Search results for: "Feelings"
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- At Home with the Breath… So ask yourself, what kind of breathing feels good in the stomach? What kind of breathing feels good down in the intestines? How about the shoulders, the arms, down to the fingers, the spaces between the fingers? How about the sense of breath energy surrounding the body like a cocoon? Can you sense that? If you don’t sense it, you can ask yourself …
- A Healthy Attitude Toward Happiness… It’s not infrequent when people come to meditate that they gain a sense of pleasure from the meditation and they don’t feel that they’re worthy of it. They feel they don’t deserve it. To get past that feeling, they should look back on their own attitude toward not only their own happiness but also toward other people’s happiness. If …
- Don’t Stop with Acceptance… Recognizing that a feeling is painful is perfectly normal. The question is, what are you going to do with that painful feeling? The Buddha teaches endurance. We hear so much about how we’re supposed to accept things, but there are only three things that the Buddha talks about accepting, aside from invitations: One is the fact of pain. The second is the fact …
- A Complete Training… Then you realize that to keep this attitude going, it helps to breathe in a comfortable way, to talk to yourself in a comfortable way, and to have perceptions and feelings that will help induce those pleasant feelings of goodwill. This means you’re beginning to see the process of fabrication. Then as you get more into developing the meditation—working with the breath …
- Full Attention… We try to work on what the Buddha said is our ancestral ground” the body in and of itself, feelings in and of themselves, mind in and of itself, mental qualities in and of themselves. In other words, stay with just what you’ve got here right now on its own terms—not the body in the world, or the feelings in the world …
- The Heightened Mind… The main factors are the sense of pleasure and rapture or refreshment that you get when you lift the mind above its ordinary concerns, when you get the mind away from sensuality, and you’re just here with the body as you feel it from within, and you breathe in a way that feels good. You’re trying to develop this feeling tone, because …
- Gather ’Round the Breath… What you want to do is bring all of you here, all of your thoughts, all of your feelings, perceptions. Concentrate right around here. Ajaan Lee talks about two types of aggregates. There are those that basically head outside, interested in forms outside, feelings and perceptions of those forms, thoughts about those forms, and your awareness of those forms. Then there are those that …
- Purity Comes Through Discernment… This brings in perception and feeling as well. You learn how to identify certain comfortable feelings in the body and work with them, solidify them, consolidate them, steady them, so that you can use them as your allies. And you learn to keep the perception of breath in mind. When the breath gets so still that you can’t follow it any more, you …
- The Right Time at the Right Place… Notice where you feel the breathing in the body, settle your awareness there, and watch it to see if it’s comfortable. If long breathing feels good, keep it up; if not, you can change—make it shorter; or in short, out long; in long, out short; fast, slow; heavy, light; deep, shallow. Ask yourself, “What kind of breathing would feel good now?” You …
- Sensitivity & Strength… In some cases, it feels immediately comfortable with the object. In other cases, you have to learn how to work with the object to make it more comfortable. You can work with the breath this way. Breathe in a way that’s comfortable, feels good inside. What kind of breathing would feel good right now? That’s a good question to start with, because …
- Chewed Up by Your Food… We still feed off of them, but we try to feed off of nourishing forms, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness. We focus on the breath: That’s form. We focus on the sensations of the body: That’s form. We try to work the breath through the body so it gives rise to pleasant feelings: That’s feeling. We have to hold the perception …
- Be Bigger Than Your Pains… The breath feels calm. If you’re relaxed, it feels calming. If you’re feeling tense, it’s relaxing. If you’re feeling low, then the breath can give you more energy. Learn to explore these variations so that you can take advantage of them. You’re trying to give the mind a good foundation, and it’s going to need various ways of …
- Respect for Suffering… How does it feel? How does it feel in different parts of the body? There are lots of parts of the body that we tend to block out of our awareness. We try to open up those different parts of the body because that will open up our awareness. How does the breathing feel in your head? How does the breathing feel in your …
- Attachment to the Body… where you feel it as it comes in, where you feel it as it goes out. Place your attention there. And allow it to be comfortable. Don’t force the breath too much. Just ask yourself, what kind of breathing would feel good right now? Longer? Shorter? Deeper? More shallow? You can just pose that question in the mind and see how the body …
- The Four Noble Truths from Within… You feel your pain, and nobody else can feel it. It’s something you experience, all on your own, from within. When a politician says he feels your pain, you wonder what he’s feeling, but he’s certainly not feeling your pain. He may be sympathizing. We do sympathize with one another when we see the signs that someone else is in pain …
- Three Levels of Effort… Each time you come back, ask yourself what kind of breathing would feel really good right now as a reward for coming back. Then if something feels good, stick with it. If it doesn’t, you can change. You can experiment—longer breathing, shorter breathing, deeper, more shallow, heavier, lighter, faster, slower—until you find a rhythm that feels really good. Then stick with …
- Strength of Concentration… So what kind of breathing does feel good? What kind of breathing will give a sense of fullness? Focus where the breath feels most prominent. Try to choose a spot in the body that’s sensitive to the breath energy and ask yourself what kind of breathing with satisfy that spot. Allow it to develop a sense of fullness. Don’t squeeze it out …
- Mindfulness: The Whole Formula… In some cases, it sounds like you’re simply aware of what happens, and you make a note: “There’s this kind of feeling, there’s that kind of feeling, there’s this kind of mind state, there’s that kind of mind state.” And you stop there. But in other places where the Buddha explains what it means to be alert and what …
- Bad Friends Inside… We enjoy not so much the object as the enjoyment of the feeling of lust. The same with anger: Some people say that anger allows them to feel that they’re alive. The blood gets racing. Their thoughts get spinning. And they enjoy the feeling. What do they enjoy? Actually, they enjoy the release that comes after the tension. But that’s like going …
- Alternative Conceptions… Form, of course, is the form of the body, how it feels from inside as we’re sitting right here: the sense of warmth, which is the fire element; the solidity, which is the earth element; the liquidity, the water element; and the flow of energy, which is the wind or the breath element. That’s form. As for name, you’ve got feelings …
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