by Pam Marraccini | afflictions, anger, awareness, breathing, compassion, deep listening, energy, happiness, heart, joy, love, mental formation, mindfulness, nonduality, present, seed, suffering, Thich Nhat Hanh, Uncategorized, understanding
A Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing
By Thich Nhat Hanh
Subject Five: Observing Our Feelings
- Breathing in, I am aware of my mental formations.
Breathing out, I am aware of my mental formations.
- Breathing in, I calm my mental formations.
Breathing out, I calm my mental formations.
Mental formations are psychological phenomena. There are fifty-one mental formations according to the Vijnanavada School of the Mahayana, and fifty-two according to the Theravada. Feelings are one of them. In the seventh and eighth breathing exercises, mental formations simply mean feelings. They do not refer to the other fifty mental formations. In the Vimutti Magga, we are told that mental formations in these exercises mean feelings and perceptions. It is more likely that mental formations here simply mean feelings, although feelings are caused by our perceptions.
Some feelings are more rooted in the body, such as a toothache or a headache. Feelings that are rooted in our mind arise from our perceptions. In the early morning when you see the first light of day and hear the birds singing, you might have a very pleasant feeling. But if once at this time of day you received a long distance telephone call that your parent had suffered a heart attack, the feeling that comes from that perception may be painful for many years.
When you feel sad, do you remember that it will not last forever? If someone comes and smiles at you, your sadness may vanish right away. In fact, it has not gone anywhere. It has just ceased to manifest. Two days later, if someone criticizes you, sadness may reappear. Whether the seed of sadness is manifesting or not depends on causes and conditions. Our practice is to be aware of the feeling that is present right now. “Breathing in, I am aware of the feeling that is in me now. Breathing out, I am aware of the feeling that is in me now.”
If it is a pleasant feeling, when we are aware that it is a pleasant feeling, it may become even more pleasant. If we are eating or drinking something that is healthy and nourishing for us, our feeling of happiness will grow as we become aware of it. If what we are consuming is harmful for our intestines, our lungs, our liver, or our environment, our awareness will reveal to us that our so-called pleasant feeling has within it many seeds of suffering.
The seventh and eighth breathing exercises help us observe all our feelings – pleasant and unpleasant, neutral and mixed. Feelings, arising from irritations, anger, anxiety, weariness, and boredom, are disagreeable ones. Whatever feeling is present, we identify it, recognize that it is there, and shine the sun of our awareness on it.
If we have an unpleasant feeling, we take that feeling in our arms like a mother holding her crying baby. The “mother” is mindfulness and the “crying baby” is the unpleasant feeling. Mindfulness and conscious breathing are able to calm the feeling. If we do not hold the unpleasant feeling in our arms but allow it just to remain in us, it will continue to make us suffer. “Breathing in, I touch the unpleasant feeling in me. Breathing out, I touch the unpleasant feeling in me.”
In Buddhist meditation, looking deeply is based on non-duality. Therefore, we do not view irritation as an enemy coming to invade us. We see that we are that irritation in the present moment. When we are irritated we know, “This irritation is in me. I am this irritation,” and we breathe in and out in this awareness. Thanks to this approach, we no longer need to oppose, expel, or destroy our irritation. When we practice looking deeply, we do not set up barriers between good and bad in ourselves and transform ourselves into a battlefield. We treat our irritations with compassion and nonviolence, facing it with our heart filled with love, as if we were facing our own baby sister. We bring the light of awareness to it by breathing in and out mindfully. Under the light of awareness, our irritation is gradually transformed. Every feeling is a field of energy. A pleasant feeling is an energy that can nourish. Irritation is a feeling that can destroy. Under the light of awareness, the energy of irritation is transformed into a kind of energy that nourishes us.
Feelings originate either in the body or in your perceptions. When we suffer from insomnia, we feel fatigue or irritation. That feeling originates in our body. When we misperceive a person or an object, we may feel anger, disappointment, or irritation. This feeling originates in our perception. According to Buddhism, our perceptions are often inaccurate and cause us to suffer. The practice of Full Awareness is to look deeply in order to see the true nature of everything and to go beyond our inaccurate perceptions. Seeing a rope as a snake, we may cry out in fear. Fear is a feeling, and mistaking the rope for a snake is an inaccurate perception.
