Search results for: "Perception"
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- Four Roles to Play… This is where you bring in another aspect of fabrication, which is perceptions, the images you hold in mind that identify things and give them meaning. What image of the breath is most conducive to settling down? If you think of the breath simply as the air coming in and out through the nose, it’s hard to think of that having any impact …
- It’s Good to Talk to Yourself… Then even when the questions and answers settle down, there are still perceptions—the images you hold in your mind—and those carry you all the way through many of the even very refined levels of concentration. So the trick is not so much stopping your thinking, but learning how to think properly in a way that helps you settle down. What are you …
- You Can Do Better… When you get stuck on concentration, and there’s a lazy part of the mind that says, “Well, this is good enough, I might as well just hang out here,” right view is there to tell you, “No, there’s something better.” This is why those perceptions of inconstancy, stress, and not-self work. They’re basically saying, “This is not worth hanging on …
- Against the Grain… There’s the feeling of hunger that drives us to feed, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes after we’ve fed; the perception of what kind of hunger we have and our perception of what kind of food would feed that hunger. Then there are all the fabrications, mental fabrications and intentions that go into trying to find food and figuring out how …
- Where the Brightness Is… Such as the perception that says, “There’s a pain right there and it has this shape and it’s taken over this part of the body”: Well, has it really? Is it one big solid thing, or is there lots of little tiny sensations that come and go, come and go, come and go? And how are those sensations affected by the way …
- What Are You Taking into the Future?… It’s a strange expression, it’s hard to say why the Buddha says it’s for the sake of “formness” or “feelingness” or “perceptionhood.” The Commentary tries to explain this way of phrasing the issue away, saying simply that we fabricate form as form, feelings as feelings, perceptions as perceptions, and so on. But that misses something which is very clear in the …
- Raise Your Standards… What did you do? What was the perception, the change in perception, change in mental fabrication? What caused the stress to go up? Letting go of what caused it to go down? Things you didn’t even realize you were doing suddenly become clear. That’s how you can see where you’re causing unnecessary stress. A lot of it we simply assume to …
- Action & Result… When you cling to form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrication, or consciousness, there is some pleasure. The Buddha doesn’t deny that. But the clinging itself can turn things into pain and can lead to more suffering. We go around defining ourselves this way all the time. This is why we get reborn. We find that the things by which we define ourselves are falling …
- Savor Your Breath… So play with the breath, play with your perceptions around the breath. Play with all the different kinds of fabrication that go into making up your sense of the present right here, right now. It’s in playing with them that you get to know them. It’s like learning how to play a guitar. You take the guitar into your room, you close …
- Present-Moment Intelligence… one, how you breathe; two, how you talk to yourself; and then three, the perceptions and feelings you focus on. Often these things are underground. Most people go through life without paying much attention to their breath. As for the way they talk to themselves, they take it for granted: This is the conversation, this is how it tends to be, these are the …
- The Treasure Hunt… physical fabrication — that’s the breath; verbal fabrication — the directed thought and evaluation that give rise to words; and then mental fabrication — your feelings and perceptions. When you’re focused on the breath properly, all these things are brought together. There’s the physical fabrication of the breath, there’s directed thought and evaluation directed to the breath, and there are the perceptions of …
- Commit & Reflect All Around… What you need is what the Buddha calls, “penetrative” knowledge, in which you understand some activity of the mind, good or bad; notice what’s causing it; notice its diversity—as the Buddha calls it—which means seeing what ways it’s good, what ways it’s bad; what’s the range of suffering or happiness that this particular phenomenon—like feelings or perceptions …
- Noble Right Concentration… form, feeling, perceptions, fabrications, consciousness. Where are you going to see those aggregates? You see them in the concentration. The breath is part of form. The feeling of pleasure that arises as you stay focused: That’s feeling. The mental image you have of the breath: That’s perception. Directed thought and evaluation as you try to adjust the breath, play with the breath …
- Three Noble Truths Versus Four… That’s perception. The directed thought and evaluation that adjust the breath to fit the mind, adjust the mind to fit the breath: That’s fabrication. And then there’s the consciousness that’s aware of these things. You turn those five aggregates into a state of concentration. And in doing so, you’re fighting against those three perceptions of inconstant, stressful, and not …
- Discernment Fosters Concentration… Then hold in mind the perception that breath is an energy that originates in the body—it’s not something you have to pull in from outside—and this change in perception allows the mind to settle in. The breath can grow more and more calm until finally it stops. You don’t feel starved of breath, you don’t feel like you’re …
- Things as They’ve Come to Be… Again, there’s a real sense of well-being that can come from managing the breath element in the body through your perceptions. Then learn to appreciate the feeling of well-being that can come that way. So there you are: all three kinds of fabrication related to the breath. It’s one of the reasons why the Buddha uses the terms bodily fabrication …
- Producing Discernment… working with the breath, working with the way you talk to yourself, working with the perceptions you hold in mind. See how these things can get the mind to settle down and be with the breath as consistently as possible with as much of a sense of ease as you can manage. There’s the potential for ease here. Try to find it and …
- Do Jhana… One is keeping track of one perception or one sensation, such as the breath or an activity of the body. And the second is putting aside greed and distress with reference the world. In other words, all your emotions around the world; concerning the world: You want to be able to put them aside, at least for the time being. You want to give …
- The Basic Pattern… They make all sorts of assumptions based on that perception. Or they can go into the state of non-perception, where there’s nothing there at all, and make assumptions based on that, forgetting to look at the fact that the state of concentration was something they did, and now they’re experiencing the results. Like any other action, the concentration has to be …
- Meaning & Becoming… There’s bodily fabrication, the way you breathe; verbal fabrication, the way you talk to yourself with directed thought and evaluation; mental fabrication, perceptions and feelings. We turn these into states of becoming all the time. We do that very easily. The process is very quick, as you’ve noticed when you fall asleep and enter a dream world. It’s almost effortless. But …
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