Search results for: "Feeling"

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  2. Working Through the Breath
     … bodily fabrication, which is the in-and-out breath; verbal fabrication, which is directed thought and evaluation; and then mental fabrication—feelings and perceptions. The feelings here are feeling tones, such as pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain. The perceptions are the labels we apply to things. As you’re directing your thoughts to the breath and evaluating how comfortable it is, you … 
  3. Don’t Just Do It
     … He said, “After all, aren’t all feelings stressful? As the monk had said, ‘All karma leads to stress.’ Well, all karma leads to feelings, therefore all karma must lead to stress, because all feelings are stressful.” The Buddha replied that this was a worthless explanation, too. When you’re asked about karma, he said, you talk about the three kinds of feeling: pleasure … 
  4. A Safe Place
     … a place where you feel at home, at ease. You feel confident, so that when disturbing thoughts come up in the mind you’re not shaken. Because a lot of defilements can be pretty disturbing. Sometimes your greed, your aversion, your delusion can take very strange forms; forms you wouldn’t like anyone to see. You get to the point where you don’t … 
  5. Happy to Be Here
     … Which feels better? Deeper, more shallow: Which feels better? Faster, slower: Which feels better? If you’re not sure, go back and make the comparison again. An hour is a lot of time, and here you are trying to develop a friendship inside. You can’t rush friendship. It takes time to develop trust, to develop a sense of knowing one another, getting a … 
  6. Goodwill for Safety
     … Your feelings have their reasons, and your reasons are accompanied by feelings. Goodwill has to be based on heedfulness: the realization that if you have ill will for anybody, you’re going to do unskillful things, so you have to talk yourself into goodwill. After all, it doesn’t come naturally all the time. And don’t think that just talking to yourself is … 
  7. Unsentimental Goodwill
     … From there you keep spreading that thought of goodwill out, out, out, spreading it out, until you’ve got a sense of at least a certain group of people for whom you feel goodwill. Then ask yourself, “Is there anybody out there that you really do have trouble feeling goodwill for?” And some faces will probably pop into your mind. Then ask yourself, “What … 
  8. Mindreading
     … You can work with the breath in a way that feels good for the body, relaxing the tension in different parts of the body. It provides you with a sense of fullness and ease. The sense of calm, the sense of fullness is useful not only when the mind is feeling frazzled, but also when it’s got a lot of work to do … 
  9. Solidly Here
     … When you’re breathing in, does it feel tense? Does it feel constricted? When you breathe out, are you pushing things out? Try to have a smooth breath coming in and a smooth breath going out. See how that feels. If the breath seems to be still for a minute between the in-breath and the out-breath or between the out-breath and … 
  10. The Power of Intention
     … Take a couple of good, long, deep in-and-out breaths and notice where you feel that sensation of breathing in the body. You may feel the air coming in through the nose, but you can also feel the rise and fall of the chest, the rise and fall of the shoulders, the energy flow in different parts of the body. Focus on whichever … 
  11. Mud Houses
     … You can let go of the directed thought and evaluation, and the mind feels less burdened. You can let go of the feeling of pleasure, and you’re left with a feeling of equanimity, which is even lighter. You get the breath energy to fill the body to the extent that you don’t have to breathe in and breathe out. Your sense of … 
  12. The Buddha’s Vipassana
     … You start with those questions, but then you get more sensitive to see exactly what they mean in terms of your mind, your body, your feelings. The sensitivity is what becomes your insight. After all, vipassana is a quality of the mind that’s clear seeing. And you want to see more sensitively your body as you feel it from within, your feelings of … 
  13. Perceptions & Potentials
     … Sometimes it would feel one way as you were settling in, and then as the mind got really still, and you didn’t have to do so much thinking and adjusting, the breath would feel different. You’d feel more encompassed by the breath. When you’re starting out, it’s as if you’re in one part of the body watching the breath … 
  14. Joy in Getting It Right
     … But when you look into the list of feelings the Buddha talks about, there are feelings of the flesh and feelings not of the flesh. Feelings of the flesh happen pretty much willy-nilly. But feelings not of the flesh are caused by your desire to practice. A pleasure not of the flesh is the pleasure of concentration. It’s not going to happen … 
  15. Serenity
     … If you’re feeling tired, you may need some energizing breath: long in, short out seems to help that way—or whatever way of breathing you find that gives more energy to the body. If you’re feeling tense, try to breathe in a way that’s more relaxing: short in, long out can help—or whatever way you find helps to calm the … 
  16. Figuring Out Concentration
     … But still, where do you feel the breath? Do you feel it just at the nose? If you focus just on the nose, you’re not with the whole body of the breath itself. So, notice where you feel it. Notice where you don’t feel it. Then, as you get more familiar with the breath, you’ll get like Jivaka, when he was … 
  17. Friends with Pain
     … How does the body feel? How does the mind feel? Take a quick survey of the body, from the top down to the soles of your feet to see if you’re feeling any tension, if you’re feeling any tightness, if are there any pains. If you notice any tightness or pain, one of the things you have to do to help get … 
  18. Empathetic Joy
     … If you can’t be happy for other people’s happiness, you’ll have trouble feeling right about your own. We hear again and again stories of people who gain a sense of ease and well-being, pleasure in the concentration and they don’t feel they deserve it. They shrink away from it. That’s because they have trouble being happy with other … 
  19. A Home for the Mind
     … And if deep breathing feels good, keep it up. If not, you can change. Just pose the question in your mind: What kind of breathing would feel good right now? You may go around in different parts of your body and ask your arm: What kind of breathing would feel good for you? Your chest. Your abdomen. Your head. Your legs, your feet: Ask … 
  20. New Feeding Habits
     … So where do you feel that flow? Does it exist only where you feel it right now? You might think of it spreading around, and as you spread it around, make sure it feels good. Then talk to yourself about this. Talk to yourself about what kind of breathing might be better and, if it’s already good, how best to maintain it. Once … 
  21. Pain & Patience
     … There’s a feeling tone and there’s your awareness. Is the feeling tone the same thing as the awareness? Awareness is aware; feeling tones are not aware—they’re just something there. Can you see this distinction? Now, this requires that you get the mind really quiet, so that it can see these things. There’s a part of the mind that keeps … 
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