Search results for: "Wisdom"

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  2. Negotiating with the Committee
     … Remember the Buddha’s definition of the beginning point of wisdom, those questions you ask somebody who knows: What when I do it will be for my long-term welfare and happiness? What when I do it will be for my long-term harm and suffering? These question are wise because you see that your actions are responsible for your happiness or your suffering … 
  3. Educating Equanimity
     … This means that equanimity requires wisdom, it requires discernment, so that you can learn how to read a situation: Is this one where you can make a difference? Or is it one where you can’t? And given the way the brahmaviharas are set out—starting with goodwill, compassion, and empathetic joy before they get to equanimity—the basic message is that you work … 
  4. Sensitive to the Mind
     … He was the embodiment of wisdom, compassion, purity. And he showed how it was done. He said, “This is how you develop your wisdom. This is how you develop your compassion. This is how you develop your purity”. He left the instructions behind, the people who followed them found that they were useful, and so they passed them on. And here we are, the … 
  5. Developing Discernment
    The Pali word, pañña, is usually translated as “wisdom.” It’s one of the qualities we’re trying to develop as we follow the path. “Wisdom” may not be the best translation, though. One reason is that the Pali noun pañña has a verb to go with it, pajanati, as we chanted just now, ye dukkham na pajanati, whereas “wisdom” doesn’t have a … 
  6. A Path Rooted in Desire
     … We tend to think of wisdom and discernment as observations about things. But for the Buddha, wisdom involves resolving on doing what’s skillful. It’s an act of will—something you want to cultivate. Based on that act of will, you try to bring your speech, your actions, and your livelihood in line with the principle of non-harm. So you resolve on … 
  7. Skills for Dying Well
     … We’ve heard so much about how wisdom see the oneness, the inter-connectedness of all things; but the Buddha himself said that wisdom lies in seeing things as separate. Your awareness is one thing, your breath is something else, other thoughts coming into the mind are something else—and it’s good to be able to see those distinctions. In the beginning, though … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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.
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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