Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Delusion
     … This is why it’s important to learn how to develop discernment. The Buddha talks about three ways of developing discernment. The first is listening, the second is thinking, and the third is developing. Listening means finding people who are wise and listening to what they have to say, and also listening to their examples—in other words, try to notice how they do … 
  3. Don’t Worry, Be Focused
     … This is a lot of what discernment is about. Sometimes people think that discernment is simply learning how not to think at all. You just watch arising and passing away and just let it arise and pass away, and that’s it, but as long as there are any bits and pieces of misunderstanding hanging around in the mind, the mind is going to … 
  4. The Psychology of Harmlessness
     … As the Buddha says, you discern when the breath is long, you discern when it’s short. The word “discerning” here doesn’t mean you simply watch what’s already there. The analogy he gives is of a turner, someone who turns wood on a lathe. The turner discerns when he’s making a long turn and when he’s making a short turn … 
  5. Blowing Bubbles
     … This is an important lesson in discernment as well. So the ability to drop a thought very quickly is an important part of developing both concentration and discernment. A bubble gets blown and you watch it from the outside; you don’t get inside it. You see the process of bubble-blowing. You begin to understand it. You stop it more and more quickly … 
  6. The Noble Eightfold Path to the Deathless
     … The first two—right view and right resolve—come under discernment. The next three—right speech, right action, and right livelihood—come under virtue. And the last three—right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration—come under concentration. What’s distinctive about the path is that of the various sets of the wings to awakening, it’s the only one that starts with discernment … 
  7. The Rewards of Cleanliness
     … that by keeping the monastery clean, one of the rewards is wisdom and discernment. It’s interesting to think about the connection, because this relates very directly to the mind. Keep the mind clean and you’re going to gain a lot of discernment. So what’s the connection? One, when you’re sweeping up a place, you get very intimately acquainted with it … 
  8. Above & Beyond Suffering
     … After all, we’re trying to develop discernment here. And discernment doesn’t come from simply following instructions. It comes from taking instructions and applying them, seeing what the results are, making adjustments here, making adjustments there, learning how to question things. The Buddha once said that that one of the signs of a person of discernment is how that person approaches a question … 
  9. Inner Strength, Inner Wealth
     … And finally there’s wisdom, discernment. It’s both a strength and a form of wealth. The Buddha talks about discernment in pragmatic terms. For example, you know there’s something that you like to do but is going to cause suffering down the line: You have the discernment to know how to talk yourself out of doing it. Or if there’s something … 
  10. Take Good Aim
    Take Good Aim January 9, 2016 The Buddha compares the discernment that comes from meditation to the skills of being a good archer. You’re able to shoot long distances, fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and pierce great masses. In other words, you see the long-term results of what you’re doing, or of different possible courses of action, so that you … 
  11. A Poker Mind
     … Part of your mind may say, “No, it’s not equal at all,” but for the time being you can borrow some of the Buddha’s discernment. This is what the strength or the treasure of learning is. We’re borrowing the Buddha’s discernment to help us when we can’t create discernment of our own. Part of this lies in learning how … 
  12. Protection Through the Practice
     … Then you carry out their instructions and you become more discerning yourself about what those dangers are. When you meditate, you don’t simply follow instructions. Meditation is designed to make you sensitive to cause and effect as they’re happening in the mind, and that requires that you experiment and observe the results of your action. Meditation is also designed to give you … 
  13. A Path Under the Trees
     … When you think in these ways, you bring some discernment to your concentration. It’s not the case that you have to wait until your concentration is perfected and then you develop discernment. You develop discernment in the process of getting the mind to settle down, because you come to see the mind a lot more clearly and understand what it’s doing. This … 
  14. Switzerland Inside
     … The first one is that whatever going to happen in the world, you have no idea what will happen, but you do know that whatever comes up, you’re going to need a lot of inner wealth—like the mindfulness you’re developing right now, the alertness, the concentration, the discernment. These things will stand you in good stead no matter what. So, put … 
  15. Nurturing Patient Endurance
     … The remaining two qualities the Buddha said you have to work on are discernment and ingenuity. Discernment means basically seeing what you’re doing and the results of what you’re doing. And then ingenuity, quick-wittedness: Patibhana is the Pali term. It’s a term that doesn’t appear in many lists, but it is important. You don’t go just by what … 
  16. Bases of Power
     … It’s in learning how to read your own mind that the concentration develops your discernment, and develops your sensitivity as to what works and what doesn’t work. That’s where the real discernment lies. So we use these lists that the Buddha provided as ways of reading ourselves, and it’s in reading ourselves that we learn the discernment that’s not … 
  17. The Need for a Purpose
     … Someone asked the Buddha one time, “What is virtue for?” “Virtue is for the sake of developing concentration.” “What’s concentration for?” “Concentration is for the sake of developing discernment.” “What’s discernment for?” “For the sake of release.” “What’s release for?” “For the sake of unbinding, total freedom.” “What’s unbinding for?” The Buddha said, “No, stop there. Your question is going … 
  18. Skillful Thinking
     … This is the Buddha’s guideline for discernment. Actually his guidelines go back even more simply than that, pointing out that there are actions that you may like to do that give good results, actions that you may like to do that give bad results, actions you don’t like to do that give good results, and actions you don’t like to do … 
  19. Determined to Be Undefeated by Death
     … The first is that you use your discernment: Remind yourself of why it’s good to settle down, the benefits of getting the mind to rest and to have a chance to see itself clearly as it’s reflected in the breath, and whatever other ways you can think will make yourself want to stay here. The second step is that you’re true … 
  20. Magha Puja
     … Those two activities will help you cleanse the mind, so that the mind will be bright, a light to itself, filled with the light of discernment. Those candles that we were carrying around the sala tonight: Those stand for discernment. The flowers stand for concentration, the mind that blooms. The incense stands for virtue. As the texts say, the fragrance of virtue is greater … 
  21. Mindful Judgment
     … It says we don’t discern suffering, which sounds kind of strange. After all, everybody knows that there’s suffering. It’s one of the most basic facts of being aware. Being a conscious agent, we’re bound to come into pain, suffering, mental suffering, physical pain. These things just right here, but we don’t really discern them. To “discern” them means to … 
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