Search results for: "Wisdom"

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  2. Suffering Is a Feeding Addiction
     … Ajaan Lee identifies this as the wisdom faculty in mindfulness practice. In other words, simply knowing things is not enough. The wise person actually takes good knowledge and puts it to use. But to do that requires strength, because often our feeding addictions, or whatever our addictions may be, are at their strongest when we’re feeling weak and tired. That’s when the … 
  3. Not Crushed by the World
     … So, you want to make sure that wisdom is looking, discernment is looking, not your greed, aversion and delusion. You have to see the way you engage with your senses as a cause-and-effect process. What you’re looking for, what you’re listening for, will have an impact on the mind. So be very careful about how you go about these things … 
  4. Right View Comes First
     … But with the right view, we’re borrowing the Buddha’s wisdom, we’re borrowing his discernment. And he’s freely given it to us. So try to make good use of it, because it’s the only way out.
  5. Worldly Narratives
     … So it’s part of the Buddha’s wisdom that if sankhara, this process of mental fabrication, is a problem, the only way to get out is not just to tell yourself to stop thinking. It’s to tell yourself to start thinking in ways that are useful, that bring the mind back to the path. When the Buddha analyzed suffering in his first … 
  6. The Buddha’s Basic Therapy
     … The Buddha said the sign of wisdom is when you look for long-term happiness. And sometimes long-term happiness requires letting go of short-term happiness. So the teachings on karma and rebirth help give you a long view. The Buddha never tried to prove that these things were true, but he said that they’re a really good working hypothesis. And they … 
  7. The Noble Truths Come First
     … No matter how much you tell yourself that these things out there are not satisfactory, you say, “Well, that’s all I’ve got.” And sometimes that’s how Buddhist wisdom is interpreted: a willingness to accept that “Well, this is all we’ve got, so let’s satisfy ourselves with what we’ve got.” But the Buddha realized that the hungers of the … 
  8. The Right Piece in the Right Puzzle
     … Then, based on that, the question that’s the starting point for wisdom or discernment is: What is skillful, what is unskillful? The Buddha further refines that: What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? And, what when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? Those are the questions that the anatta teaching … 
  9. The Desire for Things to Be Different
     … But if things stopped there, it would be like the Serenity Prayer, “May I have the courage to change what I can change, the patience to accept what I can’t, and the wisdom to tell the difference.” But there’s more. When you take the powers of discernment you’ve developed as you’ve been getting the mind to settle down and you … 
  10. Matters of Life & Death
     … Age doesn’t automatically bring wisdom. At the same time, though, youth doesn’t automatically bring foolishness. We can take our youth, to the extent that we still have it, and devote it to the practice. The Buddha has a passage where he talks about future dangers, reflecting on the fact that you’re now young, you’re strong and healthy, you’re still … 
  11. Desire Is Part of the Path
     … As Ajaan Lee points out, of those three qualities—mindfulness, alertness, ardency—ardency is the wisdom factor. It really burns into things, tries to understand them, and tries to do this well. So these are the qualities that go into right concentration. You’re not just zoning out. You’re not just blissing out. The bliss is there, but one of the skills of … 
  12. Long-Term Welfare
    The Buddha once said that the quest for wisdom, the quest for discernment, starts with a question: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” This may sound strange, because we’re used to hearing the Buddha’s take on discernment or insight as dealing with inconstancy, stress, and not-self, which sounds like the very opposite of … 
  13. The Ennobling Path
     … And learn the persistence and wisdom that enable us to follow the skillful desires and put the unskillful ones aside, seeing what truly is in our own best interest. In other words, we sort through the imperatives our appetites place on us, and the imperatives that society places on us, learning to figure out which ones really are skillful. We need to sort out … 
  14. A Rite of Passage
     … the results of your actions so that what you actually do and say and think is in line with your ideals. That’s the quality that the Buddha calls purity. So. Wisdom, compassion, purity—these are the qualities of the Buddha. These are qualities that come from practicing this rite of passage aimed at true happiness. It’s not a rite of passage where … 
  15. The Duties of Happiness
     … things like wisdom, compassion, purity, discernment, and integrity. These are all good things. As we stay with the breath and we get it comfortable like this, we’re providing a safe space right here in the present moment where are all the parts of the mind can come together. And particularly, the parts that we tend to identify with, the head and the heart … 
  16. Questioning & Conviction
     … That’s how you develop your wisdom, how you develop your discernment, motivating yourself to realize that this really is a worthwhile project to pursue. Even though lots of people might say, “What could you possibly learn by just focusing on the breath?” you realize that staying focused here exercises your mindfulness, your concentration, your discernment, all the qualities you’re going to need … 
  17. Doing the Right Thing
     … one, not seeing clearly; two, not having the strength even when you do see clearly; and sometimes, you can see clearly and have the strength, but you don’t have the wisdom to deal with the unskillful members of your mind’s committee. Boil it down to those three issues, and the training that the Buddha gives in virtue, concentration, and discernment helps right … 
  18. The Uses of Fear
     … It’s an important part of wisdom, recognizing that there are dangers in life. It’s a necessary function of the mind, anticipating that dangers are going to happen. The important thing is not to let the fear get tied up in greed, aversion, or delusion. You want to bring more mindfulness, more clarity to the issues you fear, and to gain more skill … 
  19. Look at Yourself
     … The Buddha once said that this is a sign of wisdom: knowing what is your duty and what’s not your duty. The fool, he said, neglects his own duty and sticks his nose into the duties of other people. The wise person knows to look after his or her own duty. As for other people, if it’s not your duty, you leave … 
  20. Making Yourself Worthy of Trust
     … And there you have it, the three main virtues of the Buddha—wisdom, compassion, purity—in your search for happiness. So you internalize the examples set by the Triple Gem. That’s where the inner refuge comes in. You train the mind to be reliable because you start out with a mind that’s partly reliable and partly not. Ajaan Chah liked to say … 
  21. How to Be Alone
     … I couldn’t help thinking that if he’d been born in Thailand, he might not have died, for they have a whole tradition — the Buddha’s teachings — that acts as a storehouse of wisdom on how to be alone. And the Sangha provides an opportunity to learn directly from people who’ve had lots of time alone, leading a purposeful life, and have … 
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