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Talk: 19890501-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-anapanasati_full_awareness_of_breath_series_tape_12-33815 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 00:50:17 Display_question: I find confusing to distinguish between feelings of sadness, and happiness, and the kilesas, they sort of blend into each other. Keyword_search: sadness, happiness, kilesas, aversion, greed, hatred, delusion, unpleasant/pleasant, condition, emotion, physical sensation, psychological function, sound, fire engine, training wheel, 16 contemplations, vedana, piti, Buddhist psychology, Western psychology, consciousness, impermanence Question_content: Questioner: I find confusing to distinguish between feelings of sadness, and happiness, and the kilesas, aversion. They sort of blend into each other. Larry: Yeah. You don't have to worry about that. Let's say greed, hatred, and delusion. Where would you say what you were feeling was? Hatred? Doesn't have to be hatred. Questioner: It’s sort of the borderline between unpleasant and not unpleasant. Larry: Yes, okay, yes. But no, let's really look at feelings. In a very microscopic way. What feelings have to do, let's say, is contact, let's say with a sense organ, or let's say the body. There's some sensation in the body. The feeling is that immediate sensation. Let's say it's unpleasant. The fact that it's unpleasant, doesn't necessarily… it doesn't necessarily follow, that you're going to have aversion to it. Although, by and large, unpleasant things condition the mind to, to want to get rid of it. Pleasant things condition the mind to want to grab on, hold on to it. That's the power that those feelings have. Now, what we're really doing, is we're breaking that link, very gently. We don't need any strong instrument. So that, let's say, by and large. Whatever it is that you were feeling, can you remember what it was specifically? Questioner: There was an emotion. It wasn't a physical sensation. Larry: Okay, now, remember, an emotion is not a feeling. Let me be clear about this. In Buddhist psychology makes a distinction between feelings and emotions. Western psychology lumps it all in together. The feeling is just that immediate. There's contact, and then that contact produces a feeling of pleasantness, unpleasantness, or neutrality. It's going on all day long. Emotion is a much more elaborate, psychological function, that builds up on it. In other words, the feeling is just pleasant. Break_line: Let's say a sound comes in, from outside, hits my eardrum, and let's assume my ear is working. So, the sound comes in, and consciousness, and the sound, it comes together, and then there's that immediate…let's say it's a fire engine. It's like that. You might experience it as unpleasant. So that's an unpleasant feeling, period. Now, if then the mind goes into some elaborates upon it, proliferates about it, let's say your father was a fireman. I don't know whatever it was, and suddenly there's something else. There’s sadness. That's not the feeling. Then we're into an emotion, and that's more properly in this one. Now, when you're doing the really, finally, you see that this is training, and one of the most beautiful phases in practice, is when you've done a lot of practice, and you can let go of the training wheels, and all the aids, and the specific themes to contemplate. And you just are just awake, and it's all concrete. It's all together. Break_line: All 16 contemplations are really in every moment. Let's say a breath can be long or short, and it can also be pleasant or unpleasant, and it's also impermanent or not. And it also lacks self. It's just a niche contemplation. We're coming at reality from a slightly different angle. And as we move through the 16, especially if you've done it, if you've done it, let's say, on a retreat, and very thoroughly, at the end, it's sort of like practicing basic moves in let’s say, fencing, or dance, ballet or piano, you know, the basics of martial arts. And then at a certain point, because you've mastered those, you throw them away, and you're spontaneous. But often years of hard work go into really being spontaneous, and then someone sees you, oh, you're just so fresh, and spontaneous, but they haven't seen all the work that's gone into that. End_time: 00:54:49
