Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Sitting & Walking… Walking meditation is more for discernment. Ajaan Suwat would often mention that he got his best insights while doing walking meditation. But you have to know how to do it well. There are a few rules for walking meditation that are different from sitting meditation, having to do with the big differences between the two: One, the body is moving and two, you’re …
- In the Land of Wrong View… And finally, you want friends who are wise and discerning in terms of seeing what really does cause suffering and what doesn’t, what leads to true happiness and what doesn’t. So those are the four qualities: conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment. These are the people you want in your inner circle of friends, the ones you go to for advice, the ones …
- From Anxiety to Confidence… Then finally, there’s discernment. Of all the treasures, this is the most valuable. This is what teaches you how to use the other ones. The Buddha’s discernment is strategic. It’s based on finding long-term happiness. Remember, it begins with the question, “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” with the realization there is …
- Virtue Fosters Concentration… Where is this going to get your mind in terms of virtue, concentration, and discernment? And who’s doing the looking, who’s doing the listening? Are you doing it, or is greed? Or is it lust? Anger? Are they taking over? Remember Ajaan Lee’s analogy of all the little beings inside your body. Maybe they’re looking through your eyes instead of …
- Positive Right Speech… After you’ve got the factors for discernment, the very first factor is speech. That’s the test for how well you’ve internalized the Buddha’s message as to what’s right view and what’s right resolve. Right view is seeing that the causes of your suffering are inside, not outside. And you want to reflect that in your speech. Right resolve …
- Sending Happiness… And then discernment: This is defined as penetrative discernment of arising and passing away. Now, “penetrative” discernment doesn’t mean simply watching things come and go. To be penetrative means noticing that when some things come, they’re really good; other things come and they’re not. And when they come, why do they come? So you penetrate into their causes and then you …
- Don’t Be Afraid of Mistakes… That’s what discernment is all about, learning how to look at your actions and to judge them properly. We hear all too often that meditation is about being non-judgmental. Actually, even though you don’t want to be judgmental, in other words jumping to conclusions, you do have to develop your powers of judgment. In fact, insight is a judgment call as …
- Goodwill for Free… Beyond that, though, developing goodwill is one of the bases for developing discernment. It leads to a type of concentration that is conducive to discernment if you apply it in that direction. From there it liberates you to the noble dwellings. So keep these points in mind. Goodwill does depend on a sense of right and wrong. Even though it’s immeasurable, there’s …
- Lift Up Your Heart… conviction, generosity, virtue, learning, discernment. You have these qualities already, at least to some extent. And “some extent” is often enough to become a deva. After all, there are devas we’ve encountered in the Canon who are not very discerning, not very wise, like the one who sees that her children have been wounded by a monk and she thinks of killing him …
- Strength to Be Good… You combine conviction with discernment, in which you realize that there are short-term kinds of happiness and long-term kinds of happiness. The beginning of discernment is when you see that you want to be willing and able to abandon the short-term ones, if necessary, to gain the long-term ones. It’s a trade. Then there’s the strength of effort …
- Be Precise … That’s how the perfection of concentration leads to discernment, moving it into the four noble truths. But you don’t have to think in terms of the four noble truths. Just think, “What is this disturbance right here? And how can I stop it?” Try to be very precise in how you observe these things. We had a question this afternoon about what …
- Impossible Things… He said they’re a measure of a person’s wisdom and discernment. He didn’t say they’re a measure of your willpower. You need to use discernment to do the things you don’t like to do but give good results and to not do the things you like to do but give bad results. The discernment lies not only in seeing …
- Anti-slacker Dhamma… As for discernment itself, every way of thinking that’s not in line with discernment, you’ve got to develop dispassion for that. Only then, when all these factors of the path have done their work, do you turn the three perceptions on them as well. And then you’re free. What this means is that the Buddha didn’t start with the three …
- Training for Dispassion… It’s simply that our admirable friends show us—through their qualities of discernment, virtue, relinquishment, and conviction—that these things are possible and they can lead to genuine happiness: a happiness that we might not have imagined otherwise. So we depend on them to open these possibilities to us. But at the same time, we have to be up for the task. We …
- Secluded from Sensuality… Your virtue is going to depend on your discernment. Your discernment is going to depend on your virtue. This is one of the distinctive teachings of the forest tradition. It’s not the case that you just do virtue and, when your virtue is perfected, you then do your concentration. And when the concentration is perfected, you then do your insight practice. You have …
- Control… So learn to be more discerning in what you look for in the present moment. Sometimes it seems that there’s nothing at all you can control. Well, that’s a misperception. Other times, you feel you’ve got to have everything under control. That’s a misperception as well. Be more discerning about what can you control, what lies outside your control. You …
- Playing Your Lute… And the “everything else” here applies to your conviction, your mindfulness, your concentration, and your discernment. In other words, when there are limitations on your capabilities, don’t sit down with a thought, “I’m going to sit here and won’t get up until I attain supreme awakening. If I don’t attain supreme awakening, I’m going to let my blood and …
- Actor & Experiencer… This comes down to the principle that Ajaan Lee repeated many times according to Ajaan Fuang, which is that a person of discernment can learn how to use almost anything as a means for furthering mindfulness, furthering concentration, furthering your powers of discernment. So learn the proper uses for what you’ve got. How do you learn? Through patience and endurance, using your powers …
- For the Survival of True Happiness… The final use is for the sake of discernment, because it teaches us, if we listen to it, that time takes things away. When we’re young, we see the body growing, getting stronger, getting more capable. Even though we see old people around us, we tend to think that that’s them. For us, our body is only going to go in the …
- Defilements at the Door… Build on that intention, because that intention is what gives rise to discernment, and the discernment is what gives rise to freedom and the happiness we want. In spite of the aggregates’ being inconstant, stressful, and not-self, there is something else that lies beyond those characteristics, beyond those attributes, and that’s where we really can be happy.
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