Search results for: "Feelings"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. Watch the Mind at the Breath
    Take a couple of good long deep in-and-out breaths, both to refresh the body and to make it easy for the mind to stay with the breath, so that you notice where you feel the process of the breathing. Keep that up as long as deep breathing feels good. When it feels like it’s too much, then you can adjust it … 
  20. Distinctions That Make a Difference
     … Together with the breath there will either be pleasant feelings or unpleasant feelings. You’re trying to focus on the pleasant feelings and nurture them—give rise to them and keep them there. Then the perceptions—the images you hold in mind of the breath: When the breath comes into the body, where does it come in? How far does it go? You’ll … 
  21. Peace on Earth
     … After you’ve played with the breath like this for a while, ask yourself what feels right, what feels balanced in the body, in terms of the breath. Are things too light? Too heavy? Too warm? Too cold? See if you can use the breath to bring them into balance. In doing this, you create a sense of ease in body and mind, a … 
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