Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. The Door of the Cage (2)
     … to be virtuous, to be generous, to develop powers of mindfulness, concentration, discernment—things that are good for you and for the people around you, noble qualities of mind, qualities that ennoble you as a person. And if you practice this Dhamma, people who wish you well would be happy for you. Now, with those first two ways of thinking, notice what the Buddha … 
  3. The Perfection of Freedom
     … Then there’s discernment, which allows you to see distinctions. The mind has a tendency to glom a lot of things together and not really look very carefully. It says, “Oh, that’s this, this is that.” It’s that old world again, so you know your role for that old world and you just take on the old role, even though it may … 
  4. Wise About Pleasure
     … What is concentration for? It’s for developing discernment. What is discernment for? He keeps pursuing the questions. Finally, they get to nibbana. He asks, “What is nibbana for?” She says, “You’ve taken this line of questioning too far. Nibbana isn’t for anything. It’s where you’ve arrived.” There’s nothing else in the world that can qualify in that way … 
  5. The Values of Stillness
     … We’d like to have the discernment that would go straight to the jugular, take care of all our defilements with one fell swoop. But that kind of discernment doesn’t come without practice. And it doesn’t come without concentration. Don’t look down on the concentration or be in too great a hurry to move on to what comes next. With all … 
  6. Inner Poise
     … Also, it’s through concentration, through this ability to stay here continuingly in the present moment, that you start gaining discernment, too. We think of wisdom or discernment as things you learn from books, but that’s not the case at all. You gain discernment from watching things consistently. When you’re staying with the breath, you’re in really good place, because that … 
  7. Goodness
     … And then there’s the strength of discernment. Once you have this extra energy, what are you going to do with it? The Buddha said that the best thing is first to take care of the problem of how you create suffering for yourself. I don’t know how many people say that this seems selfish, but it’s not. You take care of … 
  8. Rivers of Craving
     … Then there’s the strength of discernment as well, and the strength of discernment is something else. It’s when you see and understand why it is you go for these things. If you were to die right now, say you were in a lot of pain and you had been in pain for a while, and the time came when you discovered that … 
  9. New Feeding Habits
     … You don’t have to feed off your virtue; you don’t have to feed off your discernment. The goal is that good. The path is a good path. After all, learning to be a person of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—these are all good things: good things to do, ennobling things to do—which is one of the reasons why this is … 
  10. Commit & Reflect All Around
     … The Buddha defines discernment as “knowledge of arising and passing away—noble, penetrative, leading to the ending of stress.” On the surface, it sounds like simply watching things come and go. But notice that it’s actually “noble, penetrative, leading to the ending of stress.” It’s not just watching things come and go. Noble knowledge is what puts you on the path to … 
  11. How to Think about Death
     … He says to “protect them with discernment.” That’s what the text says. So it’s not just a matter of watching things coming and going. You realize that there are some things that you want to make come, you want to make them arise. And you want to prevent them from passing away. Other things, unskillful qualities, you want to keep from arising … 
  12. The Rewards of Stream Entry
     … As the Buddha said, stream enterers are complete in their development of virtue, and they have some concentration along with some discernment. The concentration was the amount of concentration that enabled them to get their minds to settle down, at least long enough for the path to come together. They haven’t mastered concentration yet; that comes later. And they’ve had the discernment … 
  13. The Dhamma Eye
     … You had to use your concentration and your discernment to be really observant about what’s going on in the mind when it’s concentrated. That’s why you don’t grasp at habits and practices again. And the fact that there is an awareness that has nothing to do with the aggregates: That’s why you would never give your allegiance to any … 
  14. The Desire for Things to Be Different
     … But there is a path—the path of virtue, the path of concentration, the path of discernment—that will get you where you want to go. It’ll take you to a different place from where you are right now, a place where there is no death because there is no birth. What’s important is that you can make a difference, and you … 
  15. The Sublime Attitudes in Context
     … In this way, you’re not limited even by the limitations of what they call immeasurable goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity, because you pick them up with discernment and you put it down with discernment. In that way, they hold no danger for the mind.
  16. Respect for Concentration
     … Concentration is what all the other good qualities—like discernment and release—depend on. To show respect for concentration is to show respect for our desire for true happiness. Give respect to the fact that other people desire true happiness as well. This is the path. The Buddha once said that Right Concentration is the heart of the Eightfold Path. The other seven factors … 
  17. In the Context of the Path
     … You see that the path is made out of aggregates? Well, you’re supposed to let go of aggregates, right? That’s what discernment is supposed to do, right? Even before you’ve got the mind in concentration, you try to develop you’ve heard is discernment, and that can stop you from developing what you need to develop. Think of the image of … 
  18. Who’s in Charge Here?
     … I see that I’m causing myself unnecessary suffering and I want to put an end to it.” With whatever is in line with that, you’ve got to say, “I’m going to side with that, whether it comes from inside or outside.” As the Buddha said, one of the measures of your discernment, particularly with regard to effort, is seen with regard … 
  19. Reflect on What You’re Doing
     … It applies to your development of discernment. It’s always interesting to watch the Buddha teach children. He didn’t have a special watered-down Dhamma just for children, aside from the fact that he wanted to make things very clear and to get them started off on the right foot. So he taught a lot of good principles right from the beginning: honesty … 
  20. Cooking the Present Moment
     … Then there’s your discernment, your ability to see what it is in a pain, as it comes up, that’s actually causing suffering. The Buddha talks about different kinds of pain. There’s the pain of fabrication. There’s the pain of the fact that things change. There’s the pain of simply unpleasant sensations. And it turns out that unpleasant sensation isn … 
  21. Informing the Whole Committee
     … This is why concentration comes before discernment. And there is an element of discernment that is needed for the concentration itself. But the discernment that’s actually going to break through the mind’s misunderstandings has to be based on getting as many members of the mind in on the message. I mean you can read a book and learn all about the basic … 
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