Knowing feelings as they arise
Today, catch one feeling or thought as it arrives, stays a while, and goes.
- Read · about 2 minutes
“Mendicants, there are these four ways of developing immersion further.…There is a way of developing immersion further that leads to mindfulness and awareness.…And what is the way of developing immersion further that leads to mindfulness and awareness?It’s when a mendicant knows feelings as they arise, as they remain, and as they go away.They know perceptions as they arise, as they remain, and as they go away. They know thoughts as they arise, as they remain, and as they go away.This is the way of developing immersion further that leads to mindfulness and awareness.AN 4.41 · “Ways of Developing Immersion Further” · tr. Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0)
From the text
The passage says there are four ways of developing immersion further, and describes one that leads to mindfulness and awareness: a mendicant knows feelings, perceptions, and thoughts as they arise, as they remain, and as they go away.
In everyday life
'Immersion' is the translator's word for samādhi, a mind that has gathered and settled; 'mendicant' means a monk or nun. The passage lists four ways this settling can be developed, and this lesson takes the one that leads to mindfulness and awareness. Know feelings, perceptions, and thoughts in three phases: as they arise, as they remain, and as they go away. 'Perceptions' you can read here as the mind's labelling of what it meets. It is common to notice only the middle phase, if that. Irritation is simply there, and then, later, it is somehow gone. One way to take the instruction is that the arrival and the departure are where the watching is most useful. Today's sit with the breath gives you a small laboratory: when a thought appears, see if you can catch its beginning, feel it stay, and notice the moment it leaves. Then do the same with one feeling in the day.
- Sit · 3, 5 or 10 minutes
Breath Awareness
Sit comfortably upright, hands in your lap or on your knees. After reading a cue, you may close your eyes and rest with the breath until the next one appears.
- Live · during your day
Choose one feeling that shows up today, such as impatience, relief, or boredom. Try to notice three moments: when it first appears, while it stays, and the point at which you realize it has gone.
- Reflect · this evening
Which was hardest to notice today: a feeling arriving, staying, or leaving?
Answer on paper, or in the app’s journal, which stays on your iPhone.