Search results for: "Discernment"

  1. Page 14
  2. Appreciating the State of Peace
     … The four qualities are discernment, truth, generosity, and calm. The discernment, of course, is expressed in our realization of what the true aim is—the most skillful aim: to put an end to suffering. This gives a context to the practice of metta. It also helps us understand the content of metta as well. In terms of the context, we realize if we really … 
  3. Firmly Intent
     … We want the discernment that comes from concentration and the release that comes from discernment. But you have to work on the causes. That’s where your intention has to be aimed. We can set goals for ourselves, but they have to be goals that are in the area of causes, because the results, when they come, may not be what you expected. The … 
  4. Treasure Island
     … So from the discernment that comes from reading and listening, there comes the discernment that comes from thinking things through. Then, when you think things through in the proper way, you develop a desire to put them into practice. That’s when you develop the discernment that comes from actually trying to get the mind to settle down, actually trying to get the mind … 
  5. A Sense of Yourself
     … The fifth quality is discernment: seeing where you’re causing yourself suffering. This, of course, requires that you work on your concentration so that you can see things more clearly. Discernment is not just a matter of having learned things or having thought them through. It means actually seeing, when you’re about to do something that’s going to be unskillful: How can … 
  6. Feeding While You Work
     … As Ajaan Lee once said, if you see causes without results, that doesn’t count as discernment. Seeing results without causes that doesn’t count as discernment. You have to see the connection, and to see the connection you have to work at things and detect what comes about as a result. So you focus on the breath and learn to how to enjoy … 
  7. Your Actions Are Yours
     … When the Buddha talks about the discernment that’s penetrative—discernment into arising and passing away—the important adjective there is that it’s “penetrative.” When your discernment is penetrative, what does that mean? It means that you recognize that there are skillful actions and unskillful ones, skillful arisings and unskillful ones. If something is skillful, you want to encourage it; if it’s … 
  8. To Comprehend Suffering
    That phrase in the chant just now—“those who don’t discern suffering”— sounds very strange. After all, we see suffering all around us. Someone would have to be very anesthetized not to see it. But even though we see it and feel it, we don’t really know it. In other words, we don’t understand it. It hounds our lives. And we … 
  9. The Language of the Breath
     … This is the beginning of discernment. Discernment starts out with simple things, like: Which way of breathing feels best for the body right now? As you work with that question, you find yourself getting more and more sensitive to the breath energy in the body. Exactly what does it mean, this “breath energy” in the body? What are the different ways it has of … 
  10. Two Roads to the Grand Canyon
     … Virtue, concentration, and discernment all require work. If virtue were easy or natural, it wouldn’t require training. The Buddha wouldn’t have called it a training. The same with concentration: You do have to put an effort into it. It’s a very delicate effort in the sense that it requires a lot of precision, but it also requires strong dedication. The same … 
  11. Evaluating the Practice
     … You can learn what’s stated in the texts about what discernment is and the things that discerning people see, but real discernment is when you’re able to see them in your own mind. This is how you do it: You watch yourself in action. And this, of course, starts with the Buddha’s instructions to Rahula. I know a lot of people … 
  12. Bless Yourself
     … This is where your real strength lies—the strength of discernment—when you see clearly what you’re doing, along with the results of what you’re doing. Part of discernment is alertness on steroids—you’re very clear about what your actions are, you see where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering, and you can see how you can stop. Again, this is … 
  13. Consciousness, Awakened & Not
     … Why did the Buddha formulate the path of virtue, concentration, and discernment? If you can simply open to the unconditioned, why would he formulate such a difficult path? In some schools, they define discernment in terms of how you define emptiness, and they have courses of study that go for years until you get the right understanding of what emptiness is and what it … 
  14. Noble Ardency
     … Ardency is also very directly related to the development of discernment. As you look at what you’re doing, ask yourself, “Is this good enough? Is there still some stress here? To what extent is the stress unnecessary? To what extent is the level of stress changing? Is it going up or down?” This is where you get to watch: If the level of … 
  15. Two Eyes, Not Just One
     … That’s discernment-release. There are a couple of passages where the Buddha does talk about discernment-release on its own, which has led some people to think that you can just gain insight and not have to worry about too much concentration. But where he actually defines discernment-release, it means the release of people who haven’t attained the formless jhanas. Now … 
  16. Look after Your Baby
     … You have to strengthen your persistence, your mindfulness, your concentration, and your discernment. Those strengths are listed in a row—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—but that doesn’t mean that you start with just the beginning ones. All five have to support one another. So look to see where you’re lacking. Are you lacking conviction in yourself? Are you lacking conviction in … 
  17. Testing Insights
     … The left foot is like concentration; the right foot is like discernment. You need them both all the way along. The concentration is the doing, the discernment is the watching and the evaluating. As in his instructions to Rahula: He said you have to evaluate what you’re doing all the time as you’re doing it—before, during and after. In the same … 
  18. Commit & Reflect
     … As the mind gets still and more nourished, that’s when discernment arises, discernment with regard to what you’re doing right now, which ties back to your conviction in what the Buddha learned on the night of his awakening—that present karma really does play a huge role in shaping your experience now and on into the future. So you really want to … 
  19. Stay Principled
     … So you want to keep the precepts in mind and use your ingenuity in applying them so that the practice of the precepts in and of itself develops mindfulness and your discernment. After all, discernment isn’t just a matter of cloning the wisdom your read about in books. Discernment is figuring out how to do the skillful thing given the situation. It’s … 
  20. Open Door Meditation
     … This is where discernment is necessary. You’ve got to see what it is, this flow of thoughts that’s coming in, and who’s sneaking in behind the shadow of a good thought. Because those are the thoughts that are going to derail you. So it requires extra discernment and extra concentration to maintain your center as you go through the day. Which … 
  21. Building Concentration
     … As Ajaan Lee once said, if you know causes but without knowing the effects, that’s not discernment. If you know effects without knowing the causes, that’s not discernment, either. You have to know the two together, and the best way to know that, of course, is to make sure the causes come from within. Those are the ones you know most clearly … 
  22. Load next page...