Balanced Sensitivity

Statement of the Problem The most basic mental activity during each moment of our experience is to produce mental objects and simultaneously to engage with them. If, however, the actual object we perceive with mirror-like awareness is merely an appearance our mind creates,...

The Need for Deconstruction Methods Sometimes, we discover that we are overreacting to what we see, hear, or feel because we are mistaken about what we perceived. We thought, for example, that our friend was angry with us because he or she did not call for days. In fact, our...

Exercise 12: Visualizing Life's Changes The first exercise for deconstructing deceptive appearances helps us to dissolve faulty impressions we might have of situations or persons as permanent. We need to deconstruct our feelings that people's appearance, mode of behavior, or...

Balanced sensitivity requires deconstructing the deceptive, dualistic appearances our mind creates and harnessing our underlying deep awareness and natural talents. We also need to work with other mental factors that structure our mental activity, but do not form part of our...

Differentiating the Various Aspects of Feelings Adjusting the ten mental factors is an effective means for increasing attentiveness to problems and for enhancing the intention to respond. Several factors, however, may still hamper this response. One of the more troublesome is...

Feelings, Wishes, and Necessity Even when we are attentive to a situation and we feel some level of happiness, interest, and compassion about it, and some level of willingness to become involved, we need to respond sensitively and appropriately. Frequently, we need to decide...

The aim of Dr. Berzin’s book “Developing Balanced Sensitivity” and the corresponding program is to develop a balanced type of sensitivity, a sensitivity that is healthy, helpful, and avoids the two extremes of being oversensitive and being insensitive.

Presentation of the six exercises through which we explore various methods for developing or enhancing the positive type of sensitivity and for reducing or eliminating the negative type.

The Balanced Sensitivity program and its exercises aim to serve as a bridge between traditional Buddhist thinking and methods and the emotional problems we all experience and conceptualize in a Western way.

Methods for developing balanced sensitivity, a state of mind that is non-judgmental, caring and emotionally balanced.