An introduction to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness

excerpt of a teaching by Lama Lhundrup in Dhagpo Kundrol Ling, November 2001,
revised with the help of Lama Mingyur and Lama Dorje Drölma

#3

II. Establishing mindfulness of feelings

The second foundation of mindfulness is the meditation on feelings or sensations. And here the Buddha’s instruction is again very simple: "Regard feelings as feelings". These are just simple feelings, not my feelings. This has given rise to the instruction to mentally say, when there is an agreeable sensation arising: "agreeable sensation", and if disagreeable, to just say: "disagreeable" – end of the story, no further comments.

According to the Buddha what we call mindfulness of feeling is a simple, non-judging awareness of agreeable and disagreeable (even sometimes painful) feelings and of "neutral" feelings, which refers to meditative absorption states (samadhis). And also he instructed us to cultivate the awareness of "worldly" and "spiritual" feelings and of their combinations as agreeable worldly feelings, disagreeable worldly feelings and so on. The instruction can be condensed into the question: "What is felt inwardly when a sense impression arises?" The idea here is to just feel, in a direct way, without any commentary – and to see the reactions of immediately judging any experience as agreeable or disagreeable, to become aware of these judgements which are constantly happening in our mind. To become aware of them gives us the possibility to stop the chain.

Our feelings will be accompanied by awareness, and as we are aware of them and the connected judging process, we can find ways to let go of them, one after the other. Due to mindfulness we can avoid further chain reactions with all the connected emotional trouble. Mindfulness of feelings also has the effect that we get to know ourselves better and do not run away from our feelings anymore. They become familiar experiences of great variety but without any special importance. In spite of their great variety they are all the same in one respect: they come and go without leaving traces. This meditation gradually leads to non-identification with the second skandha: feelings or sensations. Feelings will then arise without secondary thoughts that create a connection to an imaginary I or self. They are simply what they are: feelings, a flow of experiences, ever-changing. Do you see any self in this?

You can look on your feelings from within, as a personal experience, or from without, as if someone else was experiencing them, as if looking on yourself from the point of view of an outer observer. Both ways of practising are taught and both are ok. But according to the Buddha we should look also what gives rise to feelings and what causes their dissolution. We investigate into impermanence and the conditioned nature of feelings. We take an intelligent look into feelings. It is non-judging, and because this creates a certain space, the non-judging allows for an understanding to arise. We see how pleasure is arising and how suffering is arising. We see how pleasure goes away and how suffering goes away.

So this is one way of practising with feelings, using our intelligence and our curiosity to investigate, and the other way is to be simply aware of what is happening: only being aware, no need for an effort to understand something, just as in the basic mindfulness of body: a very simple mind, nothing more. First one should establish basic mindfulness of feelings, becoming aware of their coming and going, and then occasionally one investigates into the causes and factors of the arising and disappearing of feelings, judgements etc. One can, if one wishes, take each of the different senses as a support for the mindfulness of feeling and see how mind immediately judges these feelings. We take sounds as our support, odours, tastes, physical sensations, the moving wind, an itching sensation – all kinds of supports, and each time we look what this does in mind.

We notice all the thousands and millions of judgements going on in our mind, and what usually happens is that we become thoroughly disgusted with ourselves, with all this liking and disliking. But what to do? It has been going on for a long time already. Now we become aware of it, that's great!, and soon we will be able to relax with it, and then actually we will be able to let go of it from time to time, until we come to truly enjoy the non-judging mind. Then there is no more struggling to let go. It becomes our preferred mode of being.

Question: Is this being mindful of judgements or still mindfulness of feelings?

Answer: They are interconnected. If you can just remain on the level of feelings, you are already an advanced practitioner. Normally we are caught in judging before we even realise it. You will for example see that as soon as you hear the sound of a tractor, there will be a naming "tractor". You think that the naming is the thought immediately after the sense perception. But before this rather complex naming has happened, you have already, more or less unconsciously, judged the sound as being agreeable or disagreeable. In meditation you will see all of this. Mindfulness of feelings is actually in the beginning a mindfulness of how every feeling triggers off a chain of reactions. Later then, as a more simple awareness installs itself, you will come to the level of simply feeling feelings, without further comments, and the difference between the sound of a tractor and the lovely voice of a woman becomes less and less.

Question: Agreeable – disagreeable comes before the naming?

Answer: Yes, long before. A name is already a complex concept. You have already made the difference between this sound and all the other sounds, car sounds, animal sounds and so on, which you know. You have already zoomed in. You’ve gone back to your memory, compared with similar sounds which you knew and heard in the past. You compared and, while taking into account still more factors of the situation, you said: "This is probably a tractor." So there is a lot, which has gone on. Agreeable – disagreeable is the first, immediate reaction of the mind to the sense-perception. It is the reaction which will decide whether we take a protective or open attitude towards the situation.