If we live our lives in moderation, keeping our bodies in good health, we can diminish painful feelings which originate in the body. By observing each thing clearly and opening the boundaries of our understanding, we can diminish painful feelings that originate from perceptions. When we observe a feeling deeply, we recognize the multitude of causes near and far that helped bring it about, and we discover the very nature of feeling.
When a feeling of irritation or fear is present, we can be aware of it, nourishing our awareness through breathing. With patience, we come to see more deeply into the true nature of this feeling, and in seeing, we come to understand, and understanding brings us freedom. The seventh exercise refers to the awareness of a mental formation, namely a feeling. When we have identified the feeling, we can see how it arises, exists for a while, and ceases to be in order to become something else.
With mindfulness, a so-called neutral feeling can become a pleasant or an unpleasant feeling. It depends on your way of handling it. Suppose you are sitting in the garden with your little boy. You feel wonderful. The sky is blue, the grass is green, there are many flowers, and you are able to touch the beauty of nature. You are very happy, but your little boy is not. First, he has only a neutral feeling but, since he doesn’t know how to handle it, it turns into boredom. In his search for more exciting feelings, he wants to run into the living room and turn on the television. Sitting with the flowers, the grass, and the blue sky is not fun for him. The neutral feeling has become an unpleasant feeling.
Mindfulness helps us to identify a feeling as a feeling and an emotion as an emotion. It helps us hold our emotions tenderly within us, embrace them, and look deeply at them. By observing the true nature of any feeling, we can transform it’s energy into the energy of peace and joy. When we understand someone, we can accept and love him. The energy of the feeling of irritation, in this case, has been transformed into the energy of love. The Buddha had much love and compassion as far as the body and feelings of people are concerned. He wanted his disciples to return to, look after, care for, heal, and nourish their bodies and minds. How deeply the Buddha understood human beings!
by Pam Marraccini | Uncategorized
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings
Updated April 22, 2012
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings are the very essence of the Order of
Interbeing. They are the torch lighting our path, the boat carrying us, the
teacher guiding us. They allow us to touch the nature of interbeing in
everything that is, and to see that our happiness is not separate from the
happiness of others. Interbeing is not a theory; it is a reality that can be
directly experienced by each of us at any moment in our daily lives. The
Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings help us cultivate concentration and insight
which free us from fear and the illusion of a separate self.
The First Mindfulness Training: Openness
Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are
determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or
ideology, even Buddhist ones. We are committed to seeing the Buddhist
teachings as guiding means that help us develop our understanding and
compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for. We understand
that fanaticism in its many forms is the result of perceiving things in a
dualistic and discriminative manner. We will train ourselves to look at
everything with openness and the insight of interbeing in order to transform
dogmatism and violence in ourselves and in the world.
The Second Mindfulness Training: Non-Attachment to Views
Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong
perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to
present views. We are committed to learning and practicing non-attachment
to views and being open to others’ experiences and insights in order to
benefit from the collective wisdom. We are aware that the knowledge we
presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Insight is revealed
through the practice of compassionate listening, deep looking, and letting go
of notions rather than through the accumulation of intellectual knowledge.
Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every
moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.
The Third Mindfulness Training: Freedom of Thought
Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others,
we are determined not to force others, even our children, by any means
whatsoever – such as authority, threat, money, propaganda, or indoctrination
– to adopt our views. We are committed to respecting the right of others to
be different, to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however,
learn to help others let go of and transform fanaticism and narrowness
through loving speech and compassionate dialogue.
The Fourth Mindfulness Training: Awareness of Suffering
Aware that looking deeply at the nature of suffering can help us develop
understanding and compassion, we are determined to come home to
ourselves, to recognize, accept, embrace and listen to suffering with the
energy of mindfulness. We will do our best not to run away from our
suffering or cover it up through consumption, but practice conscious
breathing and walking to look deeply into the roots of our suffering. We
know we can realize the path leading to the transformation of suffering only
when we understand deeply the roots of suffering. Once we have understood
our own suffering, we will be able to understand the suffering of others. We
are committed to finding ways, including personal contact and using
telephone, electronic, audiovisual, and other means, to be with those who
suffer, so we can help them transform their suffering into compassion,
peace, and joy.
