comes from what you’re doing. The things that are coming in may be the raw material for creating that suffering, but you don’t have to … 
  19. Three Virtues for the Mind
     … So it’s good to keep these three virtues of the mind in mind as we practice, to realize that one of the reasons we’re practicing is to make these virtues easier, make them more solid, so that the mind doesn’t feel inclined to go running after having a lot of material things. It doesn’t give into an impulse to wish … 
  20. The Kamma of Self & Not-Self
     … By that he means if you feel like giving up on the path, you remind yourself that you embarked on this path to begin with because you wanted to put an end to suffering. And if you give up on the path, do you really love yourself? So those are cases where your sense of self as being responsible, as being capable, is necessary … 
  21. The Heart of the Teachings
     … the way feelings and perceptions shape your mind. And then calming that effect. Breathing in and out sensitive to the mind, and then noticing if the mind is out of balance, what you need to do to bring it into balance. Either gladdening it if it’s dull, steadying it if it’s too restless, or releasing it when it’s burdened with things … 
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