Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Choosing a Teacher
     … You’re not going to know a person’s discernment until you hear them discuss issues and see how they treat a particular issue, how they treat different questions: which questions need to be answered categorically, which questions need to be re-analyzed, which questions need to have a counter-question to clear things up before the answer comes, and which questions deserve being … 
  3. Learn from the Ants
     … So even when he was studying with the teachers who taught very high levels of concentration—the dimension of nothingness, the dimension of neither perception and non-perception—he saw that they’d developed conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. They devoted good qualities of the mind to this, but they rested content with something that wasn’t ultimate. He, however, wasn’t satisfied … 
  4. To Delight in the Path
     … So you learn to take delight in doing good, being generous, helping other people who are generous, being with admirable friends—people who have conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. These things lift not only the mind, but also the heart. Remember, we’re training both the heart and the mind. In Pali, the word *citta *covers both. So the practice is not just a … 
  5. Old Kamma & New
     … You also want to develop it in discernment so that you can see where the act of identifying with these things is going to weigh you down. And you also want to see that it’s unnecessary. This is where the teachings on inconstancy, stress, and not-self are really useful, even as you’re just getting started in the practice. Anything that comes … 
  6. Mindfulness Defined
     … It’s meant to lead to concentration, from there to discernment, and from there to release. That’s how its role is always portrayed in the texts. So you do what you can to make the breath a place where you can stay concentrated, where the mind can feel more and more at home. In this way, evaluation is an important part of the … 
  7. The Art of Right Speech
     … And then putting that discernment into practice, he starts first with right speech. Now right speech also is a skill, it’s an art. All too often our attitude is that we want to say something just to get it out of our system, or we bottle it up, either out of fear or a sense of we shouldn’t say it. And if … 
  8. Full Attention
     … Remind yourself that whatever issue may come up in life, you’re going to need mindfulness, you’re going to need alertness, along with good powers of concentration and discernment. So the responsible thing right now is to let go of all your other responsibilities and work on these qualities. The future is very uncertain, but what is certain is that you’re going … 
  9. Mindfulness of Death
     … Finally, there’s discernment—seeing what’s skillful in the mind, what’s unskillful in the mind, and knowing how to talk yourself into doing what’s skillful and out of doing what’s unskillful, regardless of your likes or dislikes. When you reflect on the fact of your own death, remind yourself, “These are the qualities I’ve got to develop in myself … 
  10. The Five Strengths
     … And there’s discernment as you begin to see cause and effect, exactly what you do that creates unnecessary stress, and what you can do to stop that. You see the real causes are right there in the mind. Your craving and clinging add to the stress. As you develop virtue, concentration, and discernment, they help to loosen up that craving and clinging, so … 
  11. Four Mountains Moving In
     … So the Buddha asked him, “When Sariputta died, did he take virtue with him?” “No.” “Did he take concentration?” “No.” Discernment?” “No.” “Release?” “No.” All the good things in life are there. The good potentials in life are always here. So even where there’s loss and danger, there are still good things we can do. And it’s important that we stay focused … 
  12. Like an Athlete in Training
     … You want to feed your discernment. You want to feed your virtue. You want to feed your goodwill. These are the things you need to strengthen. So look at things that encourage good qualities in the mind. Listen to things that encourage good qualities in the mind. As for things that will be bad for you, you can close the windows, close the doors … 
  13. Testing Karma
     … What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? Right there in that question you have the seed for the big issues of discernment. The test for happiness is, one, that it’s long-term. So anything that’s inconstant or impermanent will not qualify. Two, it really does have to be happy, so anything that’s stressful doesn … 
  14. Mindfulness as Refuge
     … The wall is discernment, and as they say in the texts, the wall is covered with plaster so that the enemy can’t get any footholds or handholds. In other words, you use your discernment to cut through anything that might try to sneak over the walls away from the gatekeeper. Who does the gatekeeper let in? He lets in soldiers, which are right … 
  15. A Strong Sense of Self
     … As the Buddha said, discernment begins with a question—“What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?”—which is his way of basically saying that the pursuit of true happiness is a good thing, something to be encouraged. It’s wise, and what’s wise about the question is realizing, one, happiness is going to have to depend … 
  16. Smoothing It
     … The only thing he could do was to use his discernment to figure out how the mind takes a physical pain and brings it into the mind and makes it a mental pain. He found himself cornered, and that caused him to come back out of the corner with his discernment. That was the lesson he learned that night—how much the mind is … 
  17. Even Common Animals Can Be Trained
     … Concentration, discernment: All of these things involve restraint. With generosity, you hold yourself back from using up things that you could give to other people. With the precepts, of course, you hold yourself back from doing and saying things that you know are going to be harmful. With concentration, you restrain your mind from wandering around as it ordinarily might. You keep your mind … 
  18. Top Priorities
     … The first is discernment, learning to see what’s important, learning to see clearly what has to be done to get to what’s important: understanding the path, what has to be developed, what has to be abandoned, and learning to make distinctions. A while back I was leading a course on the perfections, and someone noticed that when you look at the list … 
  19. When Your Will Is Ill
     … They’re obstacles to your concentration, they obscure your discernment, they obscure your awareness. So you’ve got to get past them. The first step in each case in trying to get past is to see that they’re worth getting past. I remember that when I first learned about the hindrances and how ill will doesn’t mean negativity or dislike—it means … 
  20. Delight
     … Other people say, “Well, it’s a necessary step, but let’s get through it as fast as we can so we can get onto the really interesting work of discernment.” But the discernment work is not going to work—it’s not going to have the proper effect—unless you really pay careful attention to what’s happening as the mind settles down … 
  21. A Haven for Inner Wealth
     … Finally, there’s discernment, when you see what is actually skillful and what is not, and you pursue that into more and more subtle levels. These are the qualities we want to protect because they protect our good actions. That’s why they’re our treasures. When we’re meditating, we want to keep this in mind, that these are qualities we need to … 
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