Search results for: "Feelings"

  1. Page 56
  2. Factors for Awakening
     … When you’re with the breath, what kind of breathing is easy to focus on? What feels good for the body, and what’s right for the mind? You have to take both sides into consideration—both body and mind—because sometimes very subtle breathing may feel good for the body, it’s relaxing, but if it’s too subtle for the mind to … 
  3. The Role of the Observer
     … Then there are perceptions and feelings—the labels we put on things and the feeling tones we focus on—pleasant, unpleasant, neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant: Those are mental fabrications. Those are our tools, our weapons in our internal battle over those thoughts that come into the mind and just seem to hang on because there’s part of the mind hanging on to them … 
  4. Single-minded
     … The issue is, can you see when you’ve settled in and feel secure and feel solidly here? Is there anything in the concentration itself that is still a disturbance? After all, the directed thought and evaluation are necessary at the beginning, but after a while they do become a disturbance. A sense of rapture and refreshment, the energy of the breath courses through … 
  5. What You Don’t Like About Yourself
     … You feel they’re important. You feel they’re necessary. And although you may see some of their drawbacks, you decide that you can’t live without them. Then there are other things about yourself that you already like which you’re going to find out are not so likeable. So you have to brace yourself. But bracing yourself, you’re not going to … 
  6. Committed to the Breath
    We’ve all read enough on physiology to know where the breath comes in, where it goes out, but as you’re sitting here right now, where do you feel the breathing? What parts of the body are engaged in the breathing process? Focus your attention on those sensations—your direct experience of the breath energy—and commit yourself to it for the hour … 
  7. Insights
     … So it’s a combination of having one spot that’s predominant in your awareness—a spot that feels at ease, that feels comfortable—and then having a whole range of your body as the larger frame of reference. That kind of concentration you can carry around, because even if the spot wavers a bit, you’ve still got that larger frame as your … 
  8. Independent Values
     … Watch over the breath to see how it feels, and watch over your mind to make sure it’s here. If it wanders off, bring it right back. While you’re with the breath, try to be sensitive to how your breath feels. Doing this requires a third quality: ardency. This is how you establish a foundation for yourself in the present moment. The … 
  9. Reclaim Your Breath
     … In other words, the anger has taken over your body, and when that happens, where can you stay? You feel that you’ve got to get it out, and for most of us, getting it out means saying something, doing something under the power of the anger. At times like that, your sense of shame and compunction get pretty weak, and you often end … 
  10. A Thread Out of the Maze
     … Why is this important? The choices we make in life depend on how we feel in the present moment. You could think of this as a selfish indulgence, sitting here breathing in a comfortable way, while the rest of the world is suffering, but remember, all the things you do and say and think come out of how you feel in the present moment … 
  11. Safety in Awareness
     … If you’re feeling too lightheaded, think of earth. Feeling too heavy? Think of the breath. Or you can start thinking about space, because the whole purpose of getting these four elements into balance is that from there it’s easy to start focusing on a sense of space—around the body, permeating the body—so that the boundary of the body begins to … 
  12. Refuge for All Beings
     … Some people have the feeling that they don’t deserve to have goodwill for themselves. It’s like when we’re sitting here meditating. Sometimes you come across a feeling of well-being and part of the mind may say, “I don’t deserve this.” You’ve got to argue with that. Here again, the question of deserving or not deserving doesn’t enter … 
  13. A Happiness Based Inside
     … When the mind goes out after those things, what is it like? How does it feel? What does lust feel like? What does anger feel like? What kind of lies do they tell you? Can you really trust them? Do you really want to go out there? What happens when you do? Having a good state of concentration inside gives you something to compare … 
  14. The Wisdom of Ardency
     … As the Buddha himself points out, when you’re focused on the breath, you’ve got the body in and of itself, but you also have feelings: The fact that you’re alert to the breath creates a feeling of pleasure in the breath. Your mind state is also there, the mind state of mindfulness. The equanimity of putting aside greed and distress with … 
  15. Undefeatism
     … One of the most difficult obstacles we run into as we try to change our habits, is, “Well, it doesn’t feel like me. It doesn’t feel natural to me.” Remember: You’re not a static quality. What you are is made up by your actions. So instead of thinking about what you are, think instead of what you can *do. * This requires … 
  16. Clear of Defilement
     … So when you can peel your attention away from the object and focus it more on the actual feeling of lust in and of itself, that’s where you can start looking at the mind’s ways of playing along with the lust—for example, showing no concern for future results, saying, “All I care about is what I feel right now or what … 
  17. Fears
     … When you can make this distinction, you don’t feel so overwhelmed by the emotion. You breathe as best you can through the physical manifestations of fear, the tension, the feelings that come with that shortened breath or the constricted breath that result from the fear. Then consciously expand that sensation of physical relief and open it up to counteract the fear’s physical … 
  18. Meaning & Purpose
     … Notice where you feel it in the body. When the Buddha explains the causes for suffering, he points out that there are two kinds of contact. There’s the immediate contact of your consciousness inside your body, where you sense the warmth, the coolness, the energy, the solidity of the body. And then there’s contact at the senses—the sense doors, or the … 
  19. The Power of the Mind
     … Tell it to settle in with the breath in a way that feels really good. Tell it to ask questions about how to settle in well: what kind of breathing feels good right now, and when it does feel good, what to do with it. It’s all very simple, but you want the power of your mind to be well founded, so you … 
  20. Learning & Respect
     … When the time comes to meditate, the Buddha says, “Keep track of the body in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world.” He repeats the same formula for feelings, mind, and mental qualities. And as he describes it, we’re not just thinking. We are thinking, but we’re also being aware of what … 
  21. Understanding Contentment
     … Start with how it feels as it comes in, how it feel as it goes out. Wherever the breath is most obvious, wherever there are sensations in the body that tell you now the breath is coming in, now the breath is going out, focus there—remembering that “breath” means not so much the air coming in and out through the nose, but the … 
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