Q1-19890426-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-conscious_breathing_i_reflections_on_anapanasati_i-1566 Leandra Teje

Talk: 19890426-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-conscious_breathing_i_reflections_on_anapanasati_i-1566 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:17:19 Display_question: When you say an examination ensues of the different qualities, in what sense do you mean that? Is that like a discursive? Keyword_search: Vipassana, discursive, direct perception, anxiety, investigation, fear, loneliness, sensation, impermanence, emptiness, Buddhist dogma Question_content: Questioner: Well, I'm just on tender hooks now to hear the rest of this. When you say an examination ensues of the different qualities, in what sense do you mean that? Is that like a discursive? Larry: Are you new to Vipassana? Relatively new. Questioner: Relatively. Yeah. Larry: Yeah. No, it's not discursive. It's direct perception. For example, let's apply this to the contemplation of feelings. Let's say in any emotional state, let's say anxiety comes up. What we call anxiety. You would focus on into the anxiety, and look at it directly, while breathing in, and breathing out. Or let's say there's some pain in the body, and this is very helpful. Some of you may want to experiment with this. You don't have to have gone; you can work with this, at whatever level your practice is. It would be less. I mean, obviously you won't be having full joy, and full peace, but you have some. Okay, so let's say you have pain in your body. You would focus in on the physical sensations, that pain, while staying in touch with, the breathing in, and breathing out. And what that can help you do is, stay anchored, and steady, so that the breath provides a kind of a soothing quality, while you're investigating something, that's not pleasant. Let's say you're looking at physical pain, or anxiety, or fear, or loneliness, or anger. The breath itself can be very soothing accompaniment. So, it helps you remain concentrated, but it's not discursive. Break_line: All you're doing is, experiencing whatever it is you're examining, as it is. And in this practice, you're encouraged to see. Now again, at first it may seem like an ideology, or a belief, and I suppose, at the beginning, it is. But what we're encouraged to see, if it's really so, for example, is it true, that everything is impermanent? Is it true, that there is no ownership to anything? That everything is empty of self? That it's just phenomena empty, phenomena rolling on, that anxiety arises like a cloud formation. It crests, and then it dissipates, and fades out, until finally it's gone, just like any other phenomena, in nature, and that it doesn't have your name on it. You didn't ask for it, you didn't send it away, but there it is, and now it's gone. And you begin to investigate, the mind and body, whatever it is that you're doing, in any of the practices you're using. So, it's the direct perception. You're contemplating it, from a particular angle, at the beginning, let's say impermanent. Impermanence. Break_line: So, let's say you'd look at anxiety, from the perspective of impermanence. At first, we're using, to some degree, some thought. Somebody's put that idea into our noodle. It said look. Look at these things, as if they… see if they're really impermanent. So, it's a kind of a notion, or a hypothesis. But more and more, as the practice develops, the insights don't come out of a premeditated contemplation, but they're intuitive. If impermanence is truly universal, how can you miss it? It has nothing to do with Buddhist dogma. It has to do with the way things are. It's a law of nature. And so, we investigate anything, to see if that law is true. This is one thing you might do, but we don't lose touch with the in breath, and the out breath. See? Tell me, for example, did any of you listen? Is that clear that it isn't discursive? Questioner: Yes. End_time: 00:20:59