For the past month, I’ve been recording daily guided meditations based on teachings from the Buddhist Honeyball Sutta. This discourse outlines a feedback loop that leads to our own suffering. It explains that consciousness perceives objects through our senses, whether internal like thoughts, or external like what you’re reading now. This is referred to as “contact.” The term “contact” implies there’s a self interacting with a separate world, but the Buddha suggests that this is just an assumption, not the actual reality.
When we perceive something, we have an emotional response to it. If we see something as a threat, it triggers unpleasant feelings in our body. If we see something as beneficial, it creates pleasant feelings. If something seems irrelevant to our wellbeing, it generates a neutral feeling.
Here’s how the cycle continues: we focus our attention on what feels pleasant or unpleasant. We think about these things, sometimes obsessively. This obsession causes suffering and reinforces our sense of being a separate self. This vicious cycle keeps us trapped, constantly looking for peace in things that we fixate on, but it never ends.
A friend of mine recently discussed how mindfulness can help break this reactive cycle. If we become aware of obsessive thoughts, we can release them. With practice, we can experience our feelings without letting them turn into stories. This explanation is valid but incomplete, as the sutta goes deeper.
The discourse suggests that without the senses, perception, or consciousness, there is no feeling, no focused attention, no thinking, no obsessing, and no suffering. This might sound odd or nihilistic, but it’s not about blankness or non-existence. It’s about dropping the idea of a self that perceives a separate world. Instead, it means just being, without the concepts of self and world.
This isn’t a one-time achievement but something we practice regularly. By practicing “just being,” this state becomes more natural. You can try this right now by simply stopping for a few minutes, letting go of thoughts about having or being a separate self. The peace of just being is something you can experience immediately.
This idea of practice doesn’t mean endless preparation but actively letting go of the separate self right now. You can find peace and contentment in this moment. Don’t try to grasp it or resist anything; just be peace.
This practice can deeply transform your life. By focusing on somatic awareness, I’m learning to merge body and mind in an open field of awareness. Although the mind often focuses on specific things, with time, the stability of this open awareness grows, reducing reactive tendencies. This peace gradually changes how I live my life daily.
Yesterday during meditation, I felt a strong urge for the session to end. Normally, I enjoy meditating and want more time to reach stillness, but this time was different. I tried to sit with my desire to stop and questioned what I expected would be better in the future. While I didn’t fully resolve it, it was more comfortable than feeling desperate for time to pass. Hopefully, I can continue to be mindful in future sessions.
Reflecting on ten years of practice, I sometimes wonder if I’m making progress. It’s hard to remember how much I used to make myself suffer. Thinking about my younger self is psychologically terrifying despite how good I looked outside.
Thank you, Bodhipaksa, for this insightful article. I recently attended a retreat on the Heart Sutra, and your reflections resonated deeply with my experiences. Peace and happiness to you.