Search results for: "Perception"

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  2. In the Details
     … If lust is taking hold of the mind, can you hold on to that perception? Which part of the mind says to drop it, drop it, drop that perception? You don’t have to listen to it. Just hold on to whatever perception of the body gives you a sense that it really is unattractive, and it’s not worth the lust. And that … 
  3. Think Outside the Ruts
    Think Outside the Ruts March 26, 2022 There’s a strange passage in the Canon where the Buddha talks about how we take the potential for a form, feeling, perception, fabrication, or consciousness, and we fabricate it into an actual aggregate of form, feeling, etc., for the sake of having that aggregate. It’s expressed in a strange way in the Pali, but the … 
  4. Beyond Natural Suffering
     … The word sañña—which can be translated as “perception” or “label”—in Thailand is also translated as “assumption,” and it’s a good translation. Our perceptions are shaped by the way we assume certain things. We get some raw sense data coming in through any of the senses and immediately make assumptions about it. We label it this, label it that. This must be … 
  5. The Fourth Frame of Reference
     … Where is feeling playing a role there? Where’s the perception? Where are the thought fabrications? Where’s the consciousness of this? Which aspect are you clinging to? Can you see the drawbacks of that clinging? It’s helpful here to look in terms of the three perceptions—or of any of the perceptions that help to develop a sense of dispassion. You look … 
  6. Pleasant Practice, Painful Practice
     … So we bring the other factors that shape our experience—our ways of directing our thoughts to a topic and evaluating it—and we apply them to the breath in a way that also gives rise to the way we shape the mind through feelings and perceptions. In other words, we have labels we place on the breath, and we have perceptions that tell … 
  7. Abandoning Effluents (2)
     … our thoughts of getting upset around the pain, the things we tell ourselves about the pain, the perceptions we have—in other words, the way we fabricate around the pain. Those added arrows are the ones that really go into the heart. The first arrow only goes as far as the body, yet we don’t realize that because we’re pulling it in … 
  8. Genuine Satisfaction
     … And they shape the mind, as the Buddha said, with feelings and perceptions. Feeling and perceptions are the things that shape our mind. It’s how you manage a feeling of hunger that’s going to determine what you see. How you identify the hunger, how you label the hunger, and then how you label things outside: All of this shapes the way you … 
  9. Peace on Earth
     … If you reverse the priorities, reverse your perceptions like this, the breath has more range. It can do more in the body. You’re not placing limitations on it. So allow it to just dissolve any unskillful perceptions you may be holding. Each time you breathe in, think of the body as a clean slate. The breath can go everywhere, anywhere, all at once … 
  10. Safety in an Uncertain World
     … Then, of course, there are the perceptions we have around them. Say there’s anger or ill will. We have to look at the perceptions we have about the object of our anger and ill will. We have to look at the perceptions we have about the anger and ill will itself. “Let me tell you something, I don’t have any ill will … 
  11. Rooted in Desire
     … What are the perceptions that shape the way you’re going about things? What are the assumptions? The assumption of “self” is a big one. The various perceptions about your relationship to the world: Those are also things you’ve got to learn how to question. And a good place to start is your relationship to your breath. How do you focus on the … 
  12. A Well-thatched Roof
     … Then you’re ready to investigate it to see what perceptions are making you use the pain to stab the mind. You can replace them with different perceptions—like the one of the pain being just little pulses, not a solid block, and the pulses are going away. They’re not coming at you; they’re going away from you. They arise only to … 
  13. Respect for Concentration
     … We’re taking the khandhas — these aggregates of body, feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, and consciousness — and instead of identifying with them, we use them as tools. And as part of the process of mastering them as tools, there will have to be a sense of identification. You identify with the state of concentration, whatever sense of the body is present in the concentration, whatever … 
  14. Making an Effort
     … And you get sensitive to the perceptions that help you stay with the breath, as well as the perceptions that pull you away. Then there are the feelings that come with different ways of perceiving the breath or evaluating the breath. In other words, as you meditate, you get more and more familiar with these processes of fabrication, so that when the time comes … 
  15. Generating Energy
     … So you have to play with your perceptions here, to see which perceptions of what’s going on in the body can actually be helpful. There are parts of the body that you may be suppressing, that could actually be a source of energy. Ajaan Lee talks of the breath that goes up the spine, and the breath that goes up the centerline in … 
  16. When it’s Hard to Settle Down
    When it’s Hard to Settle Down January 17, 2017 When the mind has trouble settling down with the breath, you want to check to see whether the problem is with the mind or with the breath—or with your perceptions of the mind or of the breath. The first problem, the mind: Sometimes you have lots of issues that are unresolved, and simply … 
  17. Escape from Inter-eating
     … You see it as a process, and you begin to see, “Why would the mind slap that particular perception on that stirring? What is it hoping to get out of it?” Sometimes when it slaps a perception on, it just drops it. It’s not interested in it any further. Sometimes it gets fascinated and takes it further. Why? These are the things you … 
  18. On the Path of the Breath
     … feelings and perceptions. You’ve already noticed that changing the perception of how you breathe will have an effect on the breathing process and the feelings that arise from the breathing process. It also has an effect on the mind. It calms things down. So you can continue exploring exactly which perceptions help to calm the mind down even further. What you’re doing … 
  19. Work on Your Mind
     … When you breathe in, where do you think the breath is coming in? And what is the breath? Is the breath the air, or is the breath the movement of energy in the body? Which perception is more helpful? Usually, it’s the perception that we’re dealing with energy in the body, because then you can move that energy around. With the air … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. You Can’t Clone Awakening
     … Because all you’re doing is just indulging in your imagination, indulging in perceptions and fabrications. There is this tendency. We read one of these passages, say, about the awakened one who experiences just the sight, just the sound, without assuming any person seeing the sight or anything behind the sight, any object to be seen. We think, “Well, if I just get myself … 
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