Search results for: "Feelings"
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- Gladden, Steady, Release… Notice how the breath feels right now. What would feel really good right now? What way of breathing would feel good in your most sensitive parts, say, of the torso, your chest, your abdomen?—any of the places where you’re really sensitive to how the breathing feels. The parts of the body that need breath energy right now: Can you give them some …
- Battling Darkness… So you want to create a place here in the present that’s comfortable, where you feel at ease, where you feel secure, where you feel solid. Start out by staying with the breath — and just keep reminding yourself not to get entangled in any other issues right now. If other issues do come up, fend them off just to the extent you need …
- Judging Your Thoughts by What They Do… After all, as the Buddha said, there are some things that feel good in the present moment but have bad consequences in the future; some things that feel good and have good consequences; things that feel bad in the present moment and will have bad consequences in the future; and also things that feel bad but will have good consequences. In all those cases …
- Befriending the Breath… It helps strengthen that intention to stay with the breath if you can notice how it feels good, so be very sensitive to how the breathing feels: where you sense it in the body, whether they’re comfortable sensations, uncomfortable sensations, where it feels light, where it feels heavy, where it feels trapped, where it feels like it’s flowing smoothly. Take some time …
- Twigs & Branches… When you breathe in, how does it feel? When you breathe out, how does it feel? We’re trying to create a feeling of well-being here. The Buddha says that simply by careful attention to the breath, being alert to the breath, you can make the breath comfortable. He doesn’t go into the details, but Ajaan Lee does: You experiment with different …
- Controlling… You can change your perceptions, and even your feelings. Remember the two main kinds of feelings: the feelings of the flesh and the feelings not of the flesh. The feelings not of the flesh are feelings you intentionally create. A pain not of the flesh is when you think the painful thought that it is possible to put an end to suffering, but you …
- Why Train the Mind… how your breathing feels. You can begin to see what kind of impact it has on how the body feels, on how your mind feels. If the mind feels trapped here in the present moment, it’s not going to want to stay. It’s like trying to keep a child in a house. If you simply lock the windows and the doors, the …
- Turtle Meditation… You hear of some meditators who feel that they don’t deserve the pleasure that comes from meditation. They feel uncomfortable feeling happy. If you find that you have that problem, recognize it as a problem. You’re not being realistic, you’re being one sided. Learn how to appreciate the fact that yes, you can get the breath to be comfortable, and the …
- Get Real… You feel it right here, and you feel the different sensations in the body that let you know where your legs are, where your arms are, where your head is. Don’t try to fill in anything more than what you actually sense. That’s a good exercise in self-honesty right there. Ordinarily we bring a lot of ideas into the present moment …
- Chanting Before Meditation… There’s just your awareness, your body, and the feeling of the breath coming in, going out. Notice where you feel the breath and notice how it feels. You can try some long breathing to start out with, and if long breathing feels good, keep it up. If it doesn’t, you can change—make it shorter, deeper, more shallow, heavier, lighter, faster, slower …
- Goodwill for the Breath… So, notice how the breathing feels as it comes in; notice how it feels as it goes out. Put aside your preconceived notions of where the breath comes in and where it goes out. Just notice: What does it feel like to breathe? Imagine yourself coming out of some other plane of existence and suddenly finding yourself in this body. What would the experience …
- Educating Equanimity… Often we think of our emotions as being a given, “This is what I truly feel, this is the way I really feel, this is my identity.” We tend to trust our emotions more than our thoughts, perhaps because we know that a lot of our thoughts are just picked up from other people, but somehow we feel that our emotions are innate to …
- Ask Yourself the Buddha’s Question… How does the breath feel? Is this the kind of breath you could stay with? If not, try changing it. Make it deeper, more shallow, heavier, lighter, faster, slower, more narrow, more broad. Experiment for a while and see what feels best —or at least what feels good enough to stick with. This process of questioning yourself about the breath is very important. It …
- The Train Trestle… What have you got here? You’ve got the body—particularly, you’ve got the breath—you’ve got feelings, and you’ve got the mind. You want to bring those all together in a way that’s nourishing for all three. Take a couple of good long, deep in-and-out breaths. Notice where you feel the breathing in the body. Some aspects …
- The Noble Truths of the Breath… The way you fabricate the mind is through your perceptions and feelings. The feelings are not emotions; they’re feeling tones—a sense of pleasure, a sense of pain, or neither pleasure nor pain. These feelings have a huge impact on the mind. They, together with the perceptions you use to communicate with yourself—the images you hold in mind, or the words by …
- Disenchantment & Dispassion… Think about the feelings you pursue. Everyone wants a feeling of pleasure. But how long do feelings of pleasure actually last? Not necessarily all that long. Often they seem to be extended by your perception of them. You have an idea of pleasure that picks up on a feeling of pleasure. That perception then lasts, even though the feeling is gone. The Buddha compares …
- Mindfulness Gets Intimate… purity of mindfulness and equanimity.” On this stage of the practice, you focus on the feeling tone and look to see how it’s originated. Now, the feeling tones that are “of the flesh,” as they’re called, have to do with ordinary pleasures, pains, neutral feelings. But then there are also feelings not of the flesh. These are feelings that you manufacture through …
- A Larger Perspective… You can’t feel that person’s pain, but you can reflect on the fact that everybody has their own pains. In fact, this is one of the things that really shows that we are not all one. I can’t directly feel your pains. You can’t directly feel mine. The same goes with all the aggregates. As you feel them from the …
- A Position of Strength… To counter this, think of yourself backing into your body—feeling the back, feeling the legs, feeling the arms, all from within, being very conscious of where all the parts of the body are right now. If you give the mind this task, it won’t have any extra ability to take on other things. It’s as if the mind has only so …
- Basic Stuff… Try to find what kind of rhythm and texture of breathing feels best right now. If you’re feeling tired, you may want to breathe in a way that’s more energizing. If you’re feeling tense and stressed out, you may want to breathe in a way that’s more relaxing. And keep tabs on what feels best, because sometimes it’ll change …
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