Search results for: "Feelings"

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  2. Circumspection
     … But as Ajaan Fuang said to me when I was first studying with him, it’s simply how you feel the body right now, the sensations of having a body, sensations you already have. Think of that as breath. Hold that perception in mind: “Breath” describes the feelings you’ve already got. You don’t have to create new feelings. Ask yourself: “If that … 
  3. Enlarge Your Mind
     … As the Buddha says, becoming is based on clinging, clinging is based on craving, craving is based on feelings. You want to chase it back to those feelings. What is the actual sensation that provoked you into creating that state of becoming to begin with? If you can track it down, you’ll find it’s a lot more ephemeral then you originally thought … 
  4. Generating Power
     … And try to be as alert as possible to how the breathing feels. Try to make it feel refreshing. This way the work becomes something you can easily keep on doing, because you feel refreshed in doing your work. Sitting here, it feels good breathing in, feels good breathing out. Ordinarily large areas of the body are starved for breathing energy, so give them … 
  5. Mindfulness, the Gatekeeper
     … This is where you move your frame of reference to feelings. Again, you’re sensitive to the pleasure and the rapture, and then you begin to notice: How do these things have an effect on your mind?—the pleasure and rapture together with your perceptions of those feelings. Ideally, you want to get the mind in a state where it feels calm and at … 
  6. Mind Reading
     … He talks about being sensitive to mental fabrication, which are feelings and perceptions: both the question of what kind of perceptions can you use to cut through your hindrances, and then, once the mind has settled down, what perceptions can you use to bring the mind into deeper and deeper levels of concentration? You’re seeing how feelings and perceptions really do have an … 
  7. Looking Inward
     … The more often you do it, the more you notice how to make it more comfortable, how to make it more gratifying; if you’re feeling sleepy, how to breathe in a way that wakes you up; if you’re feeling tired, how to breathe in a way that gives you energy. If you’re feeling tense, how do you breathe in a way … 
  8. Good Eating
     … The real question is, “How am I feeding right now? And do I feel gratification, do I feel real satisfaction in the way I feed? If not, are there better ways to feed?” Those questions are worth asking, and the Buddha has good answers. But the important thing is that you learn how to make those answers your own.
  9. Go in Brightness
     … So you put aside thoughts of sensuality and focus simply on the sensation of the body as you feel it from within right now. Notice how the breath feels as it comes in and goes out. Notice what kind of breathing feels good. This is called using directed thought and evaluation. You direct your thoughts to the breath, then you evaluate the breath. Is … 
  10. To Be Trustworthy
     … The same with your feelings, the same with your mind states: You look at these things just in reference to themselves, and not in reference to the world, and you regard them as tools to do good. Any time the mind wanders out into the world, thinking about the body in the world, your feelings in the world, or your mind in the world … 
  11. Remorse
     … Remorse is not an attitude or a feeling that the Buddha recommended. Because, as he noticed, it weakens you. We usually feel remorse for one of two reasons: One is the childish belief that if you feel bad enough about having done something, then the punishment will be mitigated. And the other, of course, is the feeling that if you don’t feel badly … 
  12. The Path of Mistakes
     … As for the feelings that come up, learn not to identify with them. Just watch them: “Okay, these feelings are results of actions. They, in and of themselves, are not skillful or unskillful, but the way you perceive them and the thoughts you build around them — those can be skillful and unskillful.” So learn how to step back. In this way you use your … 
  13. Stand Your Ground
     … We start with the skills dealing with the breath, the skills in developing mindfulness and concentration, trying to develop a spot in the breath energy in the body where the breath feels good going in, feels good going out. The quality of the breath energy in the body feels good—everything is flowing smoothly. As you get to know the energy in the body … 
  14. Sensitive to Fabrication
     … Notice where you feel the breathing and how it feels. You know consciously that there’s air coming in and out at the nose, but there’s more to the breathing process than that. There’s a flow of energy that goes through the body, expanding the rib cage so that air can come in and go out. The air is not doing the … 
  15. A World Apart
     … Experiment for a bit to see what feels best. If you find something that feels good, stick with it until it doesn’t feel so good any more. Then you can change. And notice where you feel the process of breathing in the body. The energy of the breath in the body exists on many levels. There’s the in-and-out breath. There … 
  16. On the Surface of Things
     … And then, what’s the feeling, the feeling tone? Body and feelings: two different aggregates that we’ve glommed together. Can you see them as separate things—separate notes in the bird song? The same goes for perceptions, thought constructs, acts of consciousness: They’re all happening right here. Our problem is that we tend to be conspiracy theorists. We want to know: What … 
  17. Mindfulness Immersed in the Breath
     … Notice how it feels. Where you feel the sensations of the breath, where you feel the energy coming in, going out of the body, may not be in the places you expect. This is why breath meditation is not simply a rote exercise. It’s a type of exploration: sensitizing yourself to how the breathing process actually feels in the body. Alertness also means … 
  18. Urgency & Contentment
     … The more you can feel at home with the breath—with a sense of ease, a sense of comfort, feeling secure with the breath—the easier it is to stay with the breath for long periods of time. And the longer you stay with it, the more you see. But if you find yourself just lolling around the house, watching the TV, raiding the … 
  19. Radical Questioning
     … It doesn’t have to be a metaphysical view about yourself, but just your general feeling of who you are, what kind of person you are, and what kind of feelings and ideas such a person should have. Well, if the feelings burn, if they cause trouble, cause suffering, you might want to question the underlying assumptions. The Buddha doesn’t have us accept … 
  20. Factors for Awakening
     … When feelings come up, relate them to the breath. How does the breath affect the feelings? How do the feelings affect the way you breathe? For instance, if there’s a pain in your body, do you tend to breathe in a way that walls off the pain so that it doesn’t spread? We often have a sense of the breath spreading but … 
  21. Self-Correct
     … When you breathe in, where do you feel it? Focus your attention there. And be alert to the fact that this may not be where you ordinarily might think you should be feeling the breath. We know the air comes in through the nose, goes down through the throat, into the lungs. But when the Buddha talks about breath, he’s talking about the … 
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