Search results for: "Wisdom"
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- Holding On to the Path… You need the wisdom, you need the discernment, to know which is which. This is one of the reasons why you have to hold on to concentration, because it’s only when the mind is really still that it can see things clearly enough to get a really good sense of what’s working and what’s not. You can’t just go by …
- Paying Off Your Debts… An important element in wisdom or discernment is heedfulness: the realization that you have to be careful in your actions, and that it does make a difference that you are careful. After all, there are dangers, but the dangers can be avoided. That’s a form of wealth. You begin to realize you can look inside yourself and find all kinds of good things …
- Determination… This is the wisdom and the discernment that underlies all of these qualities: realizing that you may be giving up some things, but you’re getting much more in return. Renunciation is a trade: You’re trading candy for gold. Learn how to keep that fact in mind, because these four qualities help you not only as you’re sitting here meditating, but also …
- Who Are You Trying to Please?… And in that question that the Buddha says lies at the beginning of wisdom—“What, when I do it, will be for my long-term welfare and happiness?”—notice the ‘my.’ It’s for my sake. But also notice the ‘I.’ It’s something I have to do. As you look for happiness that’s really long-term, you inevitably find that it has …
- Alone at Death, but Not Lonely… The wisdom comes in seeing that these concepts are useful as tools for getting rid of our ignorance, for getting to know the mind really, really well so that it doesn’t fall for its old cravings. The analogy he gives is of learning any physical skill, like making clay tiles or baskets. You get instructions, you put them into practice, but then it …
- Rites of Passage… Y is true.’ How do we know who’s telling the truth?” “Well,” the Buddha said,“ You can’t go by outside teachers, you can’t go by old texts, you can’t go by received wisdom.” That’s the part of the teaching everybody remembers. But at the same time he also said that you can’t go by your own sense of …
- Intelligence of the Heart… This is why when Ajaan Lee listed the qualities for mindfulness practice—mindfulness, ardency, alertness—he pinpointed ardency as being the wisdom faculty of those three. In other words, given your understanding of what’s involved in the path, the wise response is to try to develop, as much as you can, the qualities that the Buddha lists as skillful and to abandon the …
- The Real Thing… So again, we like to hear about the wisdom, hear about all the great insights. But the insights are things that have to be seen right here, right now. To understand them, and for them to do their work, you have to get your mind right here, right now, looking at these things directly—and not turning your gaze away from anything that’s …
- Trading Up… And the better part of wisdom is knowing how always to trade up.
- Dharma Medicine… This is part of the wisdom of the suttas: We get to see the Buddha in action, seeing what kind of person he would apply what kind of teaching to, what the circumstances would be. That way, you get some idea about who and what a particular teaching was for. The Buddha wasn’t like a college professor, trying to set out an outline …
- Why Train the Mind… The ones that already have some wisdom and alertness and mindfulness get stronger. And it turns out that when they’re in charge, everybody is a lot happier. There are a lot of committee members that will resist this, but they’re foolish. Just like the human beings you see around you: A lot of people would be better off if they learned how …
- Asalha Puja… Ardency here is the wisdom factor—realizing that you don’t just sit here and let these things happen. The wise thing to do is to try to abandon unskillful qualities and to develop skillful ones. When the Buddha mentioned his categorical teachings, there were only two: One is the four noble truths; the other is the principle that skillful qualities are to be …
- Guardian Meditations… his purity, his wisdom, and his compassion. That was the kind of person who found this path. Now, the problem with thinking about how amazing a person the Buddha was, is that it’s hard for you to relate to him. In that case, you can think about the Sangha instead, the noble Sangha. You read about them in the Therigatha and Theragatha, various …
- Not-self, Not No Self… Those are the kinds of questions he has you ask: “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?” That’s where wisdom begins, as he says. You realize that you have to take responsibility for your happiness or suffering. And then if you’re …
- Alone with Your Mind… You can think about his wisdom, you can think about his purity, you can think about his compassion and remind yourself that this is what a human being is capable of. That’s uplifting because you can look around the world and see what other things human beings are capable of, and it gets pretty depressing. But we have the Buddha’s example. Then …
- On Deserving to Be Happy… We hear so much about mindfulness as simply watching things arise and pass away on their own, and accepting the wisdom of accepting that. But that wasn’t how the Buddha defined mindfulness. Mindfulness is a more active property. It means keeping in mind the duties with regard to the path. We’re looking not for the three characteristics, we’re looking for the …
- Endurance & Restraint… You feed off of wisdom, you feed off of discernment. It’s in this way that you can aim at that goal of unbinding, total freedom. It’s all too easy, as we go from day to day to day, to forget our larger goal, especially when there’s a lot of work around the monastery, a lot of work in our homes. But …
- Invest in the Breath… But if you learn how to have a little bit of firmness, a little bit of patience, endurance, wisdom in asking questions about the pain and not taking it on as “your pain,” you can come to your senses. It’s just a pain that’s there. It’s in the body. And if you wonder, “Why is this happening to me?” Well, you …
- The Skill of Restraint… You’ve already been developing the wisdom and discernment that protect the mind, keeping it here. You don’t have to cook them up fresh every time you sit down and meditate. So think of everything you do throughout the day as a skill, including the way you exercise restraint. Sometimes that means not looking at or listening to the things you don’t …
- The Dhamma Wheel… Remember the Buddha’s definition of the first question that leads to discernment or wisdom: “What will I do that will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” “Long-term”: He’s talking about time, he’s not talking about just being in the present moment. Someone sent me an article today from a British newspaper. It was about the Buddhist approach to …
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