Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Not Resolved on Self
     … As you practice virtue, as you practice concentration, as you practice discernment, you want to develop each of these practices into a skill. Issues of self can get pushed off to the side. This is why when the Buddha described his own awakening, he didn’t describe it as awakening to the three characteristics. It was awakening to the four noble truths. The four … 
  3. Stress
     … For example, the three perceptions are teachings on discernment, so they fall in the context of the questions that lie at the basis of discernment: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? What’s skillful? What’s unskillful? What’s blameless? What’s … 
  4. Motivation
     … One of the first exercises of your discernment when you meditate is how to get yourself to meditate when you don’t feel like it—or how to get yourself to meditate when a lot of other things are pulling you in their direction. As the Buddha said, this is one of the measures of your discernment and wisdom. One of the reasons we … 
  5. Levels of Truth
     … That right there requires some discernment, but it’s an exercise in discernment, which is how your discernment grows.
  6. Ingenuity
     … The fourth quality that makes you a good friend to yourself is to be discerning, seeing which actions lead to suffering, which actions lead away. The Buddha calls this “penetrative discernment of arising and passing away.” It doesn’t mean you just simply watch things coming and going. For the discernment to be penetrative, you have to see that when some things come, they … 
  7. Exercising the Mind
     … As you develop skill in maintaining that sense of steady but relaxed focus, that’s the beginning of discernment. You begin to see what works and what doesn’t work: how you can develop that sense of focus, how you can maintain it, how you can destroy it inadvertently. Over time, you develop discernment and knowledge through doing the work of the concentration. This … 
  8. The Ennobling Path
     … It requires both the qualities of serenity and concentration on the one hand, and the qualities of insight and discernment on the other. They go hand-in-hand. This is a different kind of discernment from ehs we use in normal everyday activities. It’s one that penetrates the concentration, one that goes along with the concentration, and is devoted to making the concentration … 
  9. Making a Refuge
     … Then there are the qualities of mindfulness and discernment. Mindfulness, of course, builds on right effort and informs right effort because you remember what’s skillful and what’s not. In terms of your practice, you remember what’s worked and what hasn’t worked. That’s a protection right there. Then finally, discernment is what enables you to make the distinctions you need … 
  10. Remembering Ajaan Lee
     … That’s a lot of the discernment right there. It’s an area of discernment where the books can give us some guidance, but we have to learn how to use our own powers of observation and our own ingenuity to make the most of what we’ve got. So when you look at Ajaan Lee’s teachings, these are some of the lessons … 
  11. True Friends
     … That’s what the fourth quality is all about, discernment. The Buddha said that discernment begins with the question, “What, when I do it, will lead to long-term welfare and happiness?” He wants you to think about the long-term consequences of your actions, and not just go for what’s pleasant right away. And the answer to that question—“What will lead … 
  12. Mindfulness
     … This is why mindfulness and discernment usually go together. In fact, in Thai they have a term, sati-pañña, mindfulness-discernment, which is their word for intelligence. It’s the intelligence of a really practical person, one who knows the distinction between what’s skillful and what’s not, and is wise enough to know that you have to keep that in mind so … 
  13. The Karma of Self & Not-Self
     … There was a time when someone asked the Buddha, “What is virtue for?” “Virtue is for concentration.” “What is concentration for?” “Concentration is for the purpose of discernment.” “What is the purpose of discernment?” “The purpose of discernment is release.” “What is the purpose of release?” “Total unbinding, nibbāna.” Then the person asked “What is the purpose of nibbāna?” The Buddha said, “No, you … 
  14. Sucked into the Tube
     … This is how discernment develops, and this is how discernment becomes the kind of discernment that can liberate you. If you want to see fear or anger happening, you want to see it while it’s actually happening. You don’t want to go through instant replays, because your video machine has its defects. It’s not nearly as effective when you see it … 
  15. Judging Your Meditation
     … That kind of playing develops your powers of judgment, develops your powers of discernment, starting with the breath and then moving into the mind. As those powers of discernment get more developed, you’re in a better and better position to see that there is such a thing as good meditation, and there is such a thing as a bad meditation session. And you … 
  16. A Good Dish of Concentration
    That phrase in the chant just now, “those who don’t discern suffering,” sounds strange. We all know that we have suffering. The problem is that we don’t really discern it. To discern it, in the Buddha’s terms, would be to see it in terms of the five clinging-aggregates, and that’s usually not the first thought that occurs to us … 
  17. Artillery All Around
     … These are important means for developing discernment. Otherwise, you just do one method, one method, not even thinking, not taking any responsibility, and that’s not going to develop discernment at all. Your defilements have their different tricks and techniques, and they’re going to run all over you because they’re going to know. They can see you coming from a mile away … 
  18. Read the Breath
     … This ability to read your breath is a very important skill, because learning how to read the situation in your body and mind in general is where discernment comes. Discernment is not a matter of trying to clone the insights you read in books. It means being very sensitive to what’s happening in the present moment, and what needs to be done, where … 
  19. The Same but Different, but the Same
     … Some people found it easy to gain concentration but had trouble using their discernment. Other people were more prone to discernment issues, more prone to analyzing things, but they had a real problem getting their minds to settle down. Some people, when their minds would settle down, would start having visions or weird sensations in the body. So he’d have to herd them … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. The Heart of the Teachings
     … In the process of that, your discernment has been avoiding what is unskillful, developing fully what is skillful and cleansing the mind. So this is why these three principles are called the heart of the Buddha’s teachings because they’re useful with regard to all three parts of the Triple Training in virtue, concentration, and discernment, and on all levels of the practice … 
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