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More Practice Exercises for Mindfulness of Feelings

Practice #1 One can use feeling as the primary object of awareness:

During the day we choose a particular sense organ and focus solely on experiencing the feelings that are associated with the objects that come through that sense door, taking note of their quality (pleasant, etc.) and characteristics (impermanent, etc.).

a. Eye and forms

b. Ear and sounds

c. Nose and odors; tongue and flavors (Can be taken together since they are so related)

d. Body and touches

e. Mind and mind objects

After you have done this exercise for a while, reflect on the following:

a. How feelings are conditioned by sense contact.

b. That you have no choice about what feeling arises; that it depends on sense contact and your perception of it.

c. That this process never stops.

d. Seeing how our reactions are conditioned by feelings.

e. Seeing how impermanent feelings are.

f. Seeing how it’s all happening without a self being present.

Practice #2 During the day, observe the feelings that impinge on consciousness from moment to moment, making the distinction between the feelings that are experienced passively (without the overlay of the mind), and those that are experienced due to the proclivities or projections of the mind (e.g., perceptions, beliefs, etc.).

Practice #3 During the day, reflect on the process of dependent origination and how feelings arise and vanish through certain causes and conditions.

Practice #4 During the day, withdraw the mind from the particular quality of the feeling (whether it is pleasant, neutral, painful, worldly or spiritual) and just observe feelings arising and passing away.

Practice #5 One sees the three characteristics of feelings (i.e., that they are impermanent, unsatisfactory and selfless) and understands that it is just feeling — not my feeling, they are not myself, not who I am.

The author of the foregoing exercises is Matthew Flickstein of the Forest Way Insight Meditation Center, Inc. in Ruckersville, Virginia.