Search results for: "consciousness"
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- Rebirth & Not-Self… Then you’ve got consciousness, which is aware of all these things. Consciousness, of course, is part of the consciousness aggregate. So you’re engaged in these aggregate-activities. You’re still holding on. As the Buddha said, there will be sense of “I am” all the way up through non-return. So make use of that sense of “I am.” Make skillful use …
- A Sense of Yourself… It’s like one of those consciousnesses in your body that Ajaan Lee talks about that are not your consciousness and are the consciousness of somebody else. Well, regard it in that way. Even though it may be a feature of your mind that you’ve identified with for a long time, if it’s getting in the way, you don’t need it …
- Samsara… We even create our consciousness of things. There’s an element of intention in all of these aggregates. We create them and then latch onto them. We set ourselves on fire with them. You might make an analogy of building a big bonfire to burn ourselves. It keeps burning us and yet we keep adding more fuel. We complain about how hot it is …
- Battling Negativity… Our sense of “I am this” or “I am that” can be centered on form, feeling, perception, thought-constructs, or consciousness. And as soon as we slap the label of “I am this” or “I am that” onto something, we’re going to cling to it. And there you are: suffering. Suffering is bound up in how we define ourselves. So when we start …
- A Load Off the Mind… Very consciously allow those parts of the body to stay relaxed and see if you can still breathe in. It may feel strange for a bit, but after a while you find that it really is more refreshing. It really is more energizing. It really is better for you. This is one of the most important things you learn as you meditate: that you …
- Issues of Control… In the same way, as we deal with our aggregates—form, feelings, perceptions, thought fabrications, consciousness—there are unskillful ways of trying to control them and there are skillful ways. You can actually turn them into the path. All five aggregates, for instance, are involved in concentration. Form, of course, would be the breath. Think of the breath going through the whole body. Feeling …
- A Path of Aggregates… form, feeling, perceptions, fabrication, consciousness? For one thing, he says it’s through our attachment to these things that we create our sense of being a being. And it’s this attachment that keeps grabbing on to new aggregates as the old ones pass away, and goes from one life to the next. Attachments just keep happening again and again and again. It’s …
- All Three Functions of Mindfulness… Then you consciously try to be aware of the whole body as you breathe in, breathe out. From there, you calm bodily fabrication which, the Canon tells us in another place, means getting the mind into the fourth jhana. That doesn’t happen on its own. Similarly with feelings: The sutta talks about feelings of the flesh, which are the feelings that arise willy …
- Disenchantment… You look for the origination of whatever desire you have—for forms, feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, and consciousness—and you see that it originates in the mind. What is it in the mind that wants these things? What wants to take the raw materials, the potentials in the present moment for these things, and turn them into actual aggregates? And then from the aggregates …
- The Buddha’s Tools… form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness. That kind of analysis has a lot less friction to it, again, a lot less drama and blame. If we have a bad ego or a poor struggling ego, that frames the issues in one way. But if we say, well, there’s a feeling, there’s a perception, and there’s a way of fabricating thoughts, it …
- Desire Is Part of the Path… After all, it’s the consciousness aggregate, and all the aggregates are conditioned. You’ve got to see how these conditions are put together. The best way to do that is to put them together in a good way. And that requires desire. So you remind yourself of the drawbacks of going out in the world and you remind yourself of the virtues and …
- Let Pleasure & Pain Fall Off the Plow… the form of your body as you feel it within; feelings; perceptions; mental fabrications, where you put thoughts together; and consciousness, your awareness at the senses, including the sense of the mind: If you hold on to these places, you’ll find that they can give pleasure and they can give pain. Seeing that they give pleasure, we hold on to them. They’re …
- Feelings Not of the Flesh… This is one of the reasons why, when we do meditation, we’re very consciously trying to give rise to feelings of pleasure, feelings of well-being. In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha calls these feelings not of the flesh. They don’t come on their own. He talks about pain not of the flesh. He doesn’t define it there, but you look …
- The Safety of Jhana… You’ve got your old karma and then you’ve got consciousness, focused in on whatever old karma presents in terms of form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrications, or consciousness itself. Instead of delighting in the idea of making something new out of these things, you can simply see them as they arise and pass away. That’s how you go beyond the dichotomy between …
- Clinging… That’s why the Buddha has you analyze your sense of self into those different aggregates—form, feeling, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness—because the aggregates, too, are primarily actions. Even form, the form of your body, is something you’re doing. You’re constantly telling yourself, “Where is the body right now?” Just sitting here still, there’s an activity that goes around maintaining …
- Fourth Truth, First Duty… Those are four of the five aggregates, and then of course you’ve got consciousness, which is aware of all these things. So in the course of developing concentration, you’re getting hands-on experience with the aggregates. This is going to be really important because in the Buddha’s analysis, suffering is clinging to the aggregates. So you’re getting to know the …
- Perceptions of Self & Not-Self… On the one hand, there’s the teaching that, as we chanted just now, form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrications, and consciousness are all not-self. The six senses are not-self. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are not-self. But then, as he pointed out, there’s the phrase another passage that we chant again and again, “I am the owner …
- Four Noble Truths to One… the five clinging-aggregates of form, feeling, perceptions, thought fabrications, and consciousness. The aggregates don’t cling. We cling to them, and the clinging is the actual suffering. Once we learn how to be with these things, to engage in these things without clinging, then there’s no suffering around them. So you have to comprehend: How is that clinging suffering? We have to …
- Feeding on the Breath… Then there’s the consciousness that’s aware of these things. We learn to feed on these things instead of the general garbage that we otherwise tend to feed on outside. So it’s all an active process. When we’re on the path, we engage in the process but we try to do it as skillful way as possible. That’s how we …
- The Core of Experience… And the things you’ve got—form, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness, what the Buddha calls the five aggregates—are things that if you simply cling to them, are going to cause problems, going to cause suffering. In fact, the clinging will be suffering. But you can turn them into a path, which switches their role as part of the first noble truth, about …
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