Search results for: "Feelings"
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- Getting Untangled from Thorns… your attraction to a particular image, to particular details in what you see, your fantasy narratives, your role in the narratives, your attraction just to the feeling of having lust. Then there are all the little details. That’s why the Buddha said, when he was describing restraint, that you notice the details or the themes and variations—the general themes and the little …
- The Treasure of Equanimity… Politicians can say that they feel your suffering, but that’s politicians. They’ll say anything. You know that your suffering is your suffering. Other people can sympathize with it and give you condolences and try to do the best they can, but they can’t come in and take your suffering away. It’s like a child, crying uncontrollably. You hold the child …
- Kindfulness… But as you get more and more skilled, you find that you can carry the sense of being well-centered—having an awareness that fills the body, that feels at ease with the body, feels at ease with the breath—into all kinds of situations. Where in the past you felt threatened, nervous, or ill at ease, now you have a solid center. You …
- Hindrances… But there can be parts of the body that feel nourished by longer breathing, shorter breathing, deeper, more shallow, whatever feels good, down around the heart, in the stomach, in the throat, or wherever you’re really sensitive. Remind yourself that that pleasure is a lot less harmful. Remember the Buddha after his years of self-torture. He saw that he was going to …
- The Skill of Patience… If you have trouble gaining a sense of the breath, just hold your breath for a while until you feel you can’t hold it any longer and then you’ll notice, when you breathe in, where you feel the breathing. Focus on that sensation. All of this is to help ground you in the present moment, to give you a place where you …
- Why It’s Good to Know Why… You can ask yourself, “Why listen to them when it feels so good to be with the breath?” If the breath is not comfortable, it’s very easy to tell yourself, “Well, those other intentions might be a better way to find happiness. Let’s follow them.” But you can strengthen your original intention by taking an interest in the breath, finding joy not …
- Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources… You give what’s extra and sometimes you give enough to really feel it, that you are giving something up—but not to the extent that you’re actually harming yourself. That’s one of the rules in the monks’ rules. If they see that a family has newly gained faith and they’re being extravagantly generous to the point where the monks are …
- A Gentle Touch… There’s the mental chatter, there are feelings and perceptions, and they could either be directed outside, directed to the past, directed to the future, or the same process can be acting right here, hovering around here. It’s in hovering around here that you bring your awareness where it really ought to be, because if you want to understand how you shape your …
- A Heart & Mind of Goodwill… Ask yourself what kind of breathing would feel good for you right now. You want it to be clear enough so you can keep your attention focused on it. Sometimes heavy breathing feels good, it’s energizing. Other times you want something lighter, longer, shorter, faster, slower, deeper, more shallow. Try to find what feels good right now and then keep your attention focused …
- Clinging & Feeding… We convert our form, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, and consciousness into a state of concentration. We use the fabrication of thoughts to develop wisdom, the perceptions that the Buddha recommends to develop wisdom—the purpose of that wisdom being to develop dispassion and disenchantment. Then we feed the mind with conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, all of which are good food for the mind …
- A Skillful Heart… We develop virtue to make sure that our goodwill doesn’t get swayed by ideas that are short-sighted, saying, “Well, it would good for so-and-so if I lie to them a little bit and make them feel good.” You have to realize that, in the long run, that’s not going to be good for anyone at all. They’re going …
- Our Sense of Self… This is why when the Buddha talks about not-self, we feel threatened. It’s as if he’s trying to take something away from us, deprive us of our strategies. But that’s not the case. He’s actually providing us with new and better strategies. On the one hand, he tries to expand our sense of what kind of happiness is possible …
- A Legacy of Strengths… You ask yourself, “Does the breath feel good? If not, what can I do to make it feel better?” You can change the rhythm of the breath or the texture of the breath. Or you can change the image you have in mind about what the breath is doing in the body. When we speak about “breath” here, it’s not so much the …
- Strategies for Happiness… They feel that these teachings are going to deprive them of the strategies they use to find happiness. But these teachings are meant to protect you from suffering. They’re there to remind you that if you latch onto the body as yours in a really strong sense, you’re going to suffer. If you can see it as a tool that you use …
- Right Speech, Inside & Out… You don’t want to say things to hurt people’s feelings just for the sake of hurting their feelings. But there are times when you have to use strong language in order to make people take notice. So again, this is one of those areas where you have to use your discernment in that direction. Finally, there’s the principle against idle chatter …
- Cutting Roads… When you keep that perception in mind—an energy center with energy flowing from that center in a way that feels good, feels nourishing—then you just learn how to maintain that perception. Over time, that perception will gain more and more staying power, because the breath gets infused with that association. You tend to associate that level of energy, that type of energy …
- The Karma of Perception… When you’re feeling lightheaded, you can focus on the heavy, earth-like sensations in the body, to bring things into balance. When you’re feeling too warm or too cold, you can focus on whichever element will bring things back into balance. But earth can also get really heavy and oppressive, and water and fire can also get out of control sometimes. When …
- Every Little Bit… Once you get into position, and the mind settles down and feels good, you realize you don’t really want to get up again. This reflects a teaching the Buddha gave one time, which is that when the mind is in an unskillful state, just giving rise to a finger-snap of a skillful mind state has value. If the idea of trying to …
- Kamma & Rebirth… We do know when we feel suffering and we know when we feel relative ease, but that’s about as much as we know. As we grow up, there are people to explain things to us. This is where human beings have an advantage over animals. There’s nobody to explain anything to a dog or a cat about how to live. There’s …
- Discipline Is a Choice… How would it feel to go someplace new, try out something new, right now? Now, this desire to try something new is what got us on the path to freedom to begin with. But just because it got us here doesn’t mean that we have to follow it wherever it goes. Once we’re here, we have to realize that this is a …
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