Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. The Uses of Concentration
     … As you develop discernment based on concentration, one, you get the ability to pull out of the defilement. This is an ability that you learn from mastering the concentration itself. You sit here with the breath and suddenly find yourself with another thought; you remind yourself, “This is not why I was here meditating” and you can pull yourself out. Well, you can do … 
  3. Karma & the Sublime Attitudes
     … You’re trying to develop your powers of mindfulness, your powers of alertness, your concentration, because these powers will allow you to develop your discernment. The discernment is what frees the mind—frees it from all the restrictions it places on itself, all the unnecessary burdens and suffering it places on itself. So the results of staying here much longer-lasting, much more solid … 
  4. For the Cessation of Dukkha
     … A lot of it comes from a simple lack of discernment and our tendency to glom things together. He says, when you learn how to see things as separate, that’s when the discernment really is doing its work. So the big separation line right now is between focusing on the breath and focusing on anything else that’s not related to the breath … 
  5. How the Dhamma Protects
     … We develop the mind, develop our powers of concentration, develop our powers of discernment. That puts us in a position where these things don’t touch us. After all, look at the human world. Look at your own body. Once you’re born, there’s going to be aging, there’s going to illnesses, there’s going to be death. Even inside your own … 
  6. Perfecting the Mind in an Imperfect World
     … You have to develop the quality of mindfulness, the quality of concentration, the quality of discernment so that you can really learn from your unskillful mental states. It’s like back in the days of the Cold War: the people who studied Russian because they wanted to figure out the enemy. Or policemen who watch a suspect for a while to see what he … 
  7. You Are Not Powerless
     … Finally, there’s discernment, penetrating discernment, as the Buddha said, into what arises and passes away, what’s originated and what passes away. The “penetrating” means that you realize that things can pass away and arise, but some things, when they arise, are better than others. So you try to develop them. Here’s another irony. We’re taught that everything is One, that … 
  8. Bad Stuff Happens
     … And it’s a path that provides a good support for discernment. And the discernment is what’s going to see you through the clinging. It’s going to see you through the reasons we cause ourselves to suffer: the clinging and the craving. And we can do something about it. It’s not the case that you gain discernment only after you’ve … 
  9. Life in the Context of the Practice
     … And finally there’s discernment. Ajaan Lee has a nice comment about this. He says that if you’ve got discernment, then all you need is a machete and you can set yourself up in life. In other words, discernment is what teaches you to make the most of what little you’ve got and to appreciate what you’ve got, to make it … 
  10. The Challenge of Faith
     … And then you have to use your discernment, one, to make the breath interesting so it’s easier to stay, and then, two, if there are other intentions that come up that are really tempting you, you have to figure out ways around them and not fall for them. So the discernment the Buddha is talking about is a pragmatic matter. It’s not … 
  11. Just Events
     … You’ve got to use your discernment, too. Using concentration in a case like that takes a lot of energy. But if you use your discernment and say, ‘Okay, the awareness is one thing, the pain is something else, the body is something else,’ then you can hold that perception in mind. Then there’s a lot less struggle.” She told me later that … 
  12. The Bureaucracy of the Defilements
     … the bureaucracy of your defilements—things like greed, aversion, and delusion, which cloud the mind and get in the way of genuine discernment. Our mind is very complex. It’s like a large organization, making all kinds of decisions all the time, and we have a tendency to delegate a lot of our decisions to our old habits. There are a lot of little … 
  13. The Reflective Self
     … In the passage where he says that the Dhamma requires both commitment and reflection, this reflective self provides the reflection and becomes the basis for discernment. When you use it as you meditate, it plays the role of evaluation: “How is the breath right now? Is it good enough? Is it good enough for the mind to settle down with? How’s the mind … 
  14. Adult Dhamma
     … Because after all, what is the path that the Buddha points out? There’s virtue, there’s concentration, and there’s discernment. These are all qualities in your own mind. We all have them to some extent. Learning how to develop what’s in your own mind is what’s going to make all the difference. The Buddha’s discernment isn’t going to … 
  15. Happy for People You Don’t Like
     … What this means is that you should develop them with strong concentration and also use your discernment to analyze what you’re doing, to analyze what you’re wishing in a way that leads to dispassion. A good example is the development of empathetic joy. Of the brahmaviharas, it’s the one that gets discussed the least—and actually it’s one of the … 
  16. To Sustain Your Practice
     … The fourth thing to look for is for someone who’s wise and discerning, and particularly who really discerns why we suffer and how we can put an end to that suffering. Now, obviously, these characteristics are found best in someone who’s gained the first taste of awakening. Their conviction in the Buddha has been confirmed. Their discernment into the problem of suffering … 
  17. Conviction in the End of Suffering
     … And the path of virtue, concentration and discernment seems like a good thing.” But that third truth, that’s the one you’ve got to take on conviction. Yet as the Buddha points out, conviction is a kind of wealth. It’s a strength. Often we don’t think of it in those terms. We’ve been through so many instances where we had … 
  18. Asalha Puja – Completeness
     … We take the qualities of the path—which boil down to virtue, concentration, and discernment—and try to make them complete. These are qualities that all of us have to some extent. The Buddha made this point over and over again: The fact that he gained awakening wasn’t because he was some sort of special being who could do things and develop things … 
  19. Pleasant Practice, Painful Practice
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. “Concentration” in both cases means the jhanas, but the theme leading you to develop those jhanas, and from there on into discernment, is something that varies. Some people can just work with the jhana itself. You look at whatever state of concentration you have settled into and you examine it to see: Where is there still any stress … 
  20. What’s Worth Doing?
     … that discernment is a process of judging which things are worth doing, which things are not. That principle applies all the way through the practice. The answers get more refined as we go through the practice, but it’s always important to keep that question in mind. The mind is primarily active. The passage we chanted just now talks about the eye and the … 
  21. A Safe Space Inside
     … And it’s going to have to be through your own actions, through the practice of virtue, concentration, discernment. You want to hold to those views so that your goodness, your solidity, doesn’t have to depend on other people being solid. The world is full of winds. I was reading today of a hurricane that’s going to come and hit the area … 
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