{"id":354,"date":"2018-01-16T04:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T10:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/?p=354"},"modified":"2021-01-27T22:10:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T04:10:48","slug":"2018-01-16-feelings-leading-to-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/2018-01-16-feelings-leading-to-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"January 16 – Feelings leading to peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

In the Entering the Path<\/a> lecture on contemplation of feelings, Bhikkhu An\u0101layo describes the “function” of these feelings we’ve been considering these past few days… Imagine a prehistoric human is walking through the forest when something comes up in front of them: that human had to quickly decide: is this something to hunt and kill, or is this something that will kill me? The feeling happens very quickly to trigger the human into one direction or the other. But, he adds,<\/p>\n

In the modern day situation, for most of us at least, this function is a little bit outdated. The tendency of our mind to immediately react to pleasure or pain can often lead to a whole chain of reactions, that on sober consideration of the situation, we probably would not have gotten into.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An\u0101layo also reminds us:<\/p>\n

There’s nothing in itself good or bad about pleasure. There’s nothing in itself good or bad about pain. The question is always: What is the context? Where does this lead? Is it wholesome or is it unwholesome?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When teachers talk about wholesome and unwholesome, they are generally referring to what leads towards peace or away from it.<\/p>\n

So what are some of these wholesome feelings that lead to peace?<\/p>\n

Let’s first look at the counter-intuitive one… pain… a feeling of pain can lead to peace? Joseph Goldstein explains:<\/p>\n

What are these unpleasant feelings not associated with aversion? Often we go through stages of meditation that are difficult. There are stages of practice where unpleasant physical sensations predominate. Or we might feel fear, misery, or despair about our practice or about the world…. This is what St John of the Cross called “the dark night of the soul.” All of these are unworldly unpleasant feelings coming out of a deeper place of practice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on to say that neutral feelings not associated with delusion are “born of equanimity” – something we’ll discuss in a couple of Sundays from now.<\/p>\n

Then Joseph lists several examples of times we may experience pleasant feelings that can lead to peace.<\/p>\n