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Talk: 19920219-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_2-33805 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 01:17:54 Display_question: In reference to the transformation of what comes up in mediation: What happens if it's negative? What happens if it doesn't clear? And what is the use, beyond the letting go, and the better feeling? And why was it good to cut down your study? Keyword_search: transformation, negative, conscious breathing, meditation, letting go, study, arises/passes away, stability, fear, positive, neutral, joy, intellectual concept, Einstein, intuition, art of non-doing, happiness, enlightenment, concentration, despair, impermanent, suffering, stillness, God, striving, effort, surrender, energy Question_content: Questioner: Okay, I'm not quite sure how to put these words because I haven't thought it through, but the transformation, of what comes up, from within, that you spoke of, what happens if it… if I can go through two or three things, and then because it's joined together, what happens if it's negative? What happens if it doesn't clear? It was unexpected to me, that you said there was so much negative can come up, as well. And what is the use, beyond the letting go, and the better feeling, that piece. I'm just checking that you are saying that powerful, powerful emotions do come up in meditation. And why was it good to cut down your study? Larry: Are you a professor? Questioner: No. Those are my questions. Larry: Okay. There’s a lot packed in there, what you asked. I don't really mean to say that it's all negative down there or overwhelmingly negative. Okay. What's there is what's there. So that when you're doing the conscious breathing, there's a stage in practice where you have no agenda. So, you're just breathing in and breathing out. And whatever comes up, you're aware of it and it all arises and passes away without exception. Whether you like it, you don't like it. That's a law. See if it's true. Nothing stays. Everything arises and passes away. Now, what we are learning how to do is how to rest in the breath, to come to rest in the breathing. Try to feel your way into that. Just that term. You come to rest in the breathing. We spend a lot of time learning how to do that. And so, from that place, there's a place of stability. Break_line: So that whatever else comes up, and some of it is very easy to be with, while we're resting in the breath. But some of it's not. Fear of this, fear of that, et cetera, whatever comes up. So, in the process of developing our ability to be with the breathing, our ability to be with everything that's other than breathing, is improved. In other words, as being with the breath helps us be with what is, other than the breath. But what we will see, no matter what it is, whether it's in quotes negative, or it's in quotes positive, or if it's neutral. What we're trying to learn, is the attitude that we're learning, is for everything to be welcome, totally without exception. Break_line: Now, you'll find that you will have preferences. You won't do that. We all have that's okay. Or when certain things are about to come up suddenly, we don't want to feel it. We're in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Now, the process… I can't feed you mentally, to the point of the satisfaction I think you wish. You'll have to get it from the experience of the practice. The process of doing that, of resting in the breath, and then by extension, learning how to rest in everything else. When fear comes up, for it to be okay. Here comes terror. Come on in. Sit down. Questioner: Okay. I'm agreeing, completely. There's one point that I've noticed that in breathing when something, we'll call it something positive, something good comes up. Larry: Like what? Questioner: Like enjoying a friend's company. Larry: You mean a feeling of joy in the in the mind? Questioner: Yeah, like just like a good just. A good feeling comes… Larry: Okay, go ahead. Questioner: Or an intellectual concept, an Einstein intellectual. Larry: And you feel happy that you got it. Questioner: And you feel as happy that you're so wonderful. What I've noticed is, if you can take that for only an instant, and then let it go. Absolutely let it go. Just acknowledge, and only a fraction of an instant, hold it and let it go. It comes back later as a fully-fledged concept, through intuition, in a different form, in a different time. Larry: That may be valuable, but it's not what we're doing. Questioner: I see. Larry: You're working too hard. From my point of view. Questioner: Okay. Larry: Well, no, you don't have to agree with me, but from my point of view…you see first of all, remember I said we're learning surrender. We're learning the art of non-doing. But you're already trying to kind of get some results out of it. I think you might find it tiring. Also, finally, we're going beyond, good feelings, and bad feelings. Questioner: That’s what I wanted to check with. Larry: Yes. Questioner: Get that out of the way. Larry: Yes. Okay, it's not to be rid of them. We're humans and so we feel, and of course, good feel in fact, the concentration practice, being with the breath, it's absolutely essential, to bring some happiness, into the mind, and body. So that you can go deeper in practice. And as many of you know, just simply paying attention to the breathing, as an exclusive object, does bring a great deal of happiness. It's not the final happiness, it's not enlightenment. It's pretty darn good. Some of you have experienced, you know what I'm talking about. It's a happiness that's so simple, it just comes from breathing, continuously for a while. Break_line: Okay, but that puts us in a position when the mind is got… in other words, in a sense, you're happy enough to now take a real look at your suffering. If you're suffering a lot, and there's no bright spot, and someone says, well, why don't you look at your despair? It's very hard to do. Probably the mind is so agitated it can't do it anyway. But if we have developed a source of joy, to bring into the system, through conscious breathing, then we're in a position where certain things turn up, which are in quotes, negative. But there's enough stability, coming from the happiness, and the training that we're doing, to be able to fully, in a sense, digest it, and transform that energy, to let it go. It all will go and see, everything arises and passes away, everything. It's impermanent. You don't have to agree with that. Test it. Break_line: But if it arises and… let's say you're suffering in a moment, you're having pain about something that happened, it will pass. And that's one our parents told us, oh, don't worry, it'll pass. It does pass, but that doesn't help you so much. What we're doing is, we're being conscious of it. So, we're conscious of it as it arises, as it operates, and as it passes. So, one it goes out, but it goes out hot. Eventually it cools down and leaves. But when we watch it, we're taking much better care of ourselves. By watching it consciously, something happens to the whole nature of the event. But I would suggest that… do you already know that from your practice? Questioner: No Larry: Okay, you will. So, then the journey continues. What tends to happen is, in a sense, the storehouse of all the stuff that's inside us, probably equivalent to the unconscious. It starts coming out, coming out, and then there can come a point where there's a stillness, a very deep stillness, which is a point of departure, for a dramatic opening. And if I say it's the ultimate happiness, then the mind is going to make it into something, that's the opposite of sadness. It's not the opposite of anything. And it can be called God. The names are endless for what that is. And what the Buddha is saying is, that simply by breathing, consciously, developing that, and then little by little, allowing everything else to come out, seeing it, getting to know it, letting it all go, seeing deeply into its nature, that process of surrendering, surrendering to the process has a dynamic force that moves you somewhere. Break_line: So, you do need energy, but it's not striving energy. You do need effort. Nothing worthwhile in this life without energy. But when you're practicing, and if you feel something that's like striving, trying a little bit too hard, pushing the breath, a little bit, or whatever it is, if you see that, it tends to thin out, or even fall away. And little by little, the breath… there comes a point where you experience in a sitting, you may experience that you're just being breathed, that you are not doing anything, and there's no wish to get anywhere, or to become anyone. It's just your content to just breathe. And you see there's absolutely no control, that you're being breathed, and that's going in a direction of surrender. End_time: 01:26:40
