Search results for: "Feelings"

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  2. Good at Thinking
     … You want to couple it with alertness, which is watching the breath, noticing how the breath feels. When it doesn’t feel good, you can change it. You don’t have to put too much pressure on it to change. Just think, “Try longer breathing,” and see what happens. See how the body responds. Or think, “Try shorter breathing.” See what happens. Then “deeper … 
  3. Inner Baggage
     … Then there’s the question of how you relate to the feelings and perceptions that go along with the breath. This is called mental fabrication. One of the important lessons here is that you learn to deal with feelings not as ends in and of themselves, but as part of your path. You find that some feelings of pleasure are useful, other feelings of … 
  4. Work on Your Mind
     … Ask yourself, “Where do you feel the breath most clearly right now?” Focus your attention there, and then ask yourself, “What would feel really good right there?” The word “feeling good” here can mean anything from energizing to soothing to relaxing. In other words, what would you like right now, given the state of your body? What would bring things into balance? What would … 
  5. Getting the Most Out of Now
     … your feelings and your perceptions. Feelings here are feeling-tones: the quality of pleasure or pain or neither-pleasure-nor-pain that you feel and that you’re already dealing with as you deal with the breath and talk about the breath to yourself. Then there are perceptions. These are the images you hold in mind. And one main image is an image of … 
  6. Battling the Hindrances
     … When the energy is too sluggish, how do you breathe in a way that brings it back up? When you’re feeling wired, how do you breathe in a way that calms you down? You’re going to need the body as your friend here as you meditate, as your ally. You want to be able to develop a sense of well-being immediately … 
  7. Can Do
     … When it comes to feelings, the Buddha simply recommends learning how to breathe in a way that gives rise to a sense of rapture, gives rise to a sense of pleasure, then getting sensitive to mental fabrication, which are feelings and perceptions, and then calming those mental fabrications. That’s the outline for the Buddha’s approach to feelings, but it gives very little … 
  8. Dissolving Distress
     … What kind of breathing would feel good? What kind of breathing would feel really nourishing? What kind of breathing does the body need right now? If you’re feeling tense, try to breathe in a way that’s relaxing. If you’re feeling tired, try to breathe in a way that gives you more energy. If there are pains in different parts of the … 
  9. Greed & Distress with Reference to the World
     … You want to make this your home, so learn how to feel that you’re surrounded by the breath. It’s not just in one spot of the body. It’s all around. Allow yourself to feel bathed in the breath, bathed in the energy of just having a body. As you breathe in and out, allow that energy to flow smoothly. You’re … 
  10. A Touchstone at the Breath
     … How are you breathing right now? How do you feel the breath in your body? If it feels constricted, if your awareness of the body feels tight and limited, what thoughts are limiting it? What other concerns do you have? We’ve talked about using perception to reframe the issues in your mind. It’s not just an intellectual exercise. It’s also a … 
  11. Looking at Your Life
     … The concept may be foreign to a lot of us, this idea of breath energy flowing in the body, but just think of it as the basic feeling tone of the body. When you feel your hands from inside, what do you feel? That feeling: That’s breath right there—the sense of where your arms are, your torso, your head, your legs. You … 
  12. Breath Energies
    Focus on how the process of breathing feels in your body. When you breathe in, where do you feel it? When you breathe out, where do you feel it? As I’ve said many times, we’re not dealing just with the feeling of the air coming in and out through the nose. There’s also feeling of subtle movement in the body. In … 
  13. Square One
     … Finally, the third type of fabrication, mental, consists of feelings and perceptions. Feelings are feeling tones: pleasure, pain, neither pleasure nor pain. Perceptions are the labels you put on things that identify what they are, what they mean, how important they are. As with a red light: You can identify that the light is red, you can tell that it means “stop,” and you … 
  14. Change Your Perceptions
     … So where do you feel it? As you breathe in, where’s the movement? Where does it feel like energy is coming in, or where does it feel like energy is radiating from inside the body? You have your choice of perceptions. Ajaan Lee also recommends that you think of the breath energy entering at the back of the neck, going down the spine … 
  15. Faith in Goodness
     … We can’t feel other beings’ suffering. Sometimes we can see the signs and we can empathize, but we have to assume that when they suffer, it hurts just as much as when we suffer. When there’s a part of your mind that feels pained by that realization, that’s when you develop the heart, the good heart, that wants to develop goodness … 
  16. Realities Right Here
     … Where do you actually feel the movement in the body? It may not be where you expected it. What’s the best way to pay attention to the breath in the body? What are the best perceptions to have around the breath? You can think of the breath coming in almost anywhere in the body. But notice, where does it feel like it’s … 
  17. Free to Choose
     … You can sit and look at somebody suffer, and you can feel sympathy for them, but you don’t actually feel their pain. And no one else can feel your pain. The Buddha’s basic message is that you can focus on that pain and suffering as a worthwhile issue, and on getting rid of that pain as a worthwhile goal. Other people may … 
  18. The Energy You Broadcast
     … to create a place where the mind can settle down and really feel at home, really feel connected inside. And this is why one of the steps in breath meditation is just that: getting connected. As you get more and more sensitive to the breath energy, you can begin to see areas in which it’s cut off. Parts of the body may seem … 
  19. Be Observant
     … Try long breathing to begin with, to see how that feels. If it feels comfortable, stick with it. If not, you can change: in long, out short; in short, out long; in short, out short; deep, shallow, heavy, light. Notice what rhythm and texture of the breathing feels best. There’s nobody to tell you that you’re right or wrong. You have to … 
  20. Wise About Pleasure
     … And as you’re adjusting the breath, try not to put any pressure on it, because if you apply pressure to the breath, then no matter what kind of breathing you’re engaged in, it’s not going to feel comfortable. It’s more a question of allowing the breath to feel good, allowing the body to breathe in a way that feels refreshing … 
  21. Goodwill Plus
     … It’s just as easy to feel ill will for somebody as it is to feel goodwill. Especially if the person has been doing something unskillful, acting in ways that have been harmful or intentionally cruel, it’s very easy to feel ill will. You have to remember that the Buddha never said that goodwill is innate. He said it’s a form of … 
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