Search results for: "Feeling"

  1. Page 55
  2. Protecting Yourself Against Yourself
     … Bodily fabrication is the factor that fabricates the body, which is the breath; the factors that fabricate speech are directed thought and evaluation; and the factors that fabricate the mind are perceptions and feelings—perceptions being the labels you put on things, and feelings being the feeling-tones of pleasure, pain, and neither pleasure nor pain. You notice, as you focus on the breath … 
  3. Right & Wrong Decisions
     … Even when other things in life are uncertain, you can know for sure where the breath feels good, where it doesn’t feel good. That’s something you can learn to read and sense regardless of the situation. It’s always good to keep in touch with this process, regardless of how many other activities you may be responsible for, how much is going … 
  4. True to the Practice
     … You’ve been breathing all your life and never really looked to see what kind of breathing really feels good, what’s best for the body, what’s best for the mind. So take some time to get to know these things right now. You can focus on any spot in the body and just watch how the breathing process feels there. Try to … 
  5. Bare vs. Appropriate Attention
    As you focus on the breath, it’s important that you try to be as sensitive as possible to how the breathing feels—in particular, to which ways of breathing feel comfortable, and which ones don’t. Observe the breath carefully with that question in mind. When you find yourself stuck in uncomfortable breathing, experiment with other ways to see if you can make … 
  6. To Discern Suffering
     … Then feelings result: feelings of pleasure, feelings of fullness, which can be pleasant or unpleasant for some people. Sometimes the sense of rapture or refreshment gets really strong to the point that people feel threatened by it, in which case it becomes unpleasant. But if you can learn to accept it simply as a sign that the mind is settling down, then your perception … 
  7. Jhana & Insight
     … So an important part of the practice is learning how to bring the mind to its aspect that doesn’t feel hunger at all. And that requires that we change our feeding habits. This is why concentration is an important part of the practice. And it’s a necessary part of insight. The Buddha said, often, that you don’t get into jhana without … 
  8. One Foot in the Present
     … The mind isn’t yet used to settling down for long periods of time, it feels lost, so it’s going to try to find other things to entertain itself, to keep moving as it’s always been moving. When you find it’s doing that, just stop and come back. In other words, when you make a mistake like that, remind yourself that … 
  9. The Best News in the World
     … How does it feel? You might try some long breathing for a while to see if long breathing feels good and energizing. If it does feel good, keep it up. If not, you can change. Try shorter breathing. Or in short, out long; in long, out short. Heavy, light; fast, slow; deep, shallow. Experiment for a while to see what way of breathing feels … 
  10. Adult Education
     … When you breathe quickly for a while, what does that feel like? When the breath slows down, what does that feel like? When it’s deep, when it’s shallow, you try to notice these things. But then the practice of meditation goes beyond just noticing. In all the remaining steps, he says that you train yourself. For instance, you train yourself to be … 
  11. Determination
     … Does long breathing feel good? Does short breathing feel good? Deep, shallow, heavy, light, fast, or slow?—you can experiment. This is one area where you’re allowed to follow your pleasure. What kind of breathing would feel really good right now? Which parts of the body seem to be starved of breath energy or don’t get much breath energy? Allow them to … 
  12. Like an Athlete in Training
     … Where does it feel good? Where does it not feel good? Focus on the areas that you can make good by the way you breathe, and hold in mind the right perceptions that allow that to happen. For example, be careful not to squeeze the end of the in-breath or the end of the out-breath to mark the difference between the two … 
  13. Rites of Passage
     … The same principle also applies to feelings of pleasure and pain as they come and go, to perceptions, to thought-constructs, even to our consciousness of things. Meditation gives us a place where we can step back from these things and watch them to see the influence they have over the mind, to decide whether that’s an influence we’d like them to … 
  14. Common Ground
     … This way, we all have common ground because right now what we’re experiencing is the body from the inside, our awareness as it relates to the body and the breath as it gives rise to feelings of either pleasure or pain. You try to breathe in such a way so that it’s more pleasant. You’ve got body, feelings, mind, three of … 
  15. How to Feed Mindfulness
     … Notice, when the breath comes in, where it’s feeling good, which part of the breath cycle feels nicest. Is it the middle of the breath, the beginning of the breath, the end of the breath? Can you notice when the breath is getting too long? Can you catch yourself squeezing the breath as it goes out? When you squeeze it, you’re weakening … 
  16. You’ve Got Friends
     … Suffering here is primarily mental suffering, the mental pain we feel. The word dukkha in Pali, in its everyday meaning, is just pain. Here the Buddha’s talking mainly about the mental pain we feel, which can be connected with physical pain in the present moment or with mental issues purely in the mind, old issues that hang on inside and weigh us down … 
  17. Immersed in the Body
     … If your sense of self is flitting all around — first with a feeling, then with a perception, then back to a feeling again, then to perception and feeling, like those weird amoeba-like shapes that flit across the surface of water — it’s hard to observe, to get a sense of, “What is this self? Why does the mind need a sense of self … 
  18. Ingenuity
     … Suppose the body feels too warm. Where are the cool sensations in the body? Focus there. Give all your attention to that cool sensation, and let everything else go. Then think of the coolness spreading. When you’re feeling dizzy and faint, focus on the solidity of the body. Where do you feel solid sensations? The heavy sensations? Focus there. This is useful not … 
  19. Look after Yourself Happily
     … Buddhism is one of the few religions where they don’t make you feel embarrassed about wanting to be happy. It’s right up front. The question is, How do you do it? How do you find your happiness? Because we also take into consideration that thought, “May all living beings look after themselves with ease.” We don’t want our search for happiness … 
  20. Grief & Regret
     … You start out with a couple of good long deep in-breaths and deep out-breaths, both to establish where you feel the breathing process and to clear things out inside for a little bit. As long as deep breathing feels good, keep it up. When it doesn’t feel so good, you can change. In long, out short; in short, out long; in … 
  21. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … When the mind feels a temptation to go wandering off, you’ve got to settle back into the body again. Reestablish your connection with how the different parts of the body feel as you breathe in, as you breathe out. Where there’s a tension or tightness in one part of the body, you could think of the energy flowing through there. In the … 
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