Search results for: "Wisdom"

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  2. Assumptions
     … Which means that wisdom is not just knowing about things. It’s the kind of knowledge that comes with skill, as you learn to manipulate your experience in a deft way. So keep that in mind: We’re here working on a skill. We’re not going to obliterate anything. We’re just taking what we’ve got and reconfiguring it. This mind that … 
  3. Goodwill Is Respect
     … So how do you avoid divulging the information without lying at the same time? I was reading a Mahayana piece saying basically that wisdom around the precepts means knowing when to observe the precepts and when not to observe them. That’s not genuine wisdom. That’s just the common worldly attitude: You hold by your principles when it’s convenient, and you drop … 
  4. From Heedfulness to Purity
     … When the Buddha was talking about the root of what is skillful in the mind, he didn’t say that it comes from any innate goodness, innate compassion, or innate wisdom, aside from the wisdom of heedfulness: seeing that there is danger out there and there’s danger in here, and that your actions are going to make a difference as to whether you … 
  5. Your Gyroscope
     … When you meet with praise and criticism, you can develop the wisdom of looking at what other people say, looking at their intentions, and looking at yourself. After all, sometimes criticism is very useful. As the Buddha once said, if someone points out your faults, you should regard that person as having pointed out a treasure. In other words, if the faults really are … 
  6. The Core of Experience
     … Do you sincerely want to be happy? Do you want to take your desire for happiness as something important? For the Buddha, that’s the beginning of wisdom and discernment: taking your desire for true happiness as having essential value. And then, from the assumption, discernment develops. It develops through asking the question, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term … 
  7. The Treasure of Virtue
     … In this way, you develop wisdom, discernment, and compassion through the precepts. You develop purity by observing the precepts. These are all qualities of the Buddha. In fact, these are his three main qualities: wisdom, compassion, purity. You can develop them, too, by looking for happiness in a mature way, a wise way. The Buddha never says that you should sacrifice your happiness for … 
  8. Circumspection
     … When you reflect on the Dhamma, you reflect on Sariputta in his wisdom. When you reflect on the Sangha, you reflect on Moggallana with his psychic powers and his compassion. It’s an interesting connection: psychic powers and compassion. Ajaan Lee did have a lot of psychic powers, and he devoted them to compassionate purposes. He helped people with their poverty. He helped people … 
  9. The Flow of Time
     … This is the beginning of wisdom and discernment, when you ask that question, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” It’s wise because, one, you realize it’s going to depend on your actions; two, you realize that long-term happiness is possible; and three, you want long-term. So you’ve got to learn how … 
  10. Ajaan Suwat’s Gift
     … A large part of the wisdom of ardency is right there. Ajaan Suwat was once asked why Buddhism didn’t have a god. If only Buddhism had a god, the person said, it would give people a sense of reassurance that there was somebody out there looking out for them when they couldn’t quite make it on their own. Ajaan Suwat’s response … 
  11. Fire
     … That’s the beginning of wisdom. Then there’s your desire to develop your discernment so that you can figure out exactly what is “just right” effort: That exercises your wisdom and discernment as well. So we’re working on concentration and discernment at the same time, tranquility and insight at the same time, based on desire. Then, as you have a sense of … 
  12. You Can’t Eat the Buddha
     … It involves developing qualities of wisdom, purity, compassion: the wisdom to realize that you’re going to have to depend on yourself for your happiness, and that the happiness that’s worth working toward is a long-term happiness, not a short-term. From that realization grows compassion: the understanding that other people want happiness, too, and if your happiness depends on their suffering … 
  13. How We Cling
    You may remember that passage where the Buddha says that wisdom or discernment begins with two questions: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” The wisdom lies in seeing that happiness and suffering come from your actions. Your actions are important because they … 
  14. Truths of the Will
     … That’s the beginning of wisdom right there. And it’s not just the beginning. It’s a principle that carries all the way through. We have the example of Ajaan Mun and the whole forest tradition. From the outside it might seem very unlikely that they would have been able to find anything special in their practice, but they did. So take heart … 
  15. Expanded Possibilities
     … Part of this came from sensing his psychic abilities—he seemed very quick to read my mind—but also his wisdom and compassion. He never bragged about his powers. He never talked about them. But they were there, and he used them well. And it was the wisdom and compassion with which he used them that convinced me that he was the kind of … 
  16. The Center of Your Life
     … If you really want to be happy, what does it mean? What do you have to do?” And as he discovered, it’s the first step in wisdom is to ask, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” The long-term there is important. You don’t want a happiness that comes and goes and kicks you … 
  17. Friends with The Breath
     … This, the Buddha said, is the beginning of wisdom: learning how to see things as separate. We hear so much about wisdom of oneness and the wisdom of interconnectedness. But the Buddha himself said insight comes from seeing things as separate. Pain is one thing. The body is something else. Or that perception that the pain is a solid block: Look at it carefully … 
  18. Cornered
     … Here we see the wisdom of the Buddha’s strategy or the strategic nature of his wisdom. He promises you an unfabricated happiness, but he realizes that you’re not going to go there until you’re cornered. Instead of moving from one form of food to another—fixing it, eating it, fixing some more, eating some more—the path takes you to a … 
  19. Vows
     … This is the beginning of wisdom. That means learning how to talk yourself into being willing to give these lesser pleasures up. Wisdom is a strategy. All of this comes back to discernment, that first quality. It keeps popping up again and again. To be truthful requires some discernment: How are you going to stick to your vow? Say that you make a vow … 
  20. Instruct, Urge, Rouse, & Encourage Yourself
     … Ardency is the wisdom faculty. The way the Buddha defines mindfulness, you could be mindful of anything; you could hold anything in mind. Simply being able to remember things that were done and said a long time ago: That’s how he defines mindfulness. Nothing about giving priority to what’s skillful or putting aside what’s unskillful. The same with alertness: You’re … 
  21. To Make Suffering Crumble
     … We sometimes hear that the Buddha said that wisdom is seeing things in terms of their oneness. But he never said that. Wisdom sees things as separate—how they’re interacting, but they are separate things. The form of the body is one thing. The feeling of pain is something else. And then there are your perceptions, such as the perception that the pain … 
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