Search results for: "Wisdom"

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  2. Truthfulness
     … If you blindly accept, “Well, this has to be the way it is,” and throw yourself into a particular practice without questioning, you’re not developing the qualities that lead to wisdom, that lead to discernment. You’re not developing the quality of heedfulness that the Buddha said lies at the base of all skillful qualities. There has to be an element of wariness … 
  3. Your World to Practice In
     … So you want to take command so that you have wisdom looking, mindfulness looking: qualities of mind you can trust. The Buddha’s image for restraint of the senses, as I said, is not putting on blinders. It’s putting animals on leashes. But simply trying to hold some restraint over the senses is really hard unless you have a sense of well-being … 
  4. Up for the Challenge
    When the Buddha teaches wisdom or discernment, he always talks about things that are in pairs. For instance, there’s one teaching where he says a sign of wisdom is when you know which duties fall to you and which ones don’t. It means there’s a distinction. There are some things you’ve got to work on, some things you’ve got … 
  5. Conviction & Persistence
     … You know the content of wisdom, you’ve heard what the Buddha’s had to say, yet the mind isn’t totally with the program, but there’s a part that says, “Well, let’s give it a try.” Try to strengthen that part as much as you can. That’s what will see you through.
  6. Everything You Need
     … And among those three, ardency is the factor that, he says, has to do with wisdom. Ardency is your desire to abandon what’s unskillful and develop what’s skillful in its place. That’s where the discernment lies—in other words, realizing that you can learn, that you can apply your knowledge, and wanting to do that. Not all desire is bad. The … 
  7. Into the Light of Consciousness
     … think about what will be for your long-term welfare and happiness. That, as the Buddha said, is the wise way to judge. Wisdom is not just seeing the world as it comes and goes and appears on its own. Wisdom is learning how to judge actions well so that you can act for the best purposes, for the best consequences. In terms of … 
  8. Teachings to Rahula
     … That element of skillfulness is what adds wisdom to our goodwill. It’s why, when Ajaan Lee was describing mindfulness practice, he would identify ardency as the wisdom factor—the intention to do this really well, because you know that there are drawbacks that come if you don’t. You don’t have to look too far. Go into an old folks’ home. Look … 
  9. Encouragement
     … And wisdom, the Buddha says, starts with the question: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” The wisdom there is that, one, it’s through your actions that happiness comes. Two, long-term is possible. And then three, long-term better than short-term. So, the basic principles are not all that difficult. It’s simply a … 
  10. Establishing Priorities
     … What kind of happiness do you want? What are you willing to give up to attain that happiness? How much time and energy are you planning to invest, willing to invest to find true happiness? This is another aspect of wisdom: keeping your priorities clear. If true happiness is the top priority, that helps to pull the mind out of its ignorance—in other … 
  11. The Pursuit of Excellence
     … his wisdom, his compassion, his purity. That’s one of the messages of the teaching: that you develop wisdom, compassion, and purity by being mature in your pursuit of happiness. You’re wise in not settling for anything changeable, you’re compassionate in taking the happiness of others into account, and you’re pure in making sure that your actions actually fall in line … 
  12. Seriously Happy
     … When you’ve got a certain amount of satisfaction that way, then you can start stepping back and saying, “Okay, how about the long term?” This is where the wisdom comes in. The awakened people you ask will tell you to start with generosity, virtue, and meditation. In other words, look for happiness in ways that’re harmless. If you want your happiness to … 
  13. Three Recollections
     … It was his wisdom that enabled him to see how to get beyond suffering. And his compassion in teaching: He taught everyone who was willing to learn, from devas down to the poorest people. There’s one really touching incident concerning an outcast person whose job is to gather up garbage and withered flowers at shrine. He sees the Buddha coming down the road … 
  14. Intelligent Respect
     … Is there another way? It’s like that time when Ajaan Fuang told me to use my *pañña. *Up to that point, I’d always translated pañña in my mind as “wisdom.” I was at a point where I was feeling very unwise, so I said, “I have no pañña.” He said, “Of course you have pañña. Everybody has some pañña. It’s just … 
  15. Nobility Through Inner Strength
     … They don’t become our wisdom until we realize, “Okay, if I can change the way I act in a positive direction, that’s wisdom in action.” Whatever skills you need in learning how to talk yourself into doing the skillful thing and abandoning the unskillful thing, that’s all discernment. It’s a strength because you can carry that with you wherever you … 
  16. Can All Beings Be Happy?
     … It might work for you.” The same with wisdom and discernment: It’s good to be able to share what you’ve got, to encourage other people to develop their wisdom and their discernment as well. But, and this is where it gets difficult, there are limits to how much you can influence the behavior of other people. That’s where equanimity has to … 
  17. The Context for No Context
     … As the Buddha once said, if you recognize your own foolishness, that’s the beginning of wisdom; to that extent are you wise. Regardless of how much you may know, if you realize that your knowledge is not putting an end to suffering, there must be some better way of looking at things: That’s the beginning of wisdom. And you can cut through … 
  18. In Line with the Dhamma
     … That point is an important part of wisdom, an important part of our discernment: The problems of suffering can be cured. Believing that is something really basic. As the Buddha once said, there are four kinds of activities in life. There are things that we like to do that give good results, and things we don’t like to do that give bad results … 
  19. A Soiled, Oily Rag
     … These are the reflections that lead to the question that the Buddha said is the beginning of wisdom: What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? My—long-term—welfare and happiness. The three perceptions are related to those three parts of that question. If something is inconstant, it can’t be long-term. If it’s stressful … 
  20. Effective Self-Discipline
     … That larger perspective is part of wisdom. So these are some of the qualities that help with persistence, help with discipline. There’s the desire for the results; the conviction that what you do does make a difference, and then that a genuine happiness really is possible; the understanding of cause and effect; and finally a wise sense of humor. We tend to live … 
  21. Self-Reliance
     … To get to know a person’s wisdom, you have to notice how the person frames a question and tries to answer a question. And again, only over time and by being very observant will you notice these things. The same principles apply to the mind. You have to watch the mind, live with the mind, watch its dealings, see how it handles hardships … 
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