The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Compassionate, Healthy Living
Aware that true happiness is rooted in peace, solidity, freedom, and
compassion, we are determined not to accumulate wealth while millions are
hungry and dying nor to take as the aim of our life fame, power, wealth, or
sensual pleasure, which can bring much suffering and despair. We will
practice looking deeply into how we nourish our body and mind with edible
foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. We are committed not
to gamble or to use alcohol, drugs or any other products which bring toxins
into our own and the collective body and consciousness such as certain
websites, electronic games, music, TV programs, films, magazines, books
and conversations. We will consume in a way that preserves compassion,
wellbeing, and joy in our bodies and consciousness and in the collective
body and consciousness of our families, our society, and the earth.
The Sixth Mindfulness Training: Taking Care of Anger
Aware that anger blocks communication and creates suffering, we are
committed to taking care of the energy of anger when it arises, and to
recognizing and transforming the seeds of anger that lie deep in our
consciousness. When anger manifests, we are determined not to do or say
anything, but to practice mindful breathing or mindful walking to
acknowledge, embrace, and look deeply into our anger. We know that the
roots of anger are not outside of ourselves but can be found in our wrong
perceptions and lack of understanding of the suffering in ourselves and
others. By contemplating impermanence, we will be able to look with the
eyes of compassion at ourselves and at those we think are the cause of our
anger, and to recognize the preciousness of our relationships. We will
practice Right Diligence in order to nourish our capacity of understanding,
love, joy and inclusiveness, gradually transforming our anger, violence and
fear, and helping others do the same.
The Seventh Mindfulness Training: Dwelling Happily in the Present
Moment
Aware that life is available only in the present moment, we are committed to
training ourselves to live deeply each moment of daily life. We will try not
to lose ourselves in dispersion or be carried away by regrets about the past,
worries about the future, or craving, anger, or jealousy in the present. We
will practice mindful breathing to be aware of what is happening in the here
and the now. We are determined to learn the art of mindful living by
touching the wondrous, refreshing, and healing elements that are inside and
around us, in all situations. In this way, we will be able to cultivate seeds of
joy, peace, love, and understanding in ourselves, thus facilitating the work of
transformation and healing in our consciousness. We are aware that real
happiness depends primarily on our mental attitude and not on external
conditions, and that we can live happily in the present moment simply by
remembering that we already have more than enough conditions to be
happy.
The Eighth Mindfulness Training: True Community and Communication
Aware that lack of communication always brings separation and suffering,
we are committed to training ourselves in the practice of compassionate
listening and loving speech. Knowing that true community is rooted in
inclusiveness and in the concrete practice of the harmony of views, thinking
and speech, we will practice to share our understanding and experiences
with members in our community in order to arrive at a collective insight.
We are determined to learn to listen deeply without judging or reacting and
refrain from uttering words that can create discord or cause the community
to break. Whenever difficulties arise, we will remain in our Sangha and
practice looking deeply into ourselves and others to recognize all the causes
and conditions, including our own habit energies, that have brought about
the difficulties. We will take responsibility for the ways we may have
contributed to the conflict and keep communication open. We will not
behave as a victim but be active in finding ways to reconcile and resolve all
conflicts however small.
The Ninth Mindfulness Training: Truthful and Loving Speech
Aware that words can create happiness or suffering, we are committed to
learning to speak truthfully, lovingly and constructively. We will use only
words that inspire joy, confidence and hope as well as promote
reconciliation and peace in ourselves and among other people. We will
speak and listen in a way that can help ourselves and others to transform
suffering and see the way out of difficult situations. We are determined not
to say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people,
nor to utter words that might cause division or hatred. We will protect the
happiness and harmony of our Sangha by refraining from speaking about the
faults of other persons in their absence and always ask ourselves whether our
perceptions are correct. We will speak only with the intention to understand
and help transform the situation. We will not spread rumors nor criticize or
condemn things of which we are not sure. We will do our best to speak out
about situations of injustice, even when doing so may make difficulties for
us or threaten our safety.
