Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Look After Yourself with Ease… We sometimes hear that you develop the precepts or the virtues that correspond to the precepts and then you practice concentration and then you develop discernment. But these three parts of the path are all interrelated. After all, the noble eightfold path starts with right view and right resolve, which are factors of discernment, and then moves into virtue and on to concentration. So …
- The Humane Quality of the Path… Other issues may come up in the mind, but for the time being, you just put them aside: “I’m not ready for that one yet.” If something is really urgent and you have to deal with it, then you take what powers of concentration and discernment you do have, and you use them. But otherwise, you develop your discernment and concentration by working …
- Heedfulness All the Way Through… So there’s a bit of discernment in there, together with some goodwill for yourself. Then, based on heedfulness, the whole rest of the path develops. You can see this most clearly in a set of dhammas the Buddha calls the five strengths, which are identical with the five faculties. You start with conviction. Formally, this is conviction in the Buddha’s awakening. But …
- A Gift of Strength… In particular, you develop mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, which are the other strengths. Mindfulness doesn’t mean simply being aware of the present moment. It means keeping certain things in mind—and especially, the whole issue why you want to focus on being skillful, where you have to focus your attention, focus your energy, looking at the way your intentions take shape. Where do …
- Three More Recollections… conviction, virtue, generosity, learning, and discernment. Conviction is in the Buddha’s awakening. Generosity and virtue we already know. Learning is learning the Dhamma, having a fund of Dhamma within you. Think of the things that go sloshing around in most people’s minds, especially now with the mass media: all kinds of stupid songs and jingles, issues that the media raises as important …
- Shoulds & Ideals… First you use your discernment in deciding what’s a desirable goal: both desirable and possible. Then you use your discernment to understand exactly what’s needed to get there. Once you’ve used your discernment, the next quality is truthfulness. You really stick with it, do whatever is required. Don’t change your mind unless you start seeing that you misunderstood what you …
- Like a River Full of Water… So in developing these brahmaviharas, you want to be as wise and discerning as you can, because they’re a way of developing discernment. They’re not just nice thoughts or restful places to put the mind. As you’re developing these attitudes, you want to develop the discernment that’s realistic, clear eyed, so that these attitudes really can apply to your day …
- Heeding the Deva Messengers… conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. These are the qualities we need to develop as strengths within ourselves. We have to have them take charge in our minds so that we’ll have the strength to do what’s right, to do what’s skillful now while we still have some bodily strength. When the body has no more strength at all, then it …
- Admirable Friendship… As the Buddha said, when you find an admirable friend who has conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment, you try to emulate those qualities. You try to develop your powers of observation, too, to see how they do it. This means, of course, asking questions but also just noticing. The same with generosity, the same with virtue, and the same with discernment: You listen carefully …
- Discernment Performs… So remember that as we’re practicing, we’re not here for the purpose of gaining discernment as the goal. Discernment is one of the actions that we’re trying to master. That is, it, too, has to be seen as performative. What is it doing to the mind when you hold a particular idea in mind? It may be true, but is it …
- Simplify… This is why we spend so much time sitting here with our eyes closed, working on mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, because these are the qualities that will see the mind through any situation. When you see people really “losing it,” this is what they’ve lost. They’ve lost their mindfulness, they’ve lost their concentration, they’ve lost their discernment. So you want …
- A Trustworthy Mind… Then there’s discernment, which, in the sutta where the Buddha talks about these qualities, is described as discernment into arising and passing away, seeing how things arise in the mind, seeing how they pass away, understanding how and why they arise, coupled with a sense of when something arising is skillful or not. The things that are skillful, you want to encourage; things …
- Beginning the Rains… The first is discernment. You determine on something good to do, based on what you know will be beneficial, will be possible, but at the same time will stretch you. You’re going to be discerning in your goal and discerning in how you go about it. That requires three other qualities: The first is truthfulness—how you stick to something. You’ve made …
- Heedfulness for the Holidays… And finally, there’s discernment, which is the wall around the fortress. One of the features of the wall is that it’s well-plastered. In other words, it doesn’t give any footholds. If it were just made out of wood, it would be very easy to get a foothold in this or that little irregularity in the wood. But if it’s …
- Past Intentions, Present Intentions… It’s in the finding out that you develop your own discernment. Again, if you have everything handed to you on a platter, what kind of discernment are you going to develop? It’s like kids born into a rich family. They very rarely have any skills because they’re not required to. I learned recently of a couple where the woman was raised …
- Responsibilities… This really does require discernment. Some of us are like magnets that attract responsibilities. We have to learn how to say No sometimes. Otherwise, we take on too many and then none of them get done well. That’s something we have to keep in mind. A good rule of thumb is: “If you don’t do it, it won’t get done. Then …
- A Legacy of Strengths… That’s one of the ways in which concentration gives rise to the fifth strength, which is discernment. You have a very clear idea of how you create suffering for yourself and how it’s unnecessary. All too often, we don’t even see that suffering, all we’re concerned about is the suffering caused by situations around us. But it was the Buddha …
- Undefeated Goodwill… What is a good determination? What are the component factors? The first factor is discernment. You don’t “neglect discernment,” as the Buddha said. You think about what goodwill means, what true happiness means—how it’s going to come about. It’s not going to happen simply from the wish. As the Buddha said, if we could get things like happiness, long life …
- Think… If you develop this all-around set of skills, then your thinking really does lead to discernment, and the discernment does lead to release. When we look at the Canon—all those suttas, all that analysis—we realize: This is not the fruit of a mind that didn’t think. The Buddha thought very carefully, thought very skillfully, thought with a lot of circumspection …
- The Same for Everyone… virtue, concentration, and discernment, sorted out in different ways. When you look at the different lists in the Wings to Awakening, you see that the factors are sometimes listed in different orders. For instance, in the noble eightfold path, discernment comes first, and mindfulness and concentration come at the end. In the factors for awakening, mindfulness comes first, then discernment, and then concentration comes …
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