Search results for: "Feelings"

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  2. Learning by Doing
     … Notice where you feel the breathing in your body, because when we talk about the breath, it’s not so much the air coming in and out of the nose—it’s the flow of energy in the body. It’s the flow of energy that keeps us alive, that allows you to feel the different parts of the body. We tend to think … 
  3. Analyzing Anger
     … It went from a feeling to a perception. Or sometimes the perception came first then the feeling. Then there’s the conversation and it turns into craving. And then on up. It causes a lot of problems. So when you’re sitting there with a narrative, ask yourself, “What is it made up out of?” Make it something you can take apart. Cut it … 
  4. Tranquility & Insight Through Jhāna
     … Then there’s mental fabrication—feelings and perceptions. States of right concentration all the way up through the dimension of nothingness are called perception attainments, and the different levels of jhāna are defined by the feeling tone—pleasure and rapture in the first jhāna, more pleasure and rapture in the second, just pleasure in the third, and equanimity in the fourth. So you’re … 
  5. Study & Practice
     … The frames of reference are the body in and of itself, like we’re doing right now focusing on the breath; feelings in and of themselves, i.e., feelings of pleasure, pain, neither-pleasure-nor-pain; mind-states in and of themselves, noticing, say, whether the mind is overcome by passion or is free of passion, overcome by aversion or free of aversion or … 
  6. Shelter
     … Adjusting feelings may seem the strangest of the group, but as you work with the breath, with the way you perceive things, with the way you think, then you’re going to change the way you feel. There’s also the fact that the body has lots of different feeling potentials. There are parts of the body that would give rise to a great … 
  7. Everybody Benefits
     … In other words, when you receive a gift, you have to behave in such a way that before giving the donor feels good, while giving and after giving the donor feels good, satisfied that it was really worthwhile, giving that gift. This means that we don’t pressure people into giving beforehand. We receive the gift with respect. And then we use it well … 
  8. Training the Mind to Train the Mind
     … It also helps if you can learn how to really get to know the breath, so that you can figure out, “What kind of breathing feels good? What kind of breathing feels right for the body right now?” And what are the body’s needs right now? Is it tired? Can you breathe in a way that gives it energy? Are you tense? Breathe … 
  9. Developed in Body & Mind
     … And ask yourself, how can you give rise to a sense of fullness? What are the parts of the body that feel empty right now, that could use some fullness? Or they feel depleted, and they could use some energy. Especially after a day of work like this, what can you do to energize the body, to feel refreshed? What parts of the body … 
  10. Stay
     … The breath fills the whole body, and it’s because everything feels connected inside that the breathing can stop, without your feeling any lack, any need to breathe. Sometimes you may find this startling, and as soon as a startled thought goes through the mind, you have to start breathing again. But if you remind yourself that the body’s oxygen needs have been … 
  11. Dethinking Thinking
     … The Buddha’s analysis of the aggregates, remember that? “For the sake of feeling-ness, for the sake of perception-hood, you fabricate a feeling, you fabricate a perception.” In other words, there’s a raw material there from your past kamma, and you turn it into actual feelings, actual perceptions, for the sake of having feelings and perceptions you can use. There’s … 
  12. The Karma of Pain
     … There are also some feelings and perceptions—pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings. You can work with the breath to create more pleasant feelings. If there’s a pleasant feeling, say, in the middle of the chest, try to breathe in a way that keeps that pleasant feeling going all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out, without any breaks in … 
  13. The Chess Game
    The chant on goodwill with which we end the chant every evening starts out, “May I be happy.” It’s so simple and so basic, and yet we have so many conflicted feelings about that desire. Sometimes we even feel guilty for having that desire, but when you think about it, that’s the main aim of people through life: to find happiness, and … 
  14. Generosity & Gratitude
     … It feels really good when you find yourself in a position where you can give when you don’t have to. That’s something to be honored. And it’s okay to feel good about yourself in that way—not in the sense of trying to compare yourself as being better than other people, but simply that you feel good in and of yourself … 
  15. The Path of Questions
     … For instance, when you’re focusing on the breath, you ask a simple question: “What kind of breathing feels good right now?” And then you explore. You’re free to experiment with the breath, to find out if long breathing feels good, if short breathing feels good, deep breathing, shallow... There’s an element of investigation already even in the simple practice of concentration … 
  16. Strength of Conviction
     … Ask yourself if there are any parts that feel starved, any parts that feel like they’re not getting enough breath, or the breath is being squeezed out of them. What way could you breathe so that they would feel full, refreshed, energized—all of them, all at once? This way, good breath fills the body, and your awareness fills the body as well … 
  17. Thoughts with Fangs
     … When you feel that you’re better than other people, you tend to get complacent. When you feel you’re worse than other people, you tend to get depressed. It’s one of those perceptions of papanca: proliferation or complication. There’s contact at the senses, and from contact there arises feeling. It’s an interesting passage in one of the suttas, where the … 
  18. Reading Your Meditation
     … When you breathe in, does the breath energy seem to go down your spine or is it coming up your spine? Which feels better? If one way doesn’t feel comfortable, just think that it’s possible for the energy to go the other direction. You don’t have to push it, you don’t have to force it, just allow that thought to … 
  19. Just Events
    Psychologists say that depersonalization is an unhealthy thing—when you can’t relate to your own emotions, you feel separated from your body, separated from your emotions. But from the Buddha’s point of view, there’s unhealthy depersonalization and healthy depersonalization. Unhealthy is when you do something and refuse to acknowledge the fact that you did it, that it was your choice. Healthy … 
  20. No One Size Fits All
     … focusing on the impact of the breath on the body, learning how to allow that impact to calm down; focusing on the feelings that the breath creates—feelings of pleasure, feelings of rapture, refreshment—and allowing those to calm down; noticing how you perceive the breath energy in the body, working with different perceptions that allow the breath to calm-down; using the breath … 
  21. The Raft
     … That’s a part of the body, part of “form.” Then there are feelings: the feelings of pleasure you try to create by the way that you look at the breath. There are perceptions—saññā—the images you have in the mind about how the breath comes into the body, where it comes in, where it goes out, where you would like it to … 
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