Search results for: "Discernment"
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- The No Common Sense Zone… Try to develop a sensitive touch, because it’s in that sensitivity to little things that larger discernment arises. And it’s through that sort of discernment that there comes release.
- Borrowed Goods… You use them as you develop discernment as well. Because what is discernment? Directed thought and evaluation, perceptions—different kinds of perceptions and fabrication, basically. So you want to get some comprehension out of the aggregates. Think about the duty in those terms: not so much you’re just comprehending them; you’re getting some comprehension out of them, understanding how the mind creates …
- Educating Equanimity… This means that equanimity requires wisdom, it requires discernment, so that you can learn how to read a situation: Is this one where you can make a difference? Or is it one where you can’t? And given the way the brahmaviharas are set out—starting with goodwill, compassion, and empathetic joy before they get to equanimity—the basic message is that you work …
- Because the Mind Is Purposeful… The ardency is the discernment factor here. You’re ardent with a purpose: trying to do this as skillfully as you can. That’s the kind of discernment we’re after: practical, pragmatic, purposeful. Ajaan Lee points to ardency as the discernment factor in mindfulness practice for several reasons. One is that, out of these three factors, ardency is what makes the others right …
- The Fourth Tetrad… For instance, with the first four, you discern long breathing; you discern short breathing; you train yourself to breathe in and out sensitive to bodily fabrication; and then you train yourself to breathe in and out calming bodily fabrication. Now, there are other passages where the Buddha talks about how, before you calm things down, first you have to energize them. Just think of …
- Always Willing to Learn… And three, someone who’s discerning. Truthful, compassionate, discerning: Those are the qualities you’re looking for in an admirable friend. When you’ve found someone like that, then you’re safer in opening yourself up and being willing to learn from that person. You’re willing to change your sense of “I.” The Buddha doesn’t have you throw out a sense of …
- Intent… This relates to the other quality you’re trying to develop, which is discernment. You use your discernment to say No to the unskillful impulses in the mind, and you do it in a way that’s effective. You’re not driving these things underground. You say No because you understand them. And the No that comes from discernment is the most effective of …
- A Sense of Direction… And this is why we need to train the mind, to develop its powers of awareness, mindfulness, alertness, concentration, and discernment, so that we can see which kind of direction is the direction you want to go in and which directions really lead off to more suffering. Because this is a lot of our misunderstanding right here: We do things that bring some happiness …
- Sensuality… This is one of those areas where you want to use your wisdom and discernment to develop concentration. It’s the theme of one of Ajaan Maha Boowa’s books. In fact, his book of meditation instructions is entitled, Discernment Fosters Concentration. You have to think about these things for a bit to realize the drawbacks of sensuality, realize the advantages of finding a …
- Choices that Matter… You’ve got to deal with them somehow, so you take what powers of concentration you have, what powers of discernment you have, and you put them to use. It’s in this way that they get developed. It’s like when you’re hungry. You look in the refrigerator, and the food is a little bit spoiled but not so badly spoiled that …
- A Genius about Your own Mind… conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. These are all things we have to develop and in many cases they require a lot of work. Having conviction in the Buddha’s awakening is pretty demanding because it sets forth the possibility that human beings can find a deathless happiness. There are a lot of people, even people nowadays teaching the Dhamma, who shy away from …
- Choices in the Present… You need to develop mindfulness, concentration, discernment—all the factors of the path—because they’re your allies in trying to comprehend suffering and letting go of its cause. After all, to comprehend it, you have to sit with it, you have to watch to see when it comes, when it goes, what comes along with it, what goes when it goes away, so …
- How to Leave Meditation… It’s only in taking an interest in cause and effect, which is a lot of what discernment is, that the meditation can become a skill and a good foundation for deeper discernment. Finally, remind yourself that even though the visual field may be really interesting, you’ve got to maintain a sense of the breath-field as well. That’s what allows your …
- Relate Everything to the Breath… As they say, there’s the discernment that comes from listening and the discernment that comes from thinking. But real knowledge comes with the discernment that comes from actually developing qualities of the mind. Because there’s also ignorance that comes from listening and ignorance that comes from thinking. You read the words in the texts, and they mean one thing to you when …
- Freedom & Security… having listened to a lot of Dhamma, generosity, discernment. These are the three positive treasures. “Listening” here means not only listening but also, when you hear something really good, trying to memorize it. Then you think about it, analyze it, try to come to an understanding of what it means and how it applies to your life. This is a treasure in that you …
- Nostalgia for Suffering… They’re in the principles.” Which shows that it’s part of our own training in discernment to learn how to take the principles and apply them to our particulars—the particulars of our suffering, of our problems as we meditate. If you have everything handed to you, as many of the forest ajaans will say, then you won’t learn how to fix …
- Realities Right Here… Because as you use it to get the mind to settle down, you’re also getting familiar with the categories that the Buddha wants you to think of as you’re trying to understand, trying to gain discernment. The more you like thinking in these terms, the more naturally the discernment will come. You find that you’re not just playing a game. You …
- Outside the Box… Which means that right effort has to include a lot of discernment. The Buddha never taught mere brute effort, brute willpower. He taught that effort has to be guided. This is why when Ajaan Lee talks about the different mental qualities that go into mindfulness practice—mindfulness, alertness, and ardency—he assigns wisdom and discernment to ardency, as in knowing how to stir yourself …
- Infinite Good Humor… You can develop that quality of very basic wisdom that the Buddha identified as wisdom or discernment in effort, or as we would say, in action. We tend to think of wisdom or discernment as dealing with the three characteristics or emptiness or dependent co-arising: very high-level teachings. But as the Buddha pointed out, it begins with this ability to talk yourself …
- Self-starting… the desire to give a discerning answer. In other words, discernment doesn’t just happen without your desiring it. So certain desires play a role on the path that you have to recognize. There are certain things you can’t let go of right away. There are things you have to develop and hold on to. In the case of the banana, Ajaan Chah …
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