“If you find it hard to let go of a critical and judgmental attitude towards yourself and others, remember that the fundamental quality of sensitivity is already your nature and the nature of others. We are not trying to create or maintain this. We are just trying to notice it. What we call ‘not feeling a sense of well-being’, is our sense of well-being responding to something that does not feel right.

What often happens is that we identify with our attitudes and opinions. The voice that says during meditation ‘You are getting too excited’ or ‘You are just sitting here pretending to meditate, actually you are just dreaming and wasting time’ – is actually your inherent sense of well-being telling you that something is wrong.

Turn towards the sense that there is something wrong and stay with that feeling. It will fade into a ‘gap’ or space. Notice that it was a temporary expression of an underlying sense of well-being. The voices are attitudes and opinions that if you are not careful you may ‘fix’ as somehow embodying the ‘real’ you. The ‘real you is the underlying sensitivity, not any of the particular voices of your conditioning.” – Lama Shenpen Hookham

From the ‘Sensitivity’ coursebook, of Discovering the Heart of Buddhism, the first course in Lama Shenpen’s Living the Awakened Heart Training – available for anyone who wishes to explore Buddhism and meditation in a direct, authentic and systematic way.