Search results for: "Perception"

  1. The Karma of Perception
     … You could apply other perceptions. The trick is learning how to make the new perceptions stick. This is one of the reasons why we practice concentration. You’re holding a perception in mind, the perception of breath, and you’re learning to make it stick by seeing how beneficial it is. And you can do the same with the perception of other elements. Space … 
  2. Where Perceptions Can Take You
    Where Perceptions Can Take You May 17, 2020 One of the basic teachings of the Forest tradition is that if you want to understand the aggregates, it’s not necessary to go following all five. All you have to do is focus on one of them. If you really get to know that one very thoroughly, then the other four will come running in … 
  3. Using Perceptions
     … Could you have a perception that would encompass all of the atoms, all of the chemicals, all of the chemical interactions, the firing of the synapses? No single perception could contain all those details. So the question is, what perception would be useful right now? We use the perception of the breath, and the Buddha’s perception of the breath may not be what … 
  4. Dethinking Thinking
     … This, again, is not to get to the objectivity of the best perception of the breath, or the truest perception of the breath, but to the objectivity of cause and effect. This perception has that effect, that perception has this effect: That’s what you want to see. After a while, as you get the mind into concentration, you’ll be dealing with perceptions … 
  5. The Truth of Perceptions
     … What happens if you put aside this perception of the mind being one? The mind goes to a perception of nothingness. This takes you as far as perception can go, but you’ve learned an important lesson: Perceptions are a sketch. They focus on different aspects of reality. And some are true, some are false. But you can have lots of different true perceptions … 
  6. Perceptions as Targets
     … You can change your perceptions. When we go flowing out after things, we go flowing out after our narratives. When somebody attracts us, it may be because that person stirs up memories, and the perception of that person seems like a good target for our thoughts. The problem is that we’re focused more on the perception than the actual person, which can lead … 
  7. The Thread of Mindfulness
    The Thread of Mindfulness April 13, 2015 The Buddha speaks of concentration as a perception-attainment through all the levels from the first jhana up through the dimension of nothingness. In each case, the perception you hold in mind keeps you in concentration, which means that as we’re concentrating, we’re fighting against the passage we chanted just now about perceptions being inconstant … 
  8. Tools of Perception
     … He’s more concerned with your experience and what these perceptions do to it. We go around with a lot of perceptions that can weigh us down, that actually cause a lot of suffering. Then there are other perceptions that help alleviate the suffering. Then there’s a point where the perceptions have done their work, and you put them aside. That’s the … 
  9. Perception
    One of the lessons you learn from practicing concentration is how powerful your perceptions can be. The way you perceive the breath has a huge impact on what it feels like to breathe and on your ability to settle down with the breath. If you feel that you have to fight for your breath, and that there’s only a little channel by which … 
  10. The Power of Perception
    When you’re concentrated on the breath, you’re trying to hold one perception in mind: just the label, “breath.” Think for a minute about what the breath can be. 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 … 
  11. Question Your Perceptions
    When you study the rules in the Vinaya, you see the huge role that perception plays in determining offenses. Say you see a little black spot on the sidewalk, you think it’s just a little black spot, and you step on it. You perceive it as just a black spot. If it turns out it was a bug, the fact that you didn … 
  12. The Three Perceptions as Tools
    There are three main perceptions the Buddha has you pursue for the sake of developing dispassion, and it’s important to remember that that’s their purpose: dispassion. The perceptions are inconstancy, anicca, stress or suffering, dukkha, and not-self, anattā. Sometimes you hear them referred to as three characteristics, but the Buddha himself never referred to them in that way. He was less … 
  13. Perception
     … When you can use these perceptions to let go of the aggregates—including even skillful perceptions—then you open to something that’s even greater than you can imagine, in which there’s no perception, but there is the greatest happiness possible. So perception plays a huge role in the practice, both in identifying what’s what, and learning to retrain your perceptions of … 
  14. Perception
     … In other words, the perception is useful because you can do things with it. If you stick with that perception of the breath, trying to keep it as constant as possible, you learn two things. One is that you get more and more sensitive as to what you’re doing in order to maintain the perception. You start seeing the process of perception a … 
  15. Coming into the Present
     … But what’s the result of holding on to that perception? You find that holding onto the perception of whole body as breath has a lot of benefits. So you just hold on, keep that perception in mind, and then look at the body from that perspective. This is why concentration is called a perception attainment. It’s by holding on to certain perceptions … 
  16. Representing the World to Itself
     … He kept this up until he found a body of perceptions that really worked. That’s a lot of what he taught. Right view is made out of perceptions. He presented it with analogies to help him make the path a lot clearer, but also to replace our perceptions, the perceptions we’ve been holding to, with other perceptions. At the same time, he … 
  17. Breath Meditation: The Second Tetrad
     … You evaluate: “If this perception is too gross, I want to have a more subtle one.” The perception of having a form of the body is grosser than the perception of perceiving the body as just a mist of sensations. The perception of the space between that mist is a more subtle perception still. The perception of the awareness of that space: that’s … 
  18. The Power of Perception
    The Power of Perception November 9, 2009 There is a Pali word, nimitta, which is often translated as “sign,” meaning a visual image that appears in your meditation. But that’s not how it’s used in the Canon. In the Canon, Sister Dhammadinna said—and the Buddha confirmed what she said—that the four nimitta of right concentration are the four frames of … 
  19. Perceptions Around Pain
     … It teaches you how to observe your mind, look at the ways your mind acts around different issues, and particularly to step back from your perceptions and learn how to question them, replace them with different perceptions. See the connections between the perceptions and the pain. Certain perceptions come, and the level of pain goes up. When they disappear, the level of the pain … 
  20. The Six Properties
     … Don’t let go of that perception. After all, the Buddha said concentration is a perception attainment. It’s this ability to stick with one perception for long periods of time that’s really going to come in handy. With the perception of fire, see how warm you can make the body. Then if you decide you’ve had enough warmth, it’s getting … 
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