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Introduction to Insight Meditation, Session 3: Mindfulness of Feelings

by Philip L. Jones

I. Beginning Meditation - Mindfulness of Body Sensations (10 min)

A.Review the instructions (see handout)

II. Discussion (10-15 minutes)

A.Questions from previous session and from week's practice

III. The Progression of Practice

A.Eihei Dogen, a 13^th century Japanese Zen master, said "When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self." "Actualizing the Fundamental Point," Moon in a Dewdrop, North Point Press, 1985, p. 70.

B.We can think of the term "dharma" as referring, in this case, to the same thing that Thich Nhat Hanh spoke of in the quote I read in the first session. He said "Peace is all around us -- in the world and in nature -- and within us -- in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed." -- Touching Peace, Parallax Press, 1992, pp. 1-2.

C.What keeps us from seeing that "you are immediately your original self" or that "Peace is all around us ..."?

1.It is our tendency to get caught in our experiences.

2.We get caught in our experiences because we don't see their true nature.

a.We see our experiences as being permanent, satisfactory and as having a solidity to them.

D.So through this practice we begin to investigate our experience so that we can see for ourselves what is true about our experiences and how we get caught in them.

E.Each week we will be exploring a different aspect of our inner experience.

1.The first week we learned how to ground ourselves, how to settle ourselves using the sensations of breathing.

2.Last week we explored opening to our physical sensations and discovered a number of insights about how we relate to them.

3.I think we also had a taste of deepening our practices as we were able to do multiple sittings and feel the momentum of concentration and mindfulness carry over from one sitting to the next.

F.As we move to different aspects of our experience, we begin to focus on more and more subtle experiences.

1.Sometimes they may be easy for us to see, at other times quite difficult.

2.It mostly depends upon how much concentration and mindfulness we have been able to develop.

G.Tonight we will be focusing a little on working with distractions and then mostly on Feeling

IV. Working with Distractions

A.(Mention and refer to Handout)

B.The basic rule of thumb in insight meditation is that nothing is a distraction, everything is an object of mindfulness.

1.Easier said than done.

C.Try to meet experiences with kindness

D.If getting irritated or frustrated, first just notice it, notice the desire that things be different than they are.

E.Then see if you can simply bring non-judgmental awareness to that irritating or frustrating thing. ... This is sometimes called opening to itor surrendering to it.

1.It is the ability to simply be with whatever comes into our lives, the ability tolive with contentment.

V. Working with Feeling

A.One effective way to learn to work with "distractions" and "difficulties" is by practicing Mindfulness of Feeling

B.Feeling refers to what I call the tone of an experience, whether it is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral

C.Feelings are distinct from emotions, even though we often use the words interchangeably.

1.Feelings are the responses we have to sensory input, whether that is through the five sense doors or through our thoughts.

2.Emotions are much more complex and involve moods, such as anger , desire, and even joy, as well as physical sensations and thoughts, often stories we tell ourselves.

a.Next week we'll work some with emotions.

D.Feeling actually is the foundation upon which emotion is built, so developing some ability to be aware of feeling allows us to be less caught up in our emotions as well.

E.Important to be aware of feeling because this is what keeps us hooked into our conditioning:

1.Pleasant sensations lead to desire and attachment, we want more and think that more will make us happy or will keep us happy

2.Unpleasant sensations lead to anger, fear and aversion. We want to get away from the unpleasant and believe that doing so will make us happy

3.Neutral sensations lead to boredom which then allows other mind-states to become strong, usually states that undermine our meditation such as sleepiness, searching for something exciting or perhaps some conversation in our heads.

F.The key way of working with these states is through mindfulness. Simply being aware, in a non-judgmental way, of whatever comes into awareness. Simply being aware of whether it has a pleasant, unpleasant or neutral quality.

1.The ability to recognize the feeling tone of an experience allows us to break the identification with it. We can begin to see it as just an experience that is happening, rather than "my experience" or "me."

2.As we break the identifications, we can experience more freedom in how we respond, rather than simply reacting based on our past conditioning.

VI. Discussion (5-15 min.)

VII. Exercise: Tasting Pleasantness & Unpleasantness (10-15 min.)

A.Tasting raisins, not as eating meditation but as a way to become aware of pleasant or unpleasant feeling and then the reactions to those feelings.

VIII. Discussion (5-10 min.)

A.What was this experience like for you?

B.Any questions or comments?

IX. Meditation, Mindfulness of Feeling (15 min.)

A.Use various bells, gongs and scratchy sounds intermittently during this sitting to provide more easily noticeable objects of feeling (ie, sounds.)

X. Discussion (5-15 min.) 

A.What was this experience like for you?

B.Any questions or comments?

XI. Meditation, Mindfulness of Feeling (15-25 min.)

XII. Closing

A.What we have been practicing is one of the tools in this practice. So far we have worked on three tools: mindfulness ofthe sensations of breathing, mindfulness of physical sensations and now mindfulness of feeling tone.

1.When you practice on your own, you can use these tools in two different ways.

a.You can focus your attention on one aspect of your experience to develop a more comprehensive understanding of it,

b.Or, you can use whatever tool is appropriate as different experiences arise into awareness.

2.I would like to encourage you to do both things this week.

a.Take a day and just try to be aware of the feeling tone of your experiences and how you react to them.

b.Then on another day simply try to bring mindfulness to your experience when physical sensations arise or when you notice the feeling tone.

B.-- quote from Ajahn Chah

1."When the heart grasps what is painful, it is like being bitten by a snake. And when, through desire, it grasps what is pleasant, it is just grasping the tail of the snake. It only takes a little while longer for the head of the snake to come around and bite you." -- Ajahn Chah, A Still Forest Pool, The Theosophical Publishing House, 1985, p.52.

XIII. Handouts

A.Mindfulness of Feelings (meditation instructions)

B.Working with Distractions and Difficulties