Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Feelings Not of the Flesh… As the Buddha said, there’s no strong concentration without discernment. One of the things you’re going to learn how to discern is how not to fall for the thoughts that come wandering through the mind, telling you that “You’ve had enough just sitting here doing nothing but breathe. Think about this, think about that.” Or, “This is getting boring.” We’re …
- Training the Whole Mind… That’s when you can be said to be a discerning meditator. You can’t gain insight simply by following the rules. Somebody says, “For insight you need to do one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. So you do one, two, three, four, five, six, seven without any thinking, without any reflection on what you’re doing, and yet that doesn’t …
- Humility & Confidence… How else are you going to learn unless you can judge whether one thing is better than another? As the Buddha said, you learn the quality of analysis of qualities, which is the discernment factor for awakening, by comparing things. When the mind acts on this kind of intention, what are the results? When it acts on that kind of intention, what are the …
- Everything Comes Together Right Here… And as you get more and more sensitive to what’s going on, that factor of evaluation that turns into discernment. Here again, in these Zoom meetings that I lead sometimes, every now and then we get someone who comes from a very different tradition moving in. And they like to talk about how when you do concentration practice, you then drop the concentration …
- Diagnosing the Mind… And the preparation will come from where? It’ll come from developing mindfulness, alertness, concentration, and discernment here in the present moment. As for moods that you like or don’t like, as the Buddha said those are off the path. You want to get the mind right here watching, to pull out of those moods. We tend to think of our moods, especially …
- Maintenance Work… There’s an old tradition that by sweeping up the monastery, you help to develop your discernment—partly because it’s a good way, a very easy way, to keep the place looking good. In other words, if you let the sala or other buildings get so covered with dust that you can’t live in them anymore and then you just build a …
- Why We Train the Mind… Sometimes you need a more positive motivation, as when you see the good that can come from a centered mind, the good that can come from a mind that develops discernment. But this is an important part of developing right effort: this ability to generate the desire. This ties in with two emotions that should be central to the practice. The first is samvega …
- One Thing Clear Through… Every aspect of the path, starting with generosity as a foundation for the path, and then the training in what the Buddha calls heightened virtue, heightened mind, and heightened discernment: This is the way out. We’re training not just the mind but also the heart, which is why generosity is a good place to begin. The word citta, in Pali, covers both mind …
- The Energy You Broadcast… Or it could be mindfulness and discernment flowing out. That’s the choice you can make. It can be compassion flowing out, goodwill flowing out, or equanimity. Again, that’s your choice. The Buddha gives an extreme example. You’re pinned down by bandits who’ve taken a two-handled saw and are sawing you into little pieces. You could simply react to that …
- Even Animals Can Be Trained… And the speed represents discernment. You have to remember that we’re trying to get the mind to settle down, and it requires some discernment in order to get it settled down right, because you’re trying to keep the mind in a certain limited range: just the body sitting here, the breath coming in, going out. You’re also trying to make sure …
- The Energy in the Body… And this is important, because playing and experimenting are the basic principles in developing discernment. Nobody ever gained wisdom simply by following a set of directions or a set of instructions. You follow the instructions but then you have to observe to learn what works for you, what doesn’t work for you, and how to develop your own powers of judgment. Without that …
- Guarded… It’s through discernment that you learn how not to need those fences anymore. As long as your discernment is not yet all around, you need to keep those other fences up. Ajaan Chah mentions that the lesson he took away after being with Ajaan Mun for three days was that he had to practice in a shape of a circle. He thought about …
- Think Like a Thief… You’re not going to gain discernment simply by following directions. There are meditation techniques that give you directions, that say, “Do this, do that,” and somehow automatically you’re going to gain insight just by following the directions. It’s like expecting to get genuine food out of a food processing plant. What you end up with is meditation-product, like the food …
- Commit, Reflect, Discern… practice in virtue, practice in concentration, practice in discernment. We reflect on these things—and the fact that things are inconstant, stressful, not-self, as we chanted just now; the fact that we’re subject to aging, illness, and death—not to get depressed, but to motivate ourselves to take on the training. After all, the Buddha didn’t simply lay out a theory …
- Rightly Directed… the strength of your own conviction, your persistence, your mindfulness, your concentration, your discernment. These will be the only strengths you’ll have at that time, and they’re not the kind of strengths you can suddenly develop at the last moment. They have to be part of a lifelong process, a lifelong exercise program. As we sit here and meditate, that’s a …
- Insight from Developing Concentration… It’s in this way that concentration leads to discernment. You’re getting the mind to look at events within it, not in terms of what you like or don’t like, but simply in terms of what they are as processes. If you’re going to get good at concentration, you have to construct a state of stillness. For that, you have to …
- A Good Purpose in Life… that to really develop the mind, to have the discernment that you need in order to see through how you’re creating suffering for yourself and suffering for others, you also have to develop qualities of the good heart. The good mind and the good heart go together. You look at the list of perfections. Discernment, the perfection focused on the development of the …
- Wisdom Requires Integrity… That’s where the discernment comes in. Sometimes you hear that Buddhist wisdom is all about emptiness or non-duality. But you have to ask yourself: Are you suffering because you think things are dual? Are you suffering because you don’t realize that things are empty? Suppose you’re attached to a flashlight. Why are you attached to the flashlight? Because you don …
- Wealth & Strength… So strength requires discernment: when you show your steadfastness, when you’re willing to be compliant. The story of the Buddha image here in the sala is one instance of Ajaan Suwat’s being compliant. When they were planning to build the ordination hall at Wat Bhuridhat, a committee was set up to be in charge of getting the Buddha image made. They dragged …
- For the Sake of the Deathless… The Buddha said that one of the measures of discernment is when you see that something leads to a long-term harm but it’s something you’d like to do, you know how to talk yourself out of doing it. Or if you see something that leads to long-term benefit but it’s something you don’t like to do, you talk …
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