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"Feeling" in Practice
Sile
Veteran
How many times have we heard the instructions, "generate the feeling of compassion" or "really feel that you are being healed." I've heard over and over, "It's more important to feel the compassion than to have a perfect visualization." Even in guided imagery for children with cancer, the therapist will say, "Imagine with all your might that the white blood cells are destroying the bad cells!" We don't know the exact scientific mechanisms behind the power of "feeling," but we do know at this point that strong feelings are effective, for example, in healing.
In Buddhism, visualization practice is taught for multiple purposes. For example, in Medicine Buddha practice we are often told to "now see the Medicine Buddha as having a body of light." This has specific purposes--one being to reduce our feeling that only "solid" objects are important. Over and over we practice seeing the Medicine Buddha as light, and hopefully reduce our attachment to some solid, flesh-and-blood "Medicine Buddha guy" and increase our focus instead on the compassion and healing that this Medicine Buddha embodies (and that we too can embody).
In the same Medicine Buddha practice, we may be instructed to "see your teacher sitting before you as Medicine Buddha." What's the purpose of this?
It is hard-wired into humans to have (the potential for) strong feelings and emotions when we are in the physical presence of other humans. No matter how much we love or dislike someone, it's when we're in their physical presence that our feelings can really get whipped up. There's just something about being in the same space; maybe it's in our DNA.
So if you have cancer, and are doing Medicine Buddha practice, and are being told to imagine that Medicine Buddha is sending out rays of light which fill your body, eliminating your disease, etc., all the evidence we have points to "feeling" as being a strong component of that healing. "Don't just see it--really feel it. Feeling it is the most important thing." If you are in the habit of visualizing your teacher as a Buddha--in this case Medicine Buddha--that feeling, that the Medicine Buddha is healing you, can be very much more powerful.
It's not for the teacher's benefit--he doesn't insist you start calling him "Medicine Buddha" after class, or pretend that he's going around posing as Medicine Buddha. He has no idea, during your Medicine Buddha practice, whether you are seeing him as Medicine Buddha or not. The benefit of this visualization is for you. It's to heal you. It's to eliminate your sickness. It's easier (for many) to generate strong emotions and feelings of a loving being healing you when there is an actual loving being right there. If you have a continuing practice of seeing your teacher as this Buddha or that Buddha, you can very quickly and easily walk down that well-worn path and use your teacher's presence to access those emotions and feelings--again, for your own benefit.
The teacher isn't there just to be the "body" of the Medicine Buddha; it's far more important that he/she is there to be the "feeling" of the Medicine Buddha. Because we have/can have strong feelings easily when in the presence of another human, the teacher is a good tool for this, potentially more effective than a thangka or statue.
It's not about worshiping a teacher; it's about using our knowledge of psychology and physiology to generate a strong "feeling" as a tool for practice and healing. Obviously if you have negative feelings about teachers, or about the idea of this approach to imagery, then you may not be able to use it effectively. But for those with a loving or positive relationship with a teacher, this "feeling" practice can be extremely powerful and beneficial.
In Buddhism, visualization practice is taught for multiple purposes. For example, in Medicine Buddha practice we are often told to "now see the Medicine Buddha as having a body of light." This has specific purposes--one being to reduce our feeling that only "solid" objects are important. Over and over we practice seeing the Medicine Buddha as light, and hopefully reduce our attachment to some solid, flesh-and-blood "Medicine Buddha guy" and increase our focus instead on the compassion and healing that this Medicine Buddha embodies (and that we too can embody).
In the same Medicine Buddha practice, we may be instructed to "see your teacher sitting before you as Medicine Buddha." What's the purpose of this?
It is hard-wired into humans to have (the potential for) strong feelings and emotions when we are in the physical presence of other humans. No matter how much we love or dislike someone, it's when we're in their physical presence that our feelings can really get whipped up. There's just something about being in the same space; maybe it's in our DNA.
So if you have cancer, and are doing Medicine Buddha practice, and are being told to imagine that Medicine Buddha is sending out rays of light which fill your body, eliminating your disease, etc., all the evidence we have points to "feeling" as being a strong component of that healing. "Don't just see it--really feel it. Feeling it is the most important thing." If you are in the habit of visualizing your teacher as a Buddha--in this case Medicine Buddha--that feeling, that the Medicine Buddha is healing you, can be very much more powerful.
It's not for the teacher's benefit--he doesn't insist you start calling him "Medicine Buddha" after class, or pretend that he's going around posing as Medicine Buddha. He has no idea, during your Medicine Buddha practice, whether you are seeing him as Medicine Buddha or not. The benefit of this visualization is for you. It's to heal you. It's to eliminate your sickness. It's easier (for many) to generate strong emotions and feelings of a loving being healing you when there is an actual loving being right there. If you have a continuing practice of seeing your teacher as this Buddha or that Buddha, you can very quickly and easily walk down that well-worn path and use your teacher's presence to access those emotions and feelings--again, for your own benefit.
The teacher isn't there just to be the "body" of the Medicine Buddha; it's far more important that he/she is there to be the "feeling" of the Medicine Buddha. Because we have/can have strong feelings easily when in the presence of another human, the teacher is a good tool for this, potentially more effective than a thangka or statue.
It's not about worshiping a teacher; it's about using our knowledge of psychology and physiology to generate a strong "feeling" as a tool for practice and healing. Obviously if you have negative feelings about teachers, or about the idea of this approach to imagery, then you may not be able to use it effectively. But for those with a loving or positive relationship with a teacher, this "feeling" practice can be extremely powerful and beneficial.
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Comments
"I have learned that with creatures one loves, suffering is not the only thing for which one may pity them. A rabbit who does not know when a gift has made him safe is poorer than a slug, even though he may think otherwise himself."
- Richard Adams, Watership Down
Atleast, that is my opinion. I am a feeling personality and so much of how I experience the world is through how I feel about it and how it fits into my values and morals.
Good thread.
I guess what I'm talking about is where my thoughts seem to generate from in meditation. If my feeling changes my thinking changes with it.
In an everyday way I absolutly make decisions from the head more than the heart.