How can survival come alive?

Summarising Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching, the central question of this mindfulness would be: "How can the basic survival instinct become mindfulness of life?" Normally, all our actions (breathing, eating, clothing...) are motivated by our basic instinct to survive, and all our interpretations of feelings are done in relation to wanting to survive. I judge all of what I hear, feel and so on as either being dangerous or not dangerous. "Can this be a help to me, can I profit from this, or might it trouble me, take something away from me, make me poorer?" This survival trip continues all the time unconsciously in our mind.

Mindfulness of feelings teaches us to simply be aware and to notice that we are already surviving. Every feeling, every sensation signals us that we are alive! And we notice that life just continues from instant to instant without any effort from our side. In this way we get out of these constant worries connected to sensations. There is a little hunger arising, but one doesn’t have to react immediately. We just observe this lively feeling of hunger come and go, and then of course we can also do something about it. When there is a bang somewhere, we do not need to tense up, we can just observe. There is no need to always tense up when something is happening.

Some quotes from Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche: "Survival instinct is transmuted into a sense of being... and mindfulness becomes a basic acknowledgement of existing. Meditation becomes inseparable from the instinct to live... and that instinct can be seen as containing awareness, meditation, mindfulness. The life force that keeps us alive and that manifests continually in our stream of consciousness itself becomes the practice of mindfulness. ... We can simply tune in to our process of life... Just living is enough without reassuring yourself that you are living. If you don't stop [the process] to make sure, living becomes very clear-cut, very alive and very precise. ...Meditation is the total experience of any living being which has the instinct to survive!"

Living fully means being fully present in the moment without worrying thoughts that prevent direct contact. Trungpa Rinpoche advises us to simply remark what is, to shortly zoom into it and immediately let go. Touch and let go! This means that we touch, we get to know, we see, but we let go quick enough to always be in the freshness of the moment. And it is this freshness, which opens up to the flow of life. Life is a flow of sensations, a flow of feelings. Life is a constant flow of perceptions, feelings and sensations. Instead of falling into fear we develop a basic confidence that we do not need to control all these sensations. We don’t need to hold on to some and push away others. We can allow ourselves to let the flow happen in our mind. This is the basic notion of relaxing into mindfulness of feelings.

For this there has to be a giving up of wanting to manipulate the world on this very basic level. Our ordinary survival trip makes us want to manipulate the situation: "This I want, this I don’t want." In basic mindfulness there are no such second thoughts, there is no personal, ego-centred interest in our contact with life. It is a very simple presence.

Ego-centred mindfulness however is exactly the opposite: the watchman on the tower who is always on the lookout for opportunities or enemies. This is ‘survival mindfulness’ in which there is no equanimity and letting go. We should not cultivate mindfulness as a further elaboration of our survival skills, but I suspect that this is offered in some of those meditation seminaries for managers. We do not practise meditation in order to become more performing so that we can better snatch away opportunities from others.

Chögyam Trungpa says, to hold on to feelings of life brings the feeling of death. If we grasp onto life we are already half dead. That is the motor of depression. Grasping onto live kills live. The holding on to some aspect of our life due to our urge to survive takes us far away from what is actually happening. We are in our personal dark room of clinging. And this darkness we are holding onto. When we let go of this clinging we immediately get the feeling: "Oh, as if I hadn’t seen the sky for a long time. Oh, the freshness of the wind!" Suddenly simple, fresh presence begins to re-enter our awareness. When this happens it is the sign that our depression is coming to an end. When the freshness of the moment comes back, this is the end of death and the beginning of joy.

Actually, we grasp because we are afraid of death. But if we manage to just be there and relax, mindful of one breath after the other, we will know that we have survived yet another moment and that we can permit ourselves to relax the next moment as well. No need to grasp. Thich Nhat Hanh says: "Working mindfully with disagreeable feelings grants us insight and wisdom." Yes, the wisdom of no fear to die, the insight into the truth of non-self, and the courage to patiently face one feeling after the other knowing that due to mindfulness there is no need to fear that we will be overwhelmed by them.

For mahayana practice it is very important to open up to feelings, because every contact with another person brings feelings, agreeable and disagreeable ones, emotions. You cannot be a bodhisattva without opening up to feelings. How will we be able to help others, if we are not open to feelings and willing to let them pass through? How will we be able to face all the problems of beings to liberate, if we cling to experiences? It is also important that our mindfulness is not a cold observer, but rather, to quote again Thich Nhat Hanh: "like a lamp shedding light – not a judge", and: "like an older sister lovingly taking care of her younger brother or sister". A lamp does not only give light but also warmth. In the same way our mindfulness is not only an expression of wisdom but also of compassion and love. We smile at ourselves and occasionally give ourselves a hug: a compassionate approach to samsara; bodhicitta applied to all beings, including ourselves!