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Guided Meditation: Pleasure Not of the Senses

Hello everyone, and welcome.

We live in a human body that has the capacity for pleasure and pain. We live in a human body that has the ability, the potential for beauty, and that which is not beauty—for inner beauty. We have a world that has a capacity for suffering and happiness, for war and peace, as we're seeing now in Eastern Europe.

So one of the ways of practicing mindfulness is to be aware of it all, to have a certain equanimity for pleasure and pain, the beautiful and not so beautiful, the difficult and the easy. But to do it from a reference point, to do it from a source within, a kind of awareness that is based in or settled in the place where we have inner beauty. It's possible to be aware of things—for example, physical pain—but to be aware of it at the same time as being in touch with or being connected to inner pleasure, inner beauty, inner well-being. This makes a world of difference.

So we're not only identified, only rooted in this sensory world where pleasure and pain exist, but we're rooted someplace else that contextualizes the sense world. I'll do a kind of guided meditation around this, and we'll see how that goes.

I will hopefully point you first to when you're aware of breathing. There can be more than breathing going on; there's also the awareness of breathing and how that is. That'll be the entry point to this teaching on inner pleasure, inner beauty.

Assume a meditation posture and gently close your eyes. Take some long, slow, gentle inhales and exhales. Especially as you exhale, relax and settle into your body. Breathing in deeply, and relaxing as you exhale.

Then let the breathing return to normal. For a few rounds of breathing, continue to relax the holdings, the tension in the body. If it doesn't relax, maybe there can be a softening around it—in the face, the shoulders, the belly.

Then, breathe normally, except at the end of the exhale, let there be a comfortable pause. Just long enough not to be uncomfortable—the pause before you inhale. Just long enough so that you feel the gentle pull or desire to inhale. And when you feel that desire, allow for it, and allow the body to perform the inhale.

Let there be a small pause at the end of the exhale. When you feel the pull to breathe in, allow it and receive the inhale. So it's not just the inhale you're feeling; there's also a context for the inhale, which is a feeling for allowing, receiving.

When the exhale begins, allow the body to exhale. Allow for the letting go, the release of the exhale. Receiving, allowing is close to making space for something, being spacious, making room for it.

In whatever feeling you have for allowing and receiving in-breath and out-breath, does it have a pleasant feeling? Is there something nice or comforting about it? And if it is, feel the pleasantness, the pleasure—however small it is—of allowing and receiving the inhale, allowing the exhale.

Maybe you can feel this sense of allowing and receiving to feel it in that place within where inner beauty lives, inner well-being. A well-being that is not of the senses, not of the five senses, but a non-sensual inner place. A non-sensual kind of pleasantness, pleasure, beauty that informs awareness, which is a kind of source for awareness, the flavor of awareness as you breathe in and breathe out.

If any part of the breathing is uncomfortable, it's okay. Allow it to be received. Receive it and allow it from this other place within. From this place that is not identified with the discomfort, but rather where we are settled in an inner place of pleasure, well-being, warmth, glow, with which we're aware of the discomfort.

If there's something uncomfortable happening that preoccupies you or grabs your attention, see if you can be mindful of it in a receptive and allowing way. So you're aware from that non-sensual place, non-physical place within. From a place of inner well-being, not rooted or connected to the outer senses of the body, but rather to a place within, maybe of the heart. A place within that is the home for inner beauty.

If there's any way you feel a little calmer or settled than you did at the beginning, that calmness and settledness would be considered a non-sensual pleasure, or a pleasure of the inner life.

Let your awareness radiate from that inner life, an inner place of goodness or beauty. So you're rooted there, not identified or rooted in the challenges, thoughts, or feelings. You're aware of all of those respectfully and carefully, but you're aware of them from this place of inner beauty, inner wellness, inner calm.

Can you touch into a place of inner pleasure and well-being? It is not an ordinary pleasure of the senses. It's an inner well-being that's independent of what we see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. Maybe an inner pleasure connected to our inner life of inner feelings. And if there is a pleasure there, know it, be mindful of it. What happens when you recognize it, feel it, and know it?

As we come to the end of this sitting, to whatever degree you know now or at other times a place of inner well-being, calmness, contentment, pleasure that's independent of what's happening around you. From that place, can you look out across the world, aware of all the suffering and happiness of this world, and wish that you can make a difference? To improve this world of ours, to contribute to the welfare and happiness of others. A contribution and wish that begins with the goodwill of wanting the best for others.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. And may all beings be free.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (36) Non-Sensual Feelings

Hello everyone. The topic this week is the second foundation of mindfulness, which is the mindfulness of vedanā^[1]. I translate this Pali word as "feeling tone." It is often translated as "feeling," but then people sometimes confuse it with emotions. What it refers to is the tonality, the tone of pleasant, unpleasant, or neither pleasant nor unpleasant, in which everything happens. All experiences are felt through one of those three feeling tones, or maybe occasionally it feels like they're all there at the same time.

The instructions are to be mindful of when there's a pleasant feeling tone, knowing that it's pleasant. When it's painful or unpleasant, knowing it's unpleasant. When it's neither pleasant nor unpleasant, knowing it as that. It's a clear recognition that this is how it is. But then the text, the Buddha, makes a very interesting distinction. He goes a little bit further, and this is a really important pivot in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[2] teachings, and a very important pivot in people's mindfulness practice.

The Buddha makes a distinction between feeling tones that are physical in nature and those which are not—maybe we could call it, if you're willing to go along, spiritual in nature or of the heart. Some people call it worldly and unworldly feelings. Different people translate these words differently. The Pali word literally means "of the flesh" and "not of the flesh." That doesn't inspire people that much, so people are finding other ways to say it.

