Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Sort Things Out
     … That doesn’t require much discernment at all. But we’re in a stage of the practice where you have to make distinctions. You’re suffering. You want to stop. In light of that distinction, some actions are skillful; some actions are not. Some actions are more skillful than others. There are gradations. It requires discernment to see that. The discernment gets sharper the … 
  3. Mud Houses
     … Use the aggregates of concentration to develop discernment to induce a sense of dispassion for other aggregates. But then you’re still here with the concentration; you’re still here with the discernment. This is where the discernment gets really sharp, when it begins to see that even the concentration and the discernment are fabricated. If you’re going to find real happiness, you … 
  4. Opting Out
     … The same with discernment: All three of these dhammas of the path are dhammas of restraint. With discernment, you realize there are certain desires you could give in to, but they’re going to lead to suffering, and you find a way beyond those desires. When the goal is reached, when release comes, you’ve found a happiness that doesn’t have to depend … 
  5. Develop Your Inner Observer
     … And it’s not just in the beginning stages, as when Rahula was told to ask himself about “this action I want to do,” “this action I’m doing,” “this action I’ve done.” When the Buddha is talking about developing discernment, developing mindfulness as a governing principle, he has you say, “I will try to develop any discernment that I haven’t developed … 
  6. A Positive-Sum Game
     … Yet if you look inside the mind, here’s something where you can gain power, gain control over the mind for the purpose of concentration, for the purpose of discernment, for the purpose of release. That’s a game when there are no losers. It’s a positive-sum game. So focus on what you can control. Learn how to get some control over … 
  7. Wise Endurance
     … The Buddha’s first principle of determination is not to neglect discernment. We have to think about how the messages of the Buddha’s teachings on discernment aid in putting up with difficult situations. The important thing they all emphasize is the fact that you can do something to make sure you don’t suffer. In some cases, this involves thinking of new ways … 
  8. An Auspicious Night
     … And you think about the future: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” That’s the essence of discernment. So mindfulness and discernment require that you take the past, the present, and the future all into consideration as you decide what to do in the present, remembering the Buddha’s statement that the Dhamma is nourished through … 
  9. Learning from Desire
    That phrase in the chant just now, “Those who don’t discern suffering”: It sounds strange. You’d think that everybody discerns suffering. Babies know suffering. They know enough to cry. Even common animals know when they’re in pain. But that’s not what the Buddha’s referring to. There are the kinds of suffering we all know about, and he lists them … 
  10. Jhana & Insight
     … So the concentration provides a foundation not only for mindfulness and alertness but also for discernment: the discernment that sees what’s going on in the mind and can begin to make better judgments about what’s worth feeding on and what’s not. As your sensitivity gets greater and greater with practice like this, that opens you up to the deathless dimension that … 
  11. Paying Off Your Debts
     … That connects directly with the final form of inner wealth, discernment. Your discernment starts by borrowing the Buddha’s discernment through your learning. Then you think about it, and try to put it together in a way that makes sense. As the Buddha said, the truth is consistent. The Buddha never talked about having two levels of truth, conventional and absolute. All the words … 
  12. Rooted in Heedful Desire
     … So heedfulness is based on informed desire, a desire informed by discernment. The discernment gets sharper the more you learn to use it in practice, as you catch little things you didn’t see before and you learn how to deal with them more and more effectively. So keep that image of the soldier in mind. It’s probably why Ajaan Mun used it … 
  13. A Handful of Leaves
     … And that’s to give strength to your discernment, to see exactly what you’re doing that’s causing the suffering and what you can do to stop. That chant we had just now—“those who don’t discern suffering”—may sound strange: Doesn’t everyone discern their suffering? But the Buddha said our main duty with regard to suffering and stress is to … 
  14. Not Getting What You Want
     … The joy becomes the basis for concentration, then discernment, then release. So that version of dependent co-arising ends positively, with suffering leading you ultimately to follow the path that gets you to something that’s not dependent, something independent—which is total release. It’s interesting to think about how that connection between suffering and conviction comes about. Remember, in suffering there’s … 
  15. A Valuable Gift
     … So you want to be able to develop discernment as well. That requires that the mind settle in and be very still. Otherwise, your discernment is going to be just what you’ve read in books. It becomes a glaze covering up the opportunity to gain your own genuine discernment, which comes from developing your own powers of observation, getting the mind still and … 
  16. Standing Outside Your Thoughts
     … The other four methods involve a certain amount of discernment: the discernment of the craftsperson, the discernment of someone who’s fastidious, the discernment of someone who says, “Okay I can’t control this situation, but I certainly don’t have to get involved,” or the discernment of the person who realizes that the distractive thinking is not something that’s coming in from … 
  17. Determination
     … The qualities are discernment, truth, relinquishment, and calm. You start out with discernment, trying to figure out what would be a worthwhile goal, one that, when you had attained it, would be something you could really hold on to, something of genuine essence. Then use your discernment to figure out how to get there. In terms of the perfections, this involves the perfection of … 
  18. Sowing Good Seeds
     … And it’s not a matter of sitting here and waiting for discernment to drop on you out of the sky. The act of trying to be sensitive to the present moment is what develops your powers of discernment. As your powers of discernment get sharper, you start seeing what’s actually going on. There are directions to recommend that you look at a … 
  19. Therapy for the Mind
     … In the path of discernment, built on all the factors of the noble path, the discernment is what does the actual therapy. That originates in the mind, too. It needs to be nurtured, needs to be protected. You have to learn how to side with it more and more, with what the Buddha calls one of the customs of the noble ones, which is … 
  20. Believing & Knowing
     … Discernment is the ridgepole—the discernment that leads to the right ending of stress. As the others are going up, they’re going to be a little wobbly. They’re not one hundred percent sure. It’s only when we start having direct insight that discernment really starts yielding results. That’s when everything is solid and in place. The Buddha has us be … 
  21. A Self Rightly Directed
     … Of all the strengths we have to develop, the highest one is discernment. And discernment has to do with understanding—or as the Buddha says, having penetrative knowledge of—arising and passing away. That’s not just seeing things coming and going; for the knowledge to be penetrative, you have to see where things come from and what they lead to. You begin to … 
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