Search results for: "Feeling"

  1. Page 57
  2. Don’t Stop with Awareness Itself
     … the solid feelings in the body, the weighty feelings in the body. Here again, you could dial these up as you liked, as if you were fiddling with the dials on a stereo: Make them stronger, make them weaker. Then you’d try to bring all four of those elements into balance: not too warm, not too cold, not too heavy, not too light … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. More than a Slice of Mindfulness
     … Then the same with feelings, mind states, mental qualities: You keep track of each in and of itself—ardent, alert, and mindful—putting aside greed and distress with reference to the world. That’s the formula. But then the sutta goes on to ask and answer questions only about one part of the formula: “What does it mean to keep track of something in … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. A Strong Mind
     … So as you get more sensitive to this energy flow, try to notice how it feels, say, going down your back as you breathe in, breathe out. Watch your legs for a while as you breathe in, breathe out, to see which parts of the legs feel squeezed off, which parts actually seem to be participating in some sort of energy flow. Look for … 
  19. Respect for What’s Noble
     … form—this body of ours, which is constantly changing—feeling, perception, thought-fabrications, and consciousness. These are all activities that are involved in feeding: The form is the form of the body, the form of the food we eat. Feeling, in the feeling of hunger that drives us to eat, and in our desire for the feeling of pleasure that comes when we’re … 
  20. A Good Narrative
     … Prior to that, he felt saṁvega, a feeling of the meaninglessness of life as ordinarily lived. The image there is something that stirs you up, like a lake that get stirred up. It’s muddy. This feeling gives rise to a sense of urgency, but it can become a sense of hopelessness if it’s not balanced by the sense that there is a … 
  21. Worlds to Watch Out For
     … This is where it’s good to know some of the techniques for staying with the breath with a sense of confidence, a sense of ease, so that the breath feels good. Breathing in feels good. Breathing out feels good. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change the way you breathe. That’s another choice you can make. Try long breathing, short … 
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