How I understand it is that "of the flesh" has to do with the ordinary senses we have: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and the tactile senses of the body. If I feel the coolness against my skin—maybe I'm outside, and today it was somewhat cold. On one hand, the cold maybe was unpleasant, but it was invigorating and kind of inspiring to be out there, and a nice kind of feeling arose of delight in feeling the sharp crispness of the air and the coolness against my arms. We have a lot of wonderful associations and memories of being in the cold. So there was a kind of inner smile that happened; I just felt delighted to be in the cold a little bit, even though literally there was a kind of unpleasantness in the skin for that.

There are these two different domains or areas of our life: that which is of the physical senses, and that which is of the inner senses. Many people live in their physical senses, and that's a wonderful thing to do. Being in our body is one of the great pleasures of mindfulness. But it's possible to overdo it, either by being too identified with the physical body, attached to it, or too reactive to it. In mindfulness, we are learning to be mindful of it and live in it. The whole first foundation of mindfulness is learning how to be embodied in this physical body in a valuable way.

When being mindful of the feelings of the flesh, the physical senses, the instructions are that when there is a physical feeling of pleasure, a physical feeling of unpleasantness, or a physical feeling of neither pleasant nor unpleasant, know that's the case. There's no value judgment put on it. If that's what's predominant, then that's what we pay attention to.

But then the Buddha says there's another category of feeling that is "not of the flesh," which I associate with the inner life. The quality of our inner being, our inner state, can be independent of what's happening in the world around us. The physical body is very much impacted by what happens in the world around us—cold and hot, and all kinds of things. The physical body is also impacted by illness and injury, all these things that can happen to the flesh itself. But then there's this non-physical kind of feeling. Exactly how to describe this will probably be different for each of you, depending on what works for you. But there's a distinction, a separation between these two different domains.

The second one, "not of the flesh," belongs more to the spiritual, the mental, the psychological, the heartful feeling of the inner life that's there independent of what happens around us. We can feel very contented and peaceful even though the bus we're waiting for is an hour late, and we might have imaginations of, "Oh, this is going to be unpleasant later." But we're not trapped in those thoughts; we're actually resting and happy to stay on the bus bench, just content being there. That inner life is very content.

Some people, before they meditate, look around and are reactive to things they think should be different, or they want their body to be a different way. Then, after they meditate, there's a kind of ease, peacefulness, or calm that holds everything much more easily and spaciously. That place of calm and peace can be the place where love can be, warm-heartedness can be, the place where inner beauty can reside. That all belongs to the world "not of the flesh."

So the Buddha here is saying: when there's a pleasant sensation, a pleasant feeling not of the flesh, know it as a pleasant feeling. When you know there's an unpleasant feeling not of the flesh, know it as an unpleasant feeling not of the flesh. And when it's neither pleasant nor unpleasant, know it as that.

With this distinction between "of the flesh" and "not of the flesh," the whole Satipaṭṭhāna is pivoting now—simplistically maybe—to the mind rather than the body. It's pivoting now to the inner life, where happiness and suffering in a deeper way reside, so they can be met and seen. We are not only limited to the physical body and physical experience, but begin opening up to a deeper inner dimension of our life. And here, all we're asked to notice is whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.

As people meditate, this inner dimension starts becoming bigger, more alive, a stronger reference point. As important as being embodied in the physical body is, and how wonderful it is, for some people there's this other area that's deeper. Some people have that connection to it, and because it's kind of felt within the body anyway, they'll often associate it with their body and think, "This is being embodied." It definitely can be that. But we're trying to make a distinction here to go along with the instructions.

As we learn, as we settle and get calmer, more concentrated, and more connected to ourselves in meditation, it's this inner dimension that begins growing. This inner dimension then provides the material for the last two foundations of mindfulness: that of the mind and that of the inner processes that lead to suffering or to happiness. It's a very important switch to go from the physical body to developing a heightened sensitivity to this non-physical inner dimension of feeling.

These non-physical feelings can be a little bit more enduring than the physical ones. The Buddha likened physical vedanā to raindrops on top of a lake. A big rain is pouring down on the lake, and there are all these little splatters that go on. If you're really connected carefully to physical sensations, you'll see that pleasure and pain are almost like little splatters, little sparks that come and go, arise and pass.

This inner dimension, "not of the flesh," usually has a feeling that is a little more enduring. It's primarily good feelings there; it's primarily pleasure. There can be "not of the flesh" ways in which we feel not so good or unpleasant. But in the teachings of the Buddha, he begins emphasizing the pleasure that's there. That's the orientation in meditation as we get deeper and deeper: to begin appreciating and feeling the pleasant inner sensations that are there, and to make room for them.

As I did in the guided meditation, it's possible that this becomes the orientation or the reference point for mindfulness awareness practice, no matter what we're aware of. So we're not just aware of pain, for example, but we're aware of it supported by some kind of pleasure, beauty, love, care, spaciousness, or equanimity. We learn not to only be identified with the experience of the moment in terms of physical pleasure and pain, but we also start to identify with this inner place of well-being, of calm or equanimity, with which we can know what's happening for us.

If this made sense for you, you might spend the day reflecting, thinking, feeling, and exploring what your relationship is to this non-physical place within. It is not triggered by the ordinary senses and is independent of them. It is the inner place where your inner beauty resides, your inner love, your inner goodness, your inner settledness and calm, inner spaciousness, inner joy, and inner happiness.

Exactly what this is for any one of you is variable. But what experiences have you had that touch that? Do you have reference points for this in the course of your life? What have been the strongest reference points for this, and how do you experience it in daily life? What is a useful way to stay more in touch with it and closer to it, and not lose track of it?

Maybe talk to some friends, explain this to them, and see what their experiences have been. I encourage you to spend a day contemplating the nature of this inner beauty.

Thank you, and we'll continue with this for one more day.