Search results for: "Wisdom"
- Page 23
- Relating to Results… And it’s that childishness that the wisdom of non-attachment to results is meant to cure. But this non-attachment is not an indifference. You care deeply about doing things right because it’s an issue of life and death: true happiness vs. an endless round of birth and redeath, rebirth and redeath over and over again. It’s an important issue. It …
- Goodwill as Right View… It’s a form of wisdom. After all, it’s right view and right resolve together: your view that you would benefit if everybody could be happy, and your resolve to act on that view. So when you’re in difficult situations where you’re not quite sure what to do, at least hold onto your goodwill. Sometimes it helps the situation come out …
- Appropriate Attention… As the Buddha said, wisdom lies in seeing things as separate—things we tend to glom together. You know that in those two things—the craving or the passion and desire on the one hand, and these aggregates of form, feeling, perception, fabrication, and consciousness on the other—the craving is to be abandoned, while you have to comprehend those aggregates that you’re …
- True Honesty… That question that the Buddha said lies at the beginning of wisdom—“What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?”: That points you in the right direction. But, as he says, when you get to the end of the path, you find that all the terms of the question get transcended. “My”: A sense of not-self comes …
- The Karma of Self… The beginning of wisdom, he says, starts with a question: What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering, and what when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? The “I” and the “my,” there, show two sides of the concept of self. One is the self as the producer: “What when I do …
- On Human Nature… As the Buddha once said, when a fool realizes that he’s been foolish, that’s the beginning of wisdom right there. He’s at least wise to that extent. Most people go through life as fools and yet think they’re wise and clever. Those are the ones whose quest for happiness is going to take a long, long time before finding anything …
- Factors for Stream Entry… So look carefully at how you develop it, because there are all different kinds of discernment, all different kinds of wisdom. The discernment the Buddha’s talking about is one that gives you freedom that you just can’t even imagine. And, as he said, this freedom: If you could ever make a deal that they would spear you with a hundred spears in …
- Respect as a Sign of Intelligence… In fact, the desire for true happiness is the beginning of wisdom. If you’re able to find true happiness, you can be a lot more compassionate to other people, too. Often, the reason people are harsh and unkind to one another is because they’ve been disappointed in their happiness. They feel that when they don’t get any happiness, why should anybody …
- Determination… In this way, he nourishes himself with that thought, uses his wisdom, uses his concentration, uses his virtue. There’s an interesting passage where Citta the householder is about to die. Some devas come to see him and say, “Set your mind on becoming a universal monarch, ruler of the continent of India, because you’d be a good ruler.” And the reason they …
- Evaluation… As Ajaan Lee would say, this is the sign of a person of wisdom and discernment—someone with the ability to get good use out of anything. So even though attachment may be part of the problem, you can make it part of the solution. Ajaan Lee has that great passage where he says, “To take good things and make them good doesn’t …
- Thinking About Rebirth… He focused on developing wisdom. He said, learn how to live in the world in a wise way. Live going forward. If you’re trying to get justice done, try to do it in a way that will incline people to stop their unskillful behavior. That requires that you get them to see things in the right light and understand the principle of karma …
- Discernment… Sāriputta’s wisdom—his discernment—was so sharp that that’s immediately how he interpreted it. And he immediately looked into what was beyond, after the cessation of that cause. That’s how he saw the deathless. That’s the kind of insight—the kind of discernment—that’s noble. When you look at the four noble truths, you notice, of course, that discernment …
- How to Be an Admirable Friend… Point out to them: “I did this, and these were the consequences.” That way, you learn from other people’s wisdom. The fool is someone who thinks he can figure out everything on his own. We’ve had who knows how many generations of people practicing the Dhamma now. There are bound to be people who’ve learned how to avoid mistakes and how …
- Strategies for Generosity… virtue, forgiveness, the wisdom that sees through the defilements in the mind. In all cases, those are best served by having a good, solid practice of concentration as food for your mind—a sense of ease, well-being, and fullness that you can create inside, which also gives you the perspective that you can start seeing all the other subtler ways you place limitations …
- Meaning & Purpose… Are they really worth it? Are they for your long-term welfare and happiness, or just short-term? This is where you start applying your wisdom and discernment—for the purpose of finding a happiness that really is reliable. And you begin to appreciate more and more the path that the Buddha set out. It meets your purposes. All of us have as a …
- Impossible Things… He said they’re a measure of a person’s wisdom and discernment. He didn’t say they’re a measure of your willpower. You need to use discernment to do the things you don’t like to do but give good results and to not do the things you like to do but give bad results. The discernment lies not only in seeing …
- Perspectives & Priorities… your greed, aversion, delusion, and your irritation, or your wisdom and compassion? You want to keep in mind what the Buddha had to say about these things. That’s how you train a wise inner critic. Then you want to be alert, watching what you’re actually doing, so that you can check to make sure that it is in line with the Buddha …
- Only Your Best… things that are important, part of which is that you remember the long term. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things in the short term for the sake of the long term. Wisdom lies in having the right priorities as to what’s important. There’s that saying, “Everything worth doing is worth doing well,” which is not quite the case. With some things, it …
- Look after the Source… As the Buddha said, a sign of wisdom is realizing where your responsibilities lie and where your responsibilities don’t lie. The source, the mind’s desire for happiness, is where your true responsibilities lie. You want to make sure that that desire is aimed in the right direction, toward a happiness that’s harmless and blameless, a happiness that’s true. As long …
- Slogging Through Difficulties… This is how wisdom develops, how discernment develops. It’s not the case that the mind settles down all the time and gets into a nice, blissful state and then gains quick and easy insights. Sometimes the insights have to come through making mistakes, slogging through the difficult parts of the practice. This is where equanimity and patience come in. You may not want …
- Load next page...
