Search results for: "Feelings"

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  2. Shelter Through Restraint
     … What’s the result going to be? If you expect any harm at all, no matter how much you may want to say it or how much you may feel like you’re going to explode if you don’t say it, tell yourself that it’s better to explode than to say something unskillful. And of course, the fear of exploding is just … 
  3. Only Natural
     … How is the breath right now? Is it coming in? Is it going out? How does it feel? It is possible to breathe in a way that feels really, really good, really satisfying. Try to notice which parts of the body are especially sensitive to how the breath feels. Those are the ones that’ll be especially gratified when the breath goes well. So … 
  4. Work & Play
    Focus on the breath and try to adjust the breath so that it feels comfortable. Then allow that comfortable breath sensation to spread throughout the body so that you fill it with a sense of ease, fullness, refreshment. We call that both playing with the breath and working with the breath. It’s work in the sense that it does require effort and we … 
  5. Disenchantment
     … Mental fabrication is feeling and perception. These are the basic elements the Buddha has us focus on as we concentrate. First, of course, we learn how to dress them up in a new way. In other words, bring the directed thought and evaluation to the breath, to create feelings of comfort. You use your perceptions to maintain that sense of comfort. So these elements … 
  6. The Skill of Happiness
     … That allows you to know that even as you’re sitting here with your eyes closed, that your body is here—where the different parts are—because you can feel it from inside. That feeling it from inside: That’s breath. So physical action is reduced to the breath. Mental action is reduced to your perceptions. Your verbal actions are reduced to your internal … 
  7. An Examined Life
     … We feel there’s nothing much you can do about it. It’s so completely random, you have no idea when it’s going to happen, and thinking about it is morbid and depressing, so let’s just not think about it. But it’s a common fact that in order not to think about it, you have to stuff your mind full of … 
  8. Wild Horses
     … As you sit here focused on the breath, you can get the breath really comfortable as you explore how the breathing process feels in the body. That feeling of comfort, even though it can be very intense, is not counted as a sensual pleasure. Even though it’s related to the body, it’s not counted as a sensual pleasure; it’s the pleasure … 
  9. The Form of the Body
     … Get as absorbed in them as you can, so that you’re used to looking at the body from this perspective, how you feel it from within. Then, on the other hand, look at the other ways that you can relate to the body and see that you don’t want to get so quickly and easily entangled. Train the mind so that its … 
  10. Your World to Practice In
     … In other words, it’s not the feeling of the air going over the top of your lip or the tip of the nose. It’s one of the elements or properties, dhātu, in the body itself. That’s something you can feel anywhere in the body as you breathe in, as you breathe out. In some areas, it’ll be more obvious than … 
  11. The Allure of Self
     … Maybe in the beginning, as you’re learning new skills, you don’t feel quite as at ease practicing the new skills, so there may be a sense of feeling exposed. But you’re not being exposed just for the sake of being vulnerable. Some people talk about being vulnerable as an ideal state of mind—open and vulnerable—but it’s stupid. The … 
  12. A Decent Education
     … What does it consume? Feelings of pleasure and feelings of pain. It tries to produce more and more pleasure but often ends up producing more and more pain. When you look at your sense of who you are, it comes down to these two things: the producer and the consumer. These are the habits you have to observe. When you meditate, the first thing … 
  13. A Frame for the Day
     … You begin to notice that you begin to give rise to feelings of pleasure—a sense of ease in the body, ease in the mind—all because you made up your mind to focus on a particular topic and to stick with it, and to do it as skillfully as you can. Eventually, we’re trying to develop a sense of disenchantment with fabrications … 
  14. Sensual Passion
     … So when we practice concentration, we’re lifting our minds up above our ordinary sensual pleasures, even heavenly sensual pleasures, finding pleasure in the sense of the body as we feel it from within—like we’re doing right now. Breathe in a way that feels good. Think of your whole nervous system breathing. It’s not just the lungs expanding and contracting; the … 
  15. Strength for Stillness
     … Is the breath coming in? Is it going out? How is it going in? How is it going out? Does it feel good? If it doesn’t feel good, then you can bring in some more ardency to pay careful attention to what you’re doing here. You can experiment and see what’s working, what’s not working. Mindfulness is what reminds you … 
  16. Up for the Challenge
     … Breathe in a way that feels refreshing, feels pleasant, and then allow those feelings of pleasure and refreshment to settle down. Allow the breath to settle down. There’s some allowing here but there’s also some directing. You don’t just sit with whatever comes up. You ask yourself, “What’s going on right now? What needs to be brought into balance?” If … 
  17. Open Are the Doors to the Deathless
     … So when the Buddha talks about feeling, you focus on your own feelings. When he talks about perception, you focus on your own perceptions. The same with thought constructs and consciousness: You look at these things as they’re happening, as he talks about them. And ask yourself, “How do I cling to these things? What’s the passion? What’s the desire I … 
  18. The Strength to See
     … Don’t feel ashamed to talk. It’s only when you talk about these things that you can get perspective from other people who wish you well. And you also don’t feel afraid to look at these things yourself. If you’re in a bad environment where confessing your mistakes is seen as a sign of weakness, you see it as a weakness … 
  19. Perfect Breathing Isn’t the Goal
     … It gives you an idea of working the feelings of pleasure and the feelings of fullness, through the different blockages in the body, around the blockages, until everything connects. That’s called a pleasant abiding. It’s not called awakening. It’s not called freedom from clinging. This is an important point. Sometimes we work with the breath and we think that “If I … 
  20. Heedful of Death
     … As you breathe in, where do you feel the energy flow? Can you sense any tension or tightness or blockage in the flow? If you do, what can you do about it? Sometimes just being alert to it is enough to disband any tension. Other times, you have to work things through more carefully. Try to develop the ardency that’s willing to stick … 
  21. Scribe Knowledge, Warrior Knowledge
     … We can develop some tools so that we can get back into the body and feel comfortable being here. This is why we work with the breath—not only the in-and-out breath but also the other breath energies throughout the body. Just learning how to think about the body in those terms is useful. It’s not a solid lump of tension … 
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