The Tenth Mindfulness Training: Protecting and Nourishing the Sangha
Aware that the essence and aim of a Sangha is the realization of
understanding and compassion, we are determined not to use the Buddhist
community for personal power or profit, or transform our community into a
political instrument. As members of a spiritual community, we should
nonetheless take a clear stand against oppression and injustice. We should
strive to change the situation, without taking sides in a conflict. We are
committed to learning to look with the eyes of interbeing and to see
ourselves and others as cells in one Sangha body. As a true cell in the
Sangha body, generating mindfulness, concentration and insight to nourish
ourselves and the whole community, each of us is at the same time a cell in
the Buddha body. We will actively build brotherhood and sisterhood, flow as
a river, and practice to develop the three real powers – understanding, love
and cutting through afflictions – to realize collective awakening.
The Eleventh Mindfulness Training: Right Livelihood
Aware that great violence and injustice have been done to our environment
and society, we are committed not to live with a vocation that is harmful to
humans and nature. We will do our best to select a livelihood that
contributes to the wellbeing of all species on earth and helps realize our ideal
of understanding and compassion. Aware of economic, political, and social
realities around the world, as well as our interrelationship with the
ecosystem, we are determined to behave responsibly as consumers and as
citizens. We will not invest in or purchase from companies that contribute to
the depletion of natural resources, harm the earth, or deprive others of their
chance to live.
The Twelfth Mindfulness Training: Reverence for Life
Aware that much suffering is caused by war and conflict, we are determined
to cultivate nonviolence, compassion, and the insight of interbeing in our
daily lives and promote peace education, mindful mediation, and
reconciliation within families, communities, ethnic and religious groups,
nations, and in the world. We are committed not to kill and not to let others
kill. We will not support any act of killing in the world, in our thinking, or in
our way of life. We will diligently practice deep looking with our Sangha to
discover better ways to protect life, prevent war, and build peace.
The Thirteenth Mindfulness Training: Generosity
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and
oppression, we are committed to cultivating generosity in our way of
thinking, speaking, and acting. We will practice loving kindness by working
for the happiness of people, animals, plants, and minerals, and sharing our
time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. We are
determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to
others. We will respect the property of others, but will try to prevent others
from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other beings.
The Fourteenth Mindfulness Training: True Love
[For lay members]: Aware that sexual desire is not love and that sexual
relations motivated by craving cannot dissipate the feeling of loneliness but
will create more suffering, frustration, and isolation, we are determined not
to engage in sexual relations without mutual understanding, love, and a deep
long-term commitment made known to our family and friends. Seeing that
body and mind are one, we are committed to learning appropriate ways to
take care of our sexual energy and to cultivating loving kindness,
compassion, joy and inclusiveness for our own happiness and the happiness
of others. We must be aware of future suffering that may be caused by
sexual relations. We know that to preserve the happiness of ourselves and
others, we must respect the rights and commitments of ourselves and others.
We will do everything in our power to protect children from sexual abuse
and to protect couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.
We will treat our bodies with compassion and respect. We are determined to
look deeply into the Four Nutriments and learn ways to preserve and channel
our vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of our bodhisattva
ideal. We will be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into
the world, and will regularly meditate upon their future environment.
[For monastic members]: Aware that the deep aspiration of a monk or a nun
can only be realized when he or she wholly leaves behind the bonds of
sensual love, we are committed to practicing chastity and to helping others
protect themselves. We are aware that loneliness and suffering cannot be
alleviated through a sexual relationship, but through practicing loving
kindness, compassion, joy and inclusiveness. We know that a sexual
relationship will destroy our monastic life, will prevent us from realizing our
ideal of serving living beings, and will harm others. We will learn
appropriate ways to take care of our sexual energy. We are determined not to
suppress or mistreat our body, or look upon our body as only an instrument,
but will learn to handle our body with compassion and respect. We will look
deeply into the Four Nutriments in order to preserve and channel our vital
energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of our bodhisattva ideal.
ach truth contains the others; they can’t be considered completely separately from each other. If you fully understand one noble truth, you understand all four. If you really begin to understand suffering, you are already beginning to understand the path to its cessation. The four truths inter-are. Each one contains the others.
