Search results for: "Wisdom"

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  2. Producing Discernment
     … You can borrow the wisdom of the ajaans, the wisdom of the Buddha. But you also have to learn how to produce some of your own. Ajaan Lee makes this point. You’re not really secure on the path until you can start producing your own discernment, and that comes through your sensitivity— in your sense in the potentials of what can be done … 
  3. Five Precepts, Five Virtues
     … You have to stop and think, “When I do this, what are the results going to be?” As the Buddha said, the sign of wisdom is when you realize that there are things that you like to do but you know will give bad results, so you learn how to say No and stick with it. As for other things that you don’t … 
  4. Discernment Is in the Doing
     … You might say that of the two wisdom or discernment factors, right resolve is the “heart” part—the heart, of course, being not only your emotions, but also your will, your determination that you’re going to do something about what you’ve learned. After all, what you learn in the four noble truths in terms of right view—the “head” part—is that … 
  5. Virtues Bright & Neither Dark nor Bright
     … There’s no wisdom in that. True wisdom lies in realizing that there are times when you know something that somebody else might want to know, but they would abuse that knowledge if you gave it to them and they ask you about it. What are you going to do? How do you not divulge the knowledge without lying at the same time? Or … 
  6. In Search of What is Skillful
     … Of those three qualities, the wisdom quality is ardency. Mindfulness is defined simply as being able to remember things done and said a long time ago—which could be perfectly neutral: You can remember skillful things, you can remember unskillful things, and at that point, simply being mindful on its own doesn’t make the distinction. The same with ardency: Ardency is being aware … 
  7. What You’re Choosing to Do Right Now
     … As you sensitize yourself to the choices you have to make in order to get the mind to settle down, this is where you learn the wisdom or the discernment required for finding the point of moderation. How much food is too much food to eat if you’re practicing meditation? How much is too little? All the physical requisites: How much is too … 
  8. Clinging & Feeding
     … We use the fabrication of thoughts to develop wisdom, the perceptions that the Buddha recommends to develop wisdom—the purpose of that wisdom being to develop dispassion and disenchantment. Then we feed the mind with conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, all of which are good food for the mind. These are the things that strengthen us, so that we can manage the path … 
  9. Your Committee of Addicts
     … And often the choice has nothing to do with wisdom at all. Well, you’ve got members of the committee who are like that, too. In some cases, you can train them, you can show them that it really is not in your best interest to ignore the long-term consequences of your actions. Sometimes they’ll listen; sometimes they won’t. So, when … 
  10. Not-self Is a Value Judgment
     … Basic wisdom around kamma starts with the question, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” Well, insert the term “selfing” and “not-selfing” in that question: “What ways of selfing and not-selfing will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What ways of selfing and not-selfing will lead to my long-term harm and … 
  11. Good Humor
     … A good sense of humor usually goes with wisdom. The ability to step back and keep things in perspective: That’s what makes you wise. It’s precisely what you need as a meditator. So when things start getting grim, when nothing seems to work, just step back for a bit and try to regain your good humor. You’ll find that that, more … 
  12. A Memorial to Your Life
     … This is related to the Buddha’s observation on how wisdom begins. You ask those who know: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” The wisdom there lies in wanting to focus on the causes. You realize that happiness doesn’t come floating by. There are causes: They’re in your actions. So you want to know … 
  13. What’s Worth Doing?
    When the Buddha gave his first instructions to Rahula, he was teaching Rahula a basic principle of wisdom: that discernment is a process of judging which things are worth doing, which things are not. That principle applies all the way through the practice. The answers get more refined as we go through the practice, but it’s always important to keep that question in … 
  14. How Right Mindfulness Leads to Right Concentration
     … When Ajaan Lee explains the practice of mindfulness, ardency is the wisdom factor. When he talks about jhana, evaluation is the wisdom factor. They go together, because ardency doesn’t mean just brute effort here. It tries to be skillful effort. That means reading the situation and figuring out what needs to be done and then doing it—and having a desire to do … 
  15. Good & Independent
     … There’s stress, there’s suffering in life and we have the wisdom to see that it’s coming from our own actions. We’re borrowing the Buddha’s wisdom. That’s what conviction is—seeing that there have been good people in the world and they’ve left behind a path on how to develop our own goodness. Then we spread goodwill to … 
  16. Learning by Doing
     … One of the definitions of discernment or wisdom is penetrative knowledge of arising and passing away. A lot of people focus on “arising and passing away.” They say, “This means that you just watch things coming and going.” But there is that adjective, “penetrative.” It means understanding that there are good things arising and bad things arising. And when things arise, some of them … 
  17. What You Can’t Change, What You Can
     … The wisdom lies in seeing where you draw the line. At what point do you have to say, “Okay, on this issue, I’ve got to be equanimous. Things are not going to change—at least they’re not going to change right now. I have to put them aside for the time being.” That kind of insight comes with experience. There’s no … 
  18. Break Things Down
     … As the Buddha said, an important aspect of wisdom is seeing things as separate: You have habits but you don’t have to identify with them. Urges come up, old habits come up, but you don’t have to ride along with them every time. You can step back and say, “No. This time around I’m not going to go there.” If you … 
  19. Discernment All Along
     … Back in those days, if you opened any dictionary, it would say that pañña means “wisdom.” So I complained. I said, “I don’t have any wisdom.” He said, “Everybody has some paññā if they’re practicing. If you’re born in the human realm, you’ve got some.” Which made me stop to think about what he meant. I realized it was discernment … 
  20. Take the Buddha Seriously
     … We hear so much about the wisdom of Oneness, but we don’t hear it from the Buddha. He says you have to learn to see individual events in the mind as individual events, for the purpose of getting past them, for the purpose of gaining victory over them if they’re unskillful—because as long as you identify with them, it’s going … 
  21. True Friends
     … This is where the wisdom gets tested: in learning how to talk yourself out of doing the things that you like to do that’ll be harmful, and how to make yourself want to do the things that you may not particularly care to do yet, but will lead to long-term happiness. This is the attitude of an adult. You don’t just … 
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