..续本文上一页refore can become confused and reactive because of having lost presence of mind.

　　For the majority of us on this blue planet, we spent our lives in constant effort to increase pleasant feelings and avoid unpleasant feelings; while more pleasant feelings are sought after as they bring the emotional enjoyment we call happiness. Whether we are aware of it or not, feelings are all encompassing in life. So we can appreciate the Buddha”s pithy saying on feelings: "All things converge on feelings".

　　The feeling by itself though, in its primary state, is quite neutral, when it just registers the impact of an object as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Only when repeated emotional elaborations are made, such as when one”s personal story is involved, will there arise aversion, happiness, hatred, anxiety, greed or fear.

　　Feelings and emotions need not be mixed, as they are separable. In fact, many of the weaker impressions we experience during the day stop at the mere registering of very faint and brief feelings. This shows that staying with the primary feeling is possible and that it can be done with the help of awareness and self-restraint, even in cases when the urge to convert feeling into emotion is strong.

　　For the Vipassana meditator, it is essential to work with feelings, especially one”s mental feelings, or feelings associated with states of mind. By monitoring feelings one can maintain one”s equilibrium in the practice, which allows the enlightenment factor of equanimity to mature.

　　There are occasions when the mind is calm and alert and one is not totally preoccupied, and so is able to notice feelings clearly at their primary stage. Then it is just a practice of monitoring what feelings are present even when they are faint and brief throughout the day. In fact, working with feelings as a practice starts with establishing awareness on minor feelings. For example, many times during the day when the mind is quiet one can be noticing minor body sensations and or feelings that come and go.

　　If, however, one is unable at first to clearly differentiate feelings, it is a useful strategy to ask oneself a checking question: ”What feeling is present

　　” In this way, the meditator can highlight the predominant feeling and be able to focus on it rather than being confused by the jumble of fleeting feelings and their successive emotional states of mind.

　　It is of particular importance to dissociate the feelings from the thought of ”I” or ”mine”. There should be no ego-reference, as for instance, "I feel"; nor should there be any thoughts of being the owner of the feeling, "I have pleasant feelings" or "I have pain". Awareness of the feeling tone without the ego-reference allows the meditator to keep the attention focused on the bare feeling alone.

　　In working with feelings there should first be an awareness of the feelings when they arise, clearly distinguishing them as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. While there are degrees of intensity of feelings, with close attentiveness, it is clear that there is no such thing as a mixed feeling.

　　When noting feelings, attention should be maintained throughout the short duration of the specific feeling down to it”s ending or passing away. If the vanishing point of feeling is repeatedly seen with increasing clarity, it will become much easier to catch and finally to stop or inhibit thoughts and emotions. These normally follow so regularly, being habitually linked through conditioning to their associated feeling tones: pleasant feeling is habitually linked with enjoyment and happiness, while unpleasant feelings are linked with aversion or pain, while neutral or indifferent feelings are linked with ignorance and confusion.

　　When ”bare” attention, that is, registering the feeling without reaction in a state of …

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