From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=N-eJrP3c5Og

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

psychologists like to break down further

and further and further and give it all

kinds of different names but basically

every emotional state that we have is

one of these five hindrances or two of

them you say well where's fear in that

fear has a version in it and it has

anxiety in it depression it's pretty

much the same thing I can describe to

you exactly how depression arises and it

seems to be something that's really the

more people can understand what

depression is the easier it is to let go

of it depression arises because of

feeling there's a feeling that arises in

mind or in the body and the way the Luna

talked about feeling is there's three

kinds of feeling there's a pleasant

feeling there's an unpleasant feeling

and there's a neutral feeling will let

the neutral feeling go and just talk

about two kinds of feeling pleasant

feeling and unpleasant feeling and

unpleasant feeling arises it can be from

anxiety it can be from not getting what

you want not seeing what you want to

happen and when this feeling arises what

happens next is your mind grabs on to it

and says I don't like that feeling and I

want to push it away

and then what happens is we have a lot

of thoughts about why we don't like that

feeling and the more we think about a

feeling the more intense that feeling

becomes and the more depression there is

now were made up of five different

things the Buddha talked about this

quite a bit he said we have a physical

body we have feeling we have perception

perception is the mind that recognizes

and memes and it has some memory in that

I'll explain that more in a little bit

we have thoughts and we have

consciousness now we're made up of these

five things that's what this process is

but when a feeling arises in its

unpleasant the way we get caught by that

feeling and resisted and it gets bigger

and until it affects the way you see the

world around you is we try to think the

feeling away but feelings are one thing

and thoughts or something else they're

not the same thing so when an unpleasant

feeling arises a little bit of anxiety a

little bit of fear a little bit of

sadness whatever it happens to be we

think of all the reasons why we have

that feeling and why we don't like that

feeling and why we want that feeling to

stop and the more you think about a

feeling the bigger the feeling becomes

now the Buddha was very clear about this

sort of thing so what do we do you go

back to the instructions in the

meditation the sensation arises

somewhere in your body it doesn't

matter whether it's an emotional

sensation or a physical sensation it is

a feeling when that feeling arises

you'll notice the first thing your mind

does is begin to think about it why you

like it why you don't like it why you

want it to be different than it is why

you want it to stop and go away all of

the thoughts about the feeling makes the

feeling bigger and more intense so the

first part of the meditation is to let

go of the thoughts about it about the

feeling let the thoughts go and you'll

notice that everytime thoughts arise in

your mind there's tension and tightness

so you relax you let go of that aversion

to the feeling and then you see that

tight mental fist and allow the feeling

to be there because it's a truth it's

there whether you like it or not doesn't

really come into this what you do is

allow the feeling to be there without

trying to control it without trying to

push it away without trying to make it

something other than what it really is

it's just a feeling it manifests in a

lot of different ways but it's all

because of this tightness and the want

to have the thoughts and the feelings

stop because it's unpleasant the way we

handle grief or sadness or anger or

depression is all the same first you see

all of the thoughts attached to that

and you let the thoughts go sometimes

you can let a thought go and you start

to relax and that thought pops up again

okay but when you really let go of that

tightness and tension in your mind and

in your body there's a brief moment of

relief and that brief moment of relief

doesn't have any thoughts in it and you

bring that mind back to wishing yourself

well or wishing somebody else will you

can just barely get back and your mind

goes back to those thoughts and that

feeling and trying to control it again

but again you have to do the same thing

you have to allow that feeling to be

there and relax into it you have to let

go of all of the thoughts relax come

back to the feeling of loving kindness

and wishing yourself well

you

psychologists like to break down further

and further and further and give it all

kinds of different names but basically

every emotional state that we have is

one of these five hindrances or two of

them you say well where's fear in that

fear has a version in it and it has

anxiety in it depression it's pretty

much the same thing I can describe to

you exactly how depression arises and it

seems to be something that's really the

more people can understand what

depression is the easier it is to let go

of it depression arises because of

feeling there's a feeling that arises in

mind or in the body and the way the Luna

talked about feeling is there's three

kinds of feeling there's a pleasant

feeling there's an unpleasant feeling

and there's a neutral feeling will let

the neutral feeling go and just talk

about two kinds of feeling pleasant

feeling and unpleasant feeling and

unpleasant feeling arises it can be from

anxiety it can be from not getting what

you want not seeing what you want to

happen and when this feeling arises what

happens next is your mind grabs on to it

and says I don't like that feeling and I

want to push it away

and then what happens is we have a lot

of thoughts about why we don't like that

feeling and the more we think about a

feeling the more intense that feeling

becomes and the more depression there is

now were made up of five different

things the Buddha talked about this

quite a bit he said we have a physical

body we have feeling we have perception

perception is the mind that recognizes

and memes and it has some memory in that

I'll explain that more in a little bit

we have thoughts and we have

consciousness now we're made up of these

five things that's what this process is

but when a feeling arises in its

unpleasant the way we get caught by that

feeling and resisted and it gets bigger

and until it affects the way you see the

world around you is we try to think the

feeling away but feelings are one thing

and thoughts or something else they're

not the same thing so when an unpleasant

feeling arises a little bit of anxiety a

little bit of fear a little bit of

sadness whatever it happens to be we

think of all the reasons why we have

that feeling and why we don't like that

feeling and why we want that feeling to

stop and the more you think about a

feeling the bigger the feeling becomes

now the Buddha was very clear about this

sort of thing so what do we do you go

back to the instructions in the

meditation the sensation arises

somewhere in your body it doesn't

matter whether it's an emotional

sensation or a physical sensation it is

a feeling when that feeling arises

you'll notice the first thing your mind

does is begin to think about it why you

like it why you don't like it why you

want it to be different than it is why

you want it to stop and go away all of

the thoughts about the feeling makes the

feeling bigger and more intense so the

first part of the meditation is to let

go of the thoughts about it about the

feeling let the thoughts go and you'll

notice that everytime thoughts arise in

your mind there's tension and tightness

so you relax you let go of that aversion

to the feeling and then you see that

tight mental fist and allow the feeling

to be there because it's a truth it's

there whether you like it or not doesn't

really come into this what you do is

allow the feeling to be there without

trying to control it without trying to

push it away without trying to make it

something other than what it really is

it's just a feeling it manifests in a

lot of different ways but it's all

because of this tightness and the want

to have the thoughts and the feelings

stop because it's unpleasant the way we

handle grief or sadness or anger or

depression is all the same first you see

all of the thoughts attached to that

and you let the thoughts go sometimes

you can let a thought go and you start

to relax and that thought pops up again

okay but when you really let go of that

tightness and tension in your mind and

in your body there's a brief moment of

relief and that brief moment of relief

doesn't have any thoughts in it and you

bring that mind back to wishing yourself

well or wishing somebody else will you

can just barely get back and your mind

goes back to those thoughts and that

feeling and trying to control it again

but again you have to do the same thing

you have to allow that feeling to be

there and relax into it you have to let

go of all of the thoughts relax come

back to the feeling of loving kindness

and wishing yourself well