Search results for: "Wisdom"
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- 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 …
- Always Willing to Learn… The Buddha’s wisdom was not only in understanding suffering, but also in realizing that suffering is the big problem — the suffering that we impose on ourselves — seeing that it’s totally unnecessary. Once that problem is done, then everything is done. That’s when you can really rest. As the Buddha said, when you get to that point, then the questions of “What …
- Loving Yourself Wisely… It comes from your wisdom, seeing that regardless of how bad other people are, you’re not going to behave in that way. And that gives rise to a sense of self-esteem. So the self-esteem that they’re trying to teach our kids—simply by the fact of existing, you should have self-esteem—doesn’t really work. Self-esteem comes from …
- Don’t Underestimate Merit… It comes from the question: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” Your sense of what qualifies as long-term and your sense of what qualifies as happiness get more and more demanding as your practice progresses, as your wisdom grows. And part of the demands they make force you to turn around to examine the other …
- The Kamma of Self & Not-self… He defined wisdom as beginning with the question: “What when I do it will be to my long-term welfare and happiness?” That question emphasizes several things: one, the power of your actions to make a difference; and, two, the question of whether you want short-term happiness or long-term happiness. Short-term happiness is all around you, but is it worth the …
- Ānāpānasati Day… When you’re together you can take advantage of other people’s wisdom. This is why the Buddha had us divide the year in these ways. So on a night like this—it’s called the Water Lily Moon. We in America have different names for full moons. In India, this is the one that’s called the Water Lily Moon. They have white …
- The Karma of Pleasure… But when you approach the issue with wisdom and understanding, you finally can get to the thing we all want: the pleasure that’s totally free. So as you go through life and find yourself consuming pleasures, realize that there’s an intentional activity even in the production of the pleasure, in the experiencing of the pleasure, and in the enjoyment of the pleasure …
- A Legacy of Strengths… He developed qualities of wisdom, compassion, discernment, and it was all through his heedful search for true happiness. The search for true happiness is not a selfish thing, because it develops these good qualities of mind when you do it rightly. So we take strength from our conviction that the good that’s done doesn’t get erased. It may get hidden for a …
- Choices in the Present… Sometimes you develop the analyzing side that goes along with wisdom and discernment; at other times, you develop the calmer side that goes along with concentration, equanimity, serenity. So you to have lots of options here in the present moment. You’re not just stuck with whatever comes up. You realize that in this field of seeds here you have lots of different kinds …
- Choices… If you see anything wrong—in other words, your mindfulness is telling you that you should do x, and you’re doing x and it’s not working, or you’re not even doing x—then the quality of ardency comes in and says, “Let’s straighten things out.” This ardency, Ajaan Lee says, is the factor of wisdom in the practice of mindfulness …
- Perceptions & Potentials… After all, what is wisdom and discernment? It’s seeing your own stupidity—areas where you’ve been foolish. You have to be in a good mood to be willing to see those things. So, let the breath put you in the right mood. Let your perceptions of the breath put you in the right mood. Remember the task of mindfulness: It’s not …
- Three Perceptions… As the Buddha said, the beginning of wisdom is when you go to people who’ve found true happiness and you ask them: “What should I do that will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” Notice that: My. Long-term. Welfare and happiness. Those three categories are directly related to the three perceptions. The “my” is related to not-self; “long-term …
- Approaching the four noble truths… This is why when Ajaan Lee talks about the different qualities of mind that you bring to mindfulness practice—mindfulness, alertness, ardency—the wisdom lies in the ardency, in the actual doing of the duties, because it’s only then that the teachings can have an effect. This is what we’re aiming at as we practice: taking the teachings, seeing how they apply …
- Strength Training… That’s part of wisdom, too: getting a good sense of how to motivate yourself so that when things are not going well, you can give yourself encouragement, so that you don’t just give up. When you have these strengths developed, then the mind is going to get concentrated because it gets more and more used to staying with one thing, keeping one …
- A Good-natured Attitude… It may sound cruel when one person is laughing at somebody else that way, but when you’re able to laugh at yourself, that’s the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of discernment. So what we’re trying to do here is to get our path of practice on the right path. Some people have problems with the idea of a right path versus …
- Defiant Like the Buddha… The principle seems to be that we should accept the fact that we grow old, we get ill, we die, and that there’s wisdom in accepting that. Now, of course, denying the fact that these things happen is really dumb. But simply accepting the fact that these things happen was not what the Buddha was all about. After all, he didn’t teach …
- The Buddha’s Cost-Benefit Analysis… Of those three qualities, he assigned wisdom to ardency because he realized that the Buddha didn’t teach simply to decorate our minds with ideas. The wise response to listening to his teachings is to say, “I’ve got to learn how to master this skill.” That’s what right resolve is all about: realizing that—given the four noble truths, particularly the truth …
- To Have a Purpose… Discernment covers not only the perfection of discernment, but also the perfection of goodwill, because that’s what the Buddha’s discernment or his wisdom is all about: how to find a happiness that’s totally harmless, totally secure. When you act on that desire, it’s both wise and a way of showing a lot of goodwill for yourself and for others. When …
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