Mindfulness of feelings
107 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Volume 4 Following in the Buddha's Footsteps 
Aug 7, 2026 Part of an ongoing series of teachings based on the book Following in the Buddha's Footsteps, the fourth volume in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion series by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Venerable Thubten Chodron.
- Considering the body as inner mandala offering or transforms into pure blissful wisdom nectar
- Sensations, feelings and conceptualization
- Practicing thought training to see the situation differently
- Worldly unpleasant feelings and spiritual unpleasant feelings
- Worldly neutral feelings and spiritual neutral feelings
- Worldly pleasant feelings and spiritual pleasant feelings
- Observing the feelings as they arise and cease
- Experiencing the feelings as impersonal phenomena
- Investigating if there is a real self who experiences a feeling
- Contemplate the feelings internally and externally
107 Mindfulness of Feelings (download)
Contemplation points
- To establish mindfulness of feelings, first observe mental and physical sensations. Second, identify pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings without conceptualizing about the feeling or its source. Take some time with this. Also consider:
- What is the difference between the sensation and the feeling?
- How long does a pleasant feeling last compared to how long you were craving the object of it?
- How quickly does the mind move towards conceptualization?
- What role can mind training play in transforming conceptualization?
- Where do worldly feelings arise from? Where do spiritual feelings arise from? Make examples of worldly and spiritual pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings from your personal experience. Which do you focus on most in your life?
- As you explore feelings in and out of your meditation session, investigate if there is an independent self who experiences a feeling (i.e. When feeling happy: who is experiencing this feeling?).
- The Buddha taught that if worldly feelings are not observed with mindfulness, they are the source of afflictions and karma. Contrariwise, spiritual pleasant, unpleasant, and equanimous feelings are beneficial and can lead us to further our practice of virtue. How have you seen each of these true from your own experience?
- What does it mean to be mindful of external feelings? Describe how coupling this with mindfulness of internal feelings rouses our compassion?
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
