Search results for: "Perception"
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- Sense Pleasures & Sensuality… It’s simply that the leper had distorted perceptions. As the Buddha said, it’s the same way once you’ve seen the deathless: You see that your previous perceptions of sensuality were distorted. You realize that even the pleasures of the senses are painful because you’ve found something so much better. So, when you’re dealing with sensual pleasures, it’s a …
- Large-hearted Goodness… So these are some perceptions to hold in mind to maintain your well-being. We’ve talked about the power of perception in shaping your experience. As the Buddha said, if you can keep the image of the saw in mind—that even if people were sawing your limbs off you should have goodwill for them—then if someone says something nasty to you …
- Signs Along the Road… You’ve got to keep that perception in mind. And there are three levels of the breath, as Ajaan Lee points out. There’s the in-and-out breath, the main one that moves up and down through the torso. Then there’s the secondary breath, as that main breath sends ripples out through the body, and the movement in the torso gets echoed …
- Looking for Essence in the Wilderness… So, you drop that perception and you simply go to the perception of the elements, and then from the elements you go through space, and then through awareness itself, and up through the different levels of formless concentration. In each case you realize that the disturbance that was there in the previous state is no longer there. Finally, through this process of progressively emptying …
- Respect for Concentration… You use your perceptions—all the names and labels you have for things; the images you have in your mind to stand for things. Try and create a useful perception of the breath. Create a perception of yourself as a capable person—someone who’s capable of meditating. Other people can do this. Why can’t you? Then there’s fabrication, when you’re …
- The Logic of Not-self… form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, and consciousness, all of which are impermanent. Then there’s the conclusion, “Therefore, you don’t have a self.” It’s worth noting that the Buddha himself never used this argument. It started later in the commentaries. After all, he noted that many different versions of self were taught in his time, and not all of them were permanent …
- Surveying the World… It’s a hard word to translate, but basically it’s the kind of thinking that starts with the perception, “I am the thinker.” With that perception, you’ve taken on an identity, and once you’ve taken on an identity as a being, you have to feed. Where are you going to feed? You’re going to feed in the world. And guess …
- The Lessons of Equanimity… What are the perceptions that keep that mental pain going? Can you drop those perceptions? In other words, the approach you take to the pain is not one of fear or running away. It’s more of curiosity, trying to figure it out: Why does this pain have such an influence on the mind and how can you free the mind from that influence …
- Patience & Tenacity… The lesson here, of course, is that your perception of the pain has a lot to do with how much it’s going to weigh down the mind. So change your perception. If you notice that there are periods when the pain seems to be bothering the mind more than at other times, okay, what happened? What perception went through your mind that made …
- Mastering Causality… You begin to get more sensitive to what the mind is doing, particularly in terms of its perceptions and thought-fabrications, and how these relate to your feelings. Perceptions are the labels you put on things. For example, you may experience the body as something solid breathing in and breathing out. Well, you can change that perception. See everything you sense in the body …
- The Energy in the Body… feelings and perceptions—feelings of comfort or discomfort, and your perception of how those relate to the breath. These are all the raw materials for insight. So you’re right here where they’re all present. It’s simply a matter of learning how to read what’s happening. The instructions that Ajaan Lee gives are suggestions for exploration. You try them out. Experiment …
- Clinging… You’re constantly telling yourself, “Where is the body right now?” Just sitting here still, there’s an activity that goes around maintaining that sense of form, one that’s primarily an activity of perception. As for feelings, they feel; perceptions perceive, fabrications fabricate things, consciousness cognizes. These aggregates are defined by verbs. So you’re putting yourself together out of verbs, and you …
- Self-Reliance… Exactly what would be doing the pulling and where would it be pulling from? This is called de-perception—playing with your perceptions, trying to question them. You learn a lot of interesting lessons in this way about the impact of your thoughts on your physical processes, at the same time learning what kind of perception results in a sense of breathing that feels …
- Peace vs. Clinging… your perception of the pleasure, why you want to go for it. This is why we have that contemplation of the 32 parts of the body. A lot of our desires for pleasure have to do with the body, either our own body, or somebody else’s—our own body in the case of keeping it well fed, keeping it comfortable, at ease. You …
- Framing the Body… So, what was he going to do now? He decided to test that perception. Why is it that you can look at a body one way and it’s attractive, and you look at it another way and it’s not attractive? What causes the mind to go for the attraction? Of course, it’s the desire. You’re using these perceptions to lure …
- Outside the Box… He goes on to point out that when you’re practicing concentration, you’re taking these inconstant aggregates—body, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness—and you’re trying to make them as constant as possible. You see that they do have their constant side. These things that are stressful do have their pleasant side. You can create a sense of ease in concentration, a …
- Trustworthy Judgment… He was able to tell when the mind was sending him weird perceptions, skewed perceptions. As he said, that thing he got from his meditation, that didn’t change; but he began to notice that his brain wasn’t working properly. What saved him from falling for those perceptions was the mindfulness and concentration he had developed in his meditation. Even in his last …
- You Are Not a Textbook… Because if you can’t divest yourself even of these unskillful things, how are you going to learn how to apply the perception of not-self to things that are more and more skillful? And how are you going to even see the perception of self as an action? We tend to think of ourselves as a solid thing. There’s the “me” in …
- Normalcy… You get your mind into all kinds of weird situations, weird perceptions, extreme perceptions. Then you’ve got to get yourself out, because that’s not where you’re going—at least not where you’re going if you’re going anywhere sane, anywhere safe. So when you catch the mind trying to push itself into an unusual state, pull back. Remind yourself that …
- For the Sake of the Deathless… If you hold this perception in mind, the breath will be one way. If you hold another perception in mind, the breath will be another way. Then you can judge which perception helps you settle down, which intention helps you settle down, and you can use that knowledge to develop concentration and to develop discernment. You start seeing the mind, you start seeing the …
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