Search results for: "Feeling"
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- Renunciation… The body begins to feel just like a mist of little dots. If you focus in on the space between the dots, that goes into another level of becoming, or another level of well-being, called the formless level. There’s no shape to it at all. And as you get solidly settled in with that sense of space, you can turn around and …
- Single-minded… We want to pay careful attention outside, so we feel instinctively that we’ve got to squeeze off all the input from inside the body. What you’ve got to learn is how to be aware outside and inside at the same time. You’ve got to maintain that spot. Keep it wide open. Allow it to have a sense of fullness, that it …
- From Inconstancy to Dispassion… So it’s not the case that you just let it go, let it go, let it go for a while, until you feel more inclined to deal with it. You’ve got to stop it as quickly as possible and say, “This is where I draw the line.” And see what part of the mind objects. What is it missing? What is it …
- Don’t Just Fatten Your Mind… We try to settle the mind with one object, like the breath, and bring the mind to the object in a way that it feels at ease and has a sense of fullness, refreshment. So we work with the breath to see what kind of breathing would feel good, and then we learn to live with that sense of well-being. This is why …
- A Willingness to Learn… See how the breathing feels in different parts and do what you can to deal with any sense of tightness or tension or pain in the body, working your way up to being aware of the whole body as your breath comes in, the whole body as the breath goes out. Or choosing a particular point of focus: You may find focusing on the …
- Don’t Believe Everything You Think… One is feelings and the other is perceptions. Perceptions, here, are the images you hold in mind, be it a word or a mental picture—the words here being just basic concepts before they even turn into sentences. These are the things that shape our state of mind. Sometimes you find yourself in a good mood and you can trace it back to a …
- Renunciate Grief… Renunciate joy is the joy you feel on reaching the goal, and renunciate equanimity is the equanimity that you feel when you have tasted that joy. The Buddha makes an interesting comment. He says that when you’re suffering from householder sorrow or householder grief, you don’t want to try to replace it with householder joy, because those two just keep going back …
- Cooking Food for the Mind… When you’re feeling feverish or coming down a cold, there are certain kinds of food they’ll have you eat. As a meditator, you want take the same approach: See what the mind’s illnesses are right now and figure out what kind of food would help counteract those illnesses. So there are two things you’ve got to think about. One is …
- Values of the Noble Ones… We do something over and over again, and it’s causing suffering, but we feel compelled to keep on doing it: We’re feeding on things that we know are going to be bad for us, but we feel compelled to keep feeding. Part of that is because we lack the imagination to think of something else we could do. In other words, we …
- Worlds… And you do your best, even though you may get involved a little bit, to make sure you feel no greed or distress with regard to the worlds coming through. In other words, you don’t get involved with any narratives that would pull you in even further. You don’t let these things get you upset. Sometimes this requires just standing still with …
- The Acrobat… establishing a frame of reference—such as the body in and of itself, or feelings, mind states, mental qualities in and of themselves—and learning to stay there, keeping those things in mind. That’s the concentration element in mindfulness practice: being ardent, alert, and mindful. Mindfulness means that you keep your frame of reference in mind, and you keep in mind the idea …
- Staying Still… In other words, if you’re feeling heavy, what would lighten your sense of the body right now? What sensations in the body already there are already light? Focus on those. If you’re feeling cold, what sensations are already warm? Focus on those. See what happens. As for the lightness or heaviness of the body, there are times when you really get sensitive …
- The Equanimity of a Victor… you feel, you perceive. You fabricate thoughts and you’re aware. These are things you’re doing, and you cling to these actions in ignorance. That’s the suffering. It’s an active verb. Most of us don’t think of it that way. It’s because we don’t think of it that way: That’s why we’re defeated by it. Ajaan …
- Mental Seclusion… Notice where you feel the breathing process in the body. Let your attention settle there and then try to stay there, all the way through the in-breath, all the way through the out-. Ask yourself if the breath is comfortable. If you’re not sure, you can try different ways of breathing: longer, shorter, deeper, more shallow, heavier, lighter, faster, slower. Think of …
- The Ennobling Path… It’s so easy to break a precept, especially when you feel that you’re put at a disadvantage by the precept. We saw all that insanity after 9/11, where people were willing to throw morality out the window because they were so scared. There was even that Buddhist teacher who said, “This principle that hatred is never appeased by hatred, that it …
- Control… Forms arise, but they have to pass away; the same for feelings, perceptions, thought constructs, consciousness. You can’t always say, “I want my body to be like this. I want my feelings to be like that,” and expect them to be that way. Simply telling them to do things doesn’t necessarily make them do it. You can tell the body not to …
- Less is More… What kind of breathing would feel good now? And what would feel good now? Because sometimes you can breathe in a way that stays steadily the same for long periods of time, and the body feels fine. At other times, one type of breathing might feel good for a couple breaths and then not so good with the next breath, so you’ve got …
- You Are Not Powerless… As a result, they don’t feel powerless. And as the plot of the novel shows, when people are left feeling powerless, they either go into depression, or as I said, they plot revenge. The death of the main character in the novel comes from one of his other fellow prisoners who, after being released, tracks him down and kills him. So there’s …
- Volunteer Spirit… The Buddha was once asked by a king, “To whom should a gift be given?” And the Buddha said, essentially, “Wherever your heart feels inspired or wherever you feel the gift would be well-used.” In other words, there’s no obligation that you have to give to this or that purpose or to this or that cause. It’s totally voluntary. The king …
- Noble Happiness… And then be alert to how the breath feels. Notice when it’s comfortable, notice when it’s not. When it’s not comfortable, you can change it. This is a very immediate and visceral way of showing goodwill for yourself, finding that you can develop a sense of ease in the body simply by the way you breathe. It doesn’t cost any …
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