Skillful inquiry reveals the factor of feeling in all experience. By resonating empathetically within as it is there is clarity, inspiration and release.
As all dharmas converge on feeling, mindful handling of feeling is crucial for happiness and liberation. Revealing mental feeling through inquiry and handling it skillfully is a thorough practice
Conscious recollection (eg of Buddha and of death) uses the doing thinking mind to touch and enter the citta as heart. This shifts us out of our personal mindset into the mind-tone of the sacred.
The constant factor that accompanies all mental states and activities is awareness- the ground of citta. Citta gets conditioned by sankhara of intention, attention and contact. Widening past these we return to awareness.
The 7 factors of enlightenment present a trajectory that begins in the personal domain but moves beyond self. This is because it is based on disengagement (viveka) ripened beyond self.
Key points- ground, safety; resonate with body as textures until breathing becomes apparent. Sample the feelings of breathing and enjoy it. Absorb the ‘sigh’, the felt impression
Use pointing (vitakka) and “tasting/feeling” (vicara). Energy comes with enthusiasm. Use the imaginative faculty to generate useful perceptions and images. Firm up mindfulness to supervise and protect the heart.
Recognizing that our lives and practice depend on conditions-not self- how do such conditions arise? Placing citta within the Refuge allows for intuitive commitments.
