Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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.
  8. Things that Arise & Pass Away
    Things arise and pass away, and you might say, “So what else is new? You see it all around you.” Why did the Buddha say that your ability to see arising and passing away in a penetrative way is a sign of your discernment? What’s the penetration there? It’s in seeing why they arise and why they pass away. One of the … 
  9. Steal the Dhamma
     … You ask yourself, “How far have I come in conviction? How far have I come in generosity, virtue, discernment, learning, ingenuity?” Four of those qualities—conviction, virtue, generosity, discernment—are the qualities of an admirable friend. So, to what extent have you learned from your admirable friends? To what extent are you an admirable friend to yourself? Then there’s learning, which means learning … 
  10. Mindreading
     … You’ll find that this kind of work within the body is also helpful for the purpose of discernment. You start looking at the body in a new way. You experience the body in a new way. So remember that the important thing about meditation is balance. Often, to achieve balance, you to lean very far to the right or very far to the … 
  11. Refuge in the Dhamma
     … What qualities do you want to develop in the mind? Virtue, concentration, discernment, mindfulness, alertness, patience, endurance? This is where you develop another level of refuge, when you start to take the Dhamma inside and you turn yourself into a more reliable person. If you work on developing your mind through mindfulness, you find over time that it really does make a difference in … 
  12. Gratification
     … Concentration, discernment: These things are often very hard, yet they’re the skills we need to develop if we don’t want to suffer. So a second level of skill is learning how to develop skills in areas where it’s hard. That means you have to learn how to talk yourself in the right way—one, to remind yourself how important the skill … 
  13. Training in Right Resolve
     … You have to put it into practice and then think about what you’re doing while you’re doing it, observe what you’re doing while you’re doing it, because that’s how the best kind of discernment, the most reliable kind of discernment, gets developed. It’s only when you’ve found something that meets that test, and you meet that test … 
  14. Strength from Within
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. You notice that the three middle strengths there are basically identical with the section of the noble path that deals with meditation practice. So the meditation, of course, will be our real strength. But in addition, you need conviction and discernment. Conviction here means believing that your actions really are important. Ajaan Lee, when he was giving a … 
  15. Doubts
     … Because the only thing that’s going to resolve doubt is discernment, the kind of discernment that leads to release. That’s when you know for sure that what the Buddha taught was true. Until then, you have to go on working hypotheses, so choose the ones that are wise. Learn how to think in the ways that the Buddha recommends. As I said … 
  16. Attached to the Body
     … The only completion is when you pull away, build up qualities of mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment in the mind. Start taking these as food for the mind rather than looking through old trashbins for your nourishment. The food that comes from the practice is a kind of food that can make the mind strong enough so that one day it can stand on its … 
  17. Feeding Instructions
     … We had that chant just now: “those who don’t discern suffering.” It sounds odd. When people are suffering, they should know they’re suffering, you’d think. But that’s not what the Buddha means. To discern suffering, he says, means to see what it really is: It’s clinging to the aggregates. As you know, his explanation of the first noble truth … 
  18. Healing Breath
     … When you simply bring the mind to concentration, that doesn’t solve all the mind’s problems, but it does put it in a position where it can start using its discernment in a deeper and subtler way. But it’s important that you not be in too great a hurry to rush through the concentration to get to the discernment, because the work … 
  19. Strengthening Conviction
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. The fact that conviction comes first shows that it’s important. As one of my teachers in Thailand once said, you notice that the list leading up to discernment doesn’t start with concepts or ideas. It starts with conviction. Discernment comes from conviction—provided, of course, that it’s conviction in the right things. Traditionally, this means … 
  20. Bringing Daily Life into the Practice
     … Who’s flowing out? Your greed and your anger? Or your discernment? You want your discernment to be the strongest flow, so that when you look at things, you can take them apart and see where they might draw you into lust or anger or greed or fear. Then remind yourself: You don’t have to be drawn in that way. Again, have a … 
  21. Mastering Pleasure & Pain
     … insight working together with stillness; discernment working together with concentration. These are not radically separate things. They require special balance. But they have to work together if you’re going to get the best results. Discernment without concentration lacks a lot of power. Concentration without discernment goes nowhere. It just sits there. It’s when you can get the two of them working together … 
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