Allowing Feelings Without Becoming Them: A Plum Village Approach to Healing
- The Dancing Buddha
- Nov 25
- 3 min read
This morning, I joined the Sangha for the first time.
A simple guided meditation — Plum Village style — opened a door I didn’t expect.
The teacher invited us to free the feeling of holding formations back,
to welcome them to continue but without seeking and without identifying.
It was one of those moments when practice becomes real —not philosophy, not effort, but direct experience of the mind as it is.
What Are Mental Formations in Plum Village Practice?
In Plum Village language, formations are:
emotions
impulses
sensations
memories
energetic patterns that try to complete themselves
They are not problems.
They are unfinished movements of the body–mind.
Normally we try to:
push them down
correct them
analyze them
replace them with something better
But this morning, the teaching was simple:
“Let them continue — without joining them.”
No fight.
No feeding.
No becoming.
How to Allow Emotions Without Becoming Them
A formation is like a wave:
it rises because of causes
it peaks because that is its nature
it dissolves when the causes end
It doesn’t need a controller.
When we hold a feeling back, it freezes.
When we try to release it, that is still control.
But when awareness says:
“You may continue. I am here.”
the body softens.
Energy moves again.
Completion becomes possible.
This is not technique —this is trust in the natural intelligence of the nervous system.
Welcoming Without Seeking
There is a sacred middle space:
not suppressing
not indulging
not replacing
not identifying
Just allowing.
Welcoming does not mean:
encouraging the story
collapsing into emotion
acting it out
making meaning
It simply means:
not interfering with the life cycle of a conditioned event.
A feeling is only a feeling when we don’t become the one who feels it.
The End of Becoming in Real Time
In Buddhist psychology:
craving leads to clinging
clinging leads to becoming
becoming leads to the birth of a self
and the cycle continues
But when a formation is:
seen
allowed
not claimed
…it cannot create a self.
No identity forms around it.
Mara arrives — but finds no throne.
This morning, the practice was not self-improvement.
It was the quiet ending of becoming.
A Simple Practice to Try Today
During your next uncomfortable moment:
Pause Feel the body before thinking.
Recognize “A feeling is here.”
Breathe with it In-breath: “Hello, my feeling.” Out-breath: “I am here for you.”
Allow No goal. No fixing. No pushing away.
Let the wave finish itself
The miracle is not that the feeling changes —but that you don’t become it.
Why This Matters for Healing
Most suffering does not come from the feeling itself.
It comes from:
resisting
tightening
bracing
identifying
planning escape
When we stop interfering:
the body completes what was unfinished
energy unfreezes
the nervous system re-regulates
emotion becomes movement instead of identity
Healing becomes a natural consequence, not an achievement.
Walking with the Sangha — and Yourself
This first morning reminded me:
We don’t heal by becoming someone better.
We heal by no longer becoming at all.
Not through effort —but through presence without agenda.
May you meet your formations with gentleness today.
May nothing inside you feel alone.
If you are ready to explore this in your own life
At Light Manor Hypnotherapy, we help clients:
observe experience without fear
soften the habit of self-protection
release emotional patterns without force
rediscover the calm that was already there
You are welcome — exactly as you are.
There is nothing to fix.
Only something ready to be seen.
Comments