Search results for: "Feelings"
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- Questions of Skill… Anything that would pull you off the path—any ideas, any feelings—you have to say No to them. You can’t identify with them. That’s where the perception of not-self comes in handy. Now, the perception of not-self can also be unskillful—as when somebody asks you, “Why did you run through the stoplight?” You say, “There’s nobody here …
- The Middle Way… specifically, the suffering that comes from craving, the suffering in clinging to the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, fabrications, and consciousness. All the different kinds of suffering in world that really weigh on the mind come down to clinging to any one of these five aggregates or any combination of them. So when you see the suffering simply as that—an example of …
- The Power of Perception… It can be the feeling of the air coming in and out through the nose; it can be the feeling of the energy coursing through your body. It’s all part of what they call the wind element in Pali. The wind can be still; the wind can move. The same with the breath: The breath can be still; the breath can move. The …
- The World of the Noble Truths… We think, “Why is this pain afflicting me?” “Why is this situation in the world outside afflicting me?” But the Buddha is saying that suffering is the act of clinging to form, feelings, perceptions, fabrications, or consciousness. It’s something we do. It’s not something we’re just on the receiving end of. We’re actively doing the suffering. He then defines the …
- Intelligent Respect… One is when you have no respect for the author—you feel that he’s dumb or that he hasn’t thought things through or that he’s trying to pull a fast one. He’s got an agenda, and you’re trying to see through the agenda, trying to point out what’s wrong with the text. That’s not hard. But there …
- The Languages of the Mind… Here we’re working on a whole vocabulary of concepts to deal with the breath, as a way of anchoring us in the present moment, so that we can watch it, feel at home here, feel comfortable here, and also begin to understand what’s going on, especially in terms of this issue of intention and attention, and the results of your intentions and …
- In Terms of the Four Noble Truths… attachment to the body, to feelings, perceptions, ideas, even attachment to sensory consciousness. You want to notice that when you leave concentration, these things get heavier, more burdensome. The stories you build around them, the sense of who you are that you build around them, the sense of the world that you build around them, all of which is called becoming: It becomes a …
- In Accordance with the Dhamma… But then he looks back and he sees other people coming along the path, and he feels compassion for them. He also sees other people placing rocks and obstacles on the path, so he wants to clear those obstacles away. The best way to keep the path open for the people who come after us, even if we haven’t reached the end of …
- In Search of What’s Skillful… You get a spacey feeling in the mind and say, “This must be it. This is unconditioned. We’ve arrived.” But the question always should be: Is there anything you’re doing to maintain that? What are you doing as you stay in that state? The Buddha says that if you really look carefully, you see that there’s a perception that holds you …
- Intelligence of the Heart… It’s something you can feel good about. Now, whether they respond or not is their choice, but at least you’re not proposing that they go in another direction. So when you can work it out that you can feel this type of goodwill for everybody, in the East, in the West, in the North, in the South, above and below, out to …
- Determined on Goodwill… It’s important to realize that there’s a distinction between harming others and hurting their feelings. If hurting their feelings were harming them, then people would have ways of blackmailing you with their emotions. You have to look at if you’re harming them in ways that really would cause damage to their spiritual well-being, and that’s something else. On the …
- Truth Without Air Quotes… No perceptions, no thought constructs, no feelings, no sensory consciousness, no awareness of the body. As the Buddha said, it’s the ultimate happiness. And it is a state of knowing, even though you’re not engaged in the six senses. As he said, this consciousness is not experienced through the six senses. It’s something outside. The image he gives is of a …
- A Special Time… When you’re focused, when you’re paying attention, you try to be as sensitive as possible to how the breath feels. This way, you develop two other qualities that are important for concentration. The first is directed thought. You keep thinking about what you’re doing. You’re actively engaged. The other is evaluation: You judge how things are going. This is how …
- Bases of Success… You can either let it find its own rhythm or you can nudge it a little bit, to see if longer breathing would feel better—or if you’d prefer the breath to be shorter, faster, slower, heavier or lighter. When there’s a sense of ease, think of your awareness spreading out throughout the whole body, and allow the ease to spread out …
- Non-Reactive Judgment… You probably didn’t mean to.” She told me, “Well, I did mean to.” The friends who were trying to make her feel good were actually trying to anesthetize her inner critic. But when that happens, your precepts start getting sloppy. When your precepts are sloppy, then your concentration gets sloppy and your discernment gets dishonest. So you have to start training the critic …
- Dhamma Medicine… How is it going? Is it smooth? Is it easy? Does it feel refreshing? That can be your home base, your standard of measurement, so that you can get a true picture of what’s going on in the mind. Other methods, like contemplation of the body, can get you in a state where you don’t want to eat at all. Or if …
- Exploring What You’ve Got… Like right now it may feel a little cool because of that rainstorm going on outside. Well, do you have any warm sensations in the body? Where are they right now? Focus on them and think of the warmth spreading from those sensations. Don’t focus on the cool sensations. You’ll find that that changes your experience of the present moment. If you …
- Mindfulness as a Goad… If you think of the breath as simply the air coming in and out through the nose, that gives a very restricted area where you can feel pleasure. But if you think about it as the energy that goes coursing throughout the body each time you breathe in, each time you breathe out, that creates a much larger field in which you can find …
- The Buddha’s Shoulds… There’s a passage where King Pasenadi comes to visit the Buddha, and his first question is, “Where should a gift be given?” The Buddha responds, “Wherever you feel inspired.” In other words, there are no shoulds in this area aside from your own sense of inspiration — where you feel the gift would be well used or where you just want to give. There …
- Not-self, Not No Self… You focus on the breath and then you try to breathe in a way that feels good. That makes it easier to stay focused. If the breath is uncomfortable, you’re going to find a lot of other things to do pretty quickly. Think of the breath as the whole body of energy. When you breathe, the whole body’s breathing in, the whole …
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