Search results for: "Feelings"

  1. Page 65
  2. The Path Requires Effort
     … In what ways does the energy flow so that it feels good, and in what ways does it flow that it doesn’t feel so good? There’s a story of Hakuin, the Zen master who, after years of meditating, complained of what he called Zen sickness. But it’s not just Zen people who get it. A lot of meditators get it. As … 
  3. Subduing Greed & Distress
     … There’s the body, there’s feeling, and there’s mind. Those are the first three frames. The body, of course, is the breath. Feeling is the sense of ease that you’re trying to develop through the breath. And the mind is the awareness that you’re trying to keep focused in the body with one focal point, but at the same time … 
  4. Establishing Priorities
     … How does the breathing affect the body? How does the effect of the breath on the body have an effect on the mind? How can you maximize the positive effects? What kind of breathing would feel really good? And when it feels good, what can you do with that good feeling? The Buddha suggests spreading it around, allowing it to permeate the body throughout … 
  5. An Inner Revolution
     … If they’re working at cross purposes and feeling uncomfortable, that’s going to have a bad impact on how you feel things in the body, what your moods are, how you think. So you try to make all this more comfortable. Develop a greater sense of ease in the breathing, a greater sense of spaciousness, a greater sense of the whole body as … 
  6. Pleasure Has a Price
     … Every cell is engaged in the flow of energy, so that the breath feels spacious, loosens up any patterns of tension in the different parts of the body—so that it feels good to be here inside your body. If you have any diseases or chronic pains, work around them. Instead of focusing on the pains, focus on the areas of the body that … 
  7. The Treasure Hunt
     … the feelings of suffering and the knowledge of actions. The second knowledge suggested that there was a connection between the two, so the Buddha decided to see if this was true. These two are very certain things. When you’re suffering, no one can convincingly tell you, “That’s not really suffering; you’re not suffering.” Other things you might know can be shaped … 
  8. Be Decisive
     … Where do you feel the breath in the body right now? Where is it most comfortable to stay focused? What kind of breathing feels best? If you know that already, go right there. A lot of us have an unskillful habit of taking a while to settle down. Like a hunter checking his trap-lines: You have to make sure that this trap is … 
  9. Equanimity
     … It even gets to the point where the rapture feels burdensome. It feels like it’s too much, so at that point you focus on a level of energy that’s more refined. And as you focus on that more refined level, the grosser sense of rapture will gradually dissipate. The mind feels very equanimous at that point, but there will be a sense … 
  10. Lean into the Present
     … We fabricate feelings because we want feelings. The same with perceptions, thought fabrications, consciousness: We do this for the sake of something, but all too often we’re not really clear about what the “for the sake” is. All we know is that we’re leaning in that direction. What the Buddha’s telling us is to be here with the breath in order … 
  11. Wisdom & Compassion
     … When the mind is feeling burdened, when it’s feeling assaulted by all the events of the world, this is one way of giving it a chance to find someplace else to focus. Right here, all you have is the functioning of the body. And allow the breath to be comfortable, because the breath is the main function of the body that has an … 
  12. Holding On to the Path
     … The same pattern is followed in the next tetrad, when you’re aware of how to breathe in a way that induces as sense of rapture, a sense of ease, and you get sensitive to how your feelings and your perceptions have an effect on the mind. The last step in that section is to allow those feelings and perceptions to be calmed. In … 
  13. Things Don’t Have to Be This Way
     … Stop twisting the horn, and you’ll feel much better. You won’t get any milk, but you’ll feel much better.” That’s actually a mild depression. Depression comes from when you try your hardest to find happiness, and it just doesn’t work, and something inside gives up: can’t think of any strategies, can’t think of any ways to change … 
  14. Balanced Meditation
     … You don’t feel past stress; you don’t feel future stress. You can remember the past, you can anticipate the future, but where you’re actually feeling the suffering right now is right here. That’s what you want to focus on, because that’s the problem. And the insights you want to gain are the ones you’ll gain right here. So … 
  15. For Goodness’ Sake
     … How does it feel? Does it feel good enough to stay with for a while? If it doesn’t, how could it be made to feel that good? You experiment. You try things out. You ask questions. You look for answers. These are all things you do. Then, when you find something that seems good, you can stick with it for a while to … 
  16. The Pursuit of Pleasure
     … Find the areas of the body that are at peace, that feel refreshed, relaxed—although maybe “refreshed” is too strong a word in the beginning. It feels relaxed, okay, as you breathe in, as you breathe out. Learn to focus on them in a way that allows them to maintain that same sense of open relaxation, and think of them opening up to one … 
  17. The Limits of Control
    The Limits of Control August 19, 2009 They say they’ve found that when they stimulate a certain part of your brain, you can feel a very strong sense of oneness; your sense of boundary between yourself and the world outside dissolves. There’s a very satisfying sense that you’re one with everything you’re aware of. Of course, this doesn’t mean … 
  18. Mission Possible
     … Where do you feel that effort, especially where do you feel that effort in the body? Where is there a pattern of tension in the breath energy that allows that thinking to have a foothold in your mind? Can you breathe through that? Then, as a last resort, you crush that unskillful thinking with your determination simply not to think it. That’s when … 
  19. Restraint
     … That way, you don’t feel hemmed in. And as for the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations you have to say No to—it doesn’t feel like that much of a deprivation anymore. So all of these aspects of a good determination—discernment, truth, relinquishment, calm—come down to discernment, because they’re related to the duties for the four noble truths … 
  20. But Not Sick in Mind
     … Try to find the rhythm and texture that feels best for the body right now, and that feels best for the mind: a place where the mind can stay still but alert. It doesn’t feel like it has to go running out after things to find some pleasure. There’s some pleasure right here. We need this foundation because, as the chant said … 
  21. The Sport of Wise People
     … How does this feel? Is this a place where you can settle in? How’s the living room? How’s the dining room? Is it big enough? Or do you feel cramped or tight? You’ve got to expand the house. Think not only of the body but also of the area immediately around the body. Can you sense an energy field there? Some … 
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