Search results for: "Wisdom"

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  2. Creating a New Self
     … It may sound like wisdom, but it’s actually very unhealthy. What you really want, as you get with the breath, is to have a very strong sense that this is where you really belong, and it’s good to be here, and this is a more reliable self—so that you do have a place where you can stand. And, yes, you are … 
  3. Mature Strategies
     … The Buddha said that this is the beginning of wisdom. When you find wise people, you ask them, “What can I do that will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” Then you reflect on their answers. You compare them to the strategies you’ve been pursuing and you see what’s worth giving a try. Most of our strategies work to some … 
  4. Mindfulness 2.0
     … Ajaan Lee, when he explains mindfulness practice, points to the wisdom in ardency. You don’t just know about things. You know that something has to be done with them. And this is hinted at even in the sutta. When it talks about dealing with the hindrances, dealing with the factors for awakening, dealing with the fetters that arise at the six senses, it … 
  5. A Sense of Yourself
     … As the Buddha said, the sign of wisdom is knowing what duties fall to you, what duties don’t fall to you. You take on the duties that do fall to you, and you leave aside the ones that don’t. The duties that do fall to you regardless deal with your defilements. You have to take them on. You can’t just give … 
  6. The Five Hindrances
     … So remind yourself of the wisdom of charging the batteries of the mind so that regardless of what happens, you’re ready for it. As we were saying this morning, there’s so much change in the world. It’s particularly evident right now. But the wisest way to prepare for all this change is to make sure that the qualities of your mind … 
  7. Resources for Endurance
     … As the Buddha said, this is a sign of wisdom: When it’s a difficult decision but you know it’s going to lead to good results down the line, you can focus on those good results in such a way that you can stick with that good decision, that good intention, that determination you’ve made. This is why, for instance, when we … 
  8. Taking Responsibility
     … Were the results harmful or not? Wisdom, he said, starts with that question: What will I do that will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? And when you’re meditating, he says, you go to a teacher and you ask questions: How can I get the mind to be more still? How can the mind be focused? How can it be settled … 
  9. Catch Yourself Lying to Yourself
     … This is why, when the Buddha sets out the factors for the path, after he talks about the wisdom factors of right view and right resolve he focuses on speech, what you say. Because what you say to others reflects what you say to yourself . And vice versa. The two processes go together. If you find that you can get away with lying outside … 
  10. Happiness is a Skill
     … Whatever wisdom he had came through mastering the skill of the practice. And he was the happiest person I’d ever met. That, too, came from the skill of the practice. So as we take on this skill. There are a lot of things we don’t know. The Buddha says there is such a thing as nibbana, but we don’t know. He … 
  11. Concentration & Insight
     … It’s simply a matter of learning how to do it with wisdom and discernment. We all want to be happy, and you’d think that we’d act in ways that would create happiness, but look at our behavior: So many times we do things that lead to stress and suffering and harm, and yet we wonder, “Why?” Well, it’s because we … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. 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 … 
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. Trading Up
     … And the better part of wisdom is knowing how always to trade up.
  21. 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 … 
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