Search results for: "Wisdom"
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- Smart About Lust… They may be wise in the sense of the wisdom of books that have little wise phrases, one on each page, but they don’t have any street smarts. They don’t know how to get what they really want. The basic picture is of people who are dried-up, world-weary, who simply can’t get it on with other people. I must …
- A Basis in Well-being… You look at the teaching on the four noble truths—which we take as the Buddha’s most basic teaching, most comprehensive teaching—and what is it but the application of wisdom and discernment to the question of how to be happy? In the time of the Buddha, lots of people were practicing meditation, and in many cases it was for the sake of …
- Safety in an Uncertain World… Remember the questions that lie at the beginning of wisdom and discernment, "What when I do it will lead to my long term harm and suffering? What when I do it will lead to my long term health and happiness?” When the Buddha says long-term, he means really long. Many, many lifetimes. Our unskillful actions can have an impact not only in this …
- Determined on Goodwill… The first one is wisdom or discernment, paññā. As he said, don’t neglect discernment. How do you neglect discernment? By neglecting the long term. Discernment begins by thinking in the long term: What are the long-term consequences of your actions going to be? Then you stick with the things that will lead to good long-term results. So think of what you …
- The Kamma of Self & Not-Self… So what are some skillful uses of self? A while back there was a book, called The Wisdom of the Ego, in which a psychologist talked about healthy ego functions—the ego being the part of your self-committee in the mind that negotiates among your desires, and between your sense of what you should do and what you want to do. And although …
- Attachment to Views… A lot of the wisdom you would develop that way can very easily go off in directions that are not really helpful. The test always is appropriate attention to the four noble truths: To what extent does this insight give you insight into how to comprehend suffering or stress, how to abandon its cause, or how to develop the path, so that you can …
- Five Steps to Insight… There’s that voice in the mind that says, “Your feelings are your real… the real expressions of how you think about things.” Sometimes people even say that your body has its wisdom. But actually, the body doesn’t know much of anything at all. What you’re dealing with is different levels of the mind. If they’re in ignorance, you can’t …
- Good Fundamentals… So an important part of wisdom is developing compassion, taking other people’s happiness into consideration. But how far can you do that? I was reading recently someone saying that Buddhism is going to have to change, that nibbana is no longer good enough for us, it no longer meets our needs. We need a more compassionate teaching that straightens out the world first …
- Treating the Diseases of the Mind… Which means that the discernment and wisdom that you bring to the process will have to develop over time. There will be mistakes. There will be setbacks. But basically you’re training yourself to be a doctor, too, starting with your own diseases. You don’t want to get involved with other people’s diseases until you’ve cured your own. You may look …
- Goodwill Without Limits… It means simply that you learn to have the right time and place for expressing your goodwill, acting on your goodwill, and other times when you have to hold back a little bit—not out of a lack of goodwill, but simply out of wisdom. You try to figure out: “What would be the best way to influence this person?” If the opportunity doesn …
- Up for the Challenge… To what extent are you going to let those shoulds have a voice and actually have some power over what you’re doing, some authority? This is where the Buddha said that a measure of your wisdom lies in seeing that there are some things that you would like to do but you know are going to give rise to long-term suffering—and …
- Like a River Full of Water… It’s a very basic level of wisdom that we tend to overlook. But as is so often the case with really basic teachings, it’s really important. You always have to keep it in mind.
- The Thoroughbred Horse… The Buddha says that a sign of wisdom is being able to talk yourself into doing things you don’t like that you know will lead to good results, and also to talk yourself out of doing things that you like to do but you know will lead to bad results. So we can’t simply go by our tastes or our moods or …
- Dreams & Voices… I’d rather do that.” You have to ask them, “Where is that going to lead?” As the Buddha said, the sign of your wisdom is learning how to look not at what you’d like to do, but for the long-term consequences of what you might do. If you see there’s something you’d like to do but would give bad …
- Admirable Friendship… And that’s when you want to find good people to look to, so that they can actually share genuine wisdom, genuine discernment with you. What do they teach? They teach that the cause for your suffering is inside. They’re happy to share what they know, but all the work is yours to do. So look inside your collection of committee members and …
- Discernment Performs… You can tap into their wisdom; you can tap into their knowledge. So you want to be a person with an all-around perspective, learning from your own actions and learning how to put the mind in a position where it can observe things clearly—observe your physical actions, observe your words, and observe your thoughts. See how they perform, what they do, and …
- The Treasure of Equanimity… As someone said, the realization of death is the beginning of wisdom, when you realize that you have only so much time, only so much energy left. Where is that time and energy best invested? The Buddha actually talks about this in financial terms. He calls it “noble wealth,” the qualities that will be good for you, that you can take with you when …
- Free from Animosity… This is called wisdom over justice. When you can think in those terms, it’s a lot easier to forgive other people for their wrongs and, at the very least, not retaliate, not look for ways of getting back at them. If you hold a grudge, it’s as when you’re holding anything: Your hands get sweaty and tired. It’s a lot …
- How to Listen… All you need is wisdom, insight. You can go straight from mindfulness to insight.” But the Buddha’s instructions for mindfulness, basically, are instructions on how to get the mind to settle down into oneness. So you’re listening to the talk and you can bring your mind to the oneness of stillness. That’s an important factor in how to listen. Then, when …
- Mindfulness + Discernment = Intelligence… Of all the wisdom teachings, the three characteristics are the ones, both in the Canon and in the teachings of the ajaans, that come with warnings, saying that you have to be very careful about when to apply them and when not, because they’re very easy to apply in an inappropriate way. The teaching on inconstancy: Ajaan Lee has a nice passage where …
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