Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Adjusting the Flame… It’s not the case that the mind gets still and then you miraculously gain discernment without trying to figure anything out. You gain discernment by trying to master this problem of how to get the mind to settle down, alert and still at the same time. The Buddha gives you pointers on what might be the issue, but you’ve got to figure …
- The Tools of the Path… You master them in the order of virtue, concentration, discernment; but when the path factors are listed, they start with the discernment factors. They start with the right view. Notice—that’s right view, not right knowledge. Some people say that the Buddha doesn’t have you accept anything unless you know it to be true, but you don’t really know the truth …
- The Thinking Cure… You ultimately get there only through discernment. And discernment starts with learning how to think in the right way. It doesn’t cost anything, doesn’t require a lot of energy: just allowing yourself to think in skillful ways. That can turn you around right there, and head you in the right direction. So before you stop thinking, learn how to think in ways …
- Willing & Observing… The first is discernment, making sure that you’re making a wise vow. Once you’ve made that vow and you’ve determined that it’s a wise goal to set for yourself, you use your discernment to figure out how you try to go about it, what works and what doesn’t work. This is where the experimentation comes in: learning from your …
- Appropriate Attention… And it’s an important stage because you refine your discernment as you do this. Discernment is the quality that’s going to purify the mind. It’s going to lead you to awakening. You can’t sit here and simply hope for awakening to come out of the sky and whap you across the head. It comes from refining your discernment so that …
- The Brightness of Life… conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. He says you don’t really know these five faculties until you’ve seen their origination, their passing away, their allure, their drawbacks, and the escape from them. So even the path is something we’re ultimately going to be putting aside. That’s the brightness of life: the point where you can put aside the path, where …
- Daily-Life Dhamma… Notice, there’s an element of discernment and ingenuity here: the ability to psych yourself up, to motivate yourself so that you want to do the things that are difficult and you really stick with them. So this quality of truthfulness requires some discernment, some wisdom, that once you’ve made up your mind that something is worth doing, you keep at it. And …
- A Taste of Freedom… The more you develop your mindfulness, your alertness, your concentration, and your discernment, the more you’re able to exercise your freedom right here, the freedom to choose your preoccupations. And then you have to choose them wisely. Wisdom comes from trying to get an answer to the question, “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” The …
- Skills for Awakening… When you look at the list of the factors for awakening, they move from mindfulness and the discernment in analysis of qualities on through concentration and equanimity—but they don’t stop there. You have to take the equanimity and the concentration and turn them around to look at what you’re doing—Where are you causing yourself unnecessary suffering?—in the same way …
- The Fortress… In other words, you’re developing both concentration and discernment at the same time. You’re developing the mind—all kinds of good qualities in the mind. And these are things you want to protect. Ajaan Mun used to say that the good qualities in the mind can’t be distinguished from the mind. If they could be distinguished, somebody would separate them out …
- Virtuous Beginnings… We’re consummate in virtue, consummate in generosity, consummate in conviction, consummate in discernment. If we aren’t able to make our way out of this continual round of coming back, coming back, virtue at least makes sure that we arrange a soft landing for ourselves, that we come back in good circumstances, circumstances that allow us to take up the path again with …
- Respecting Death… But if but you can develop mindfulness, alertness, concentration, and discernment, you can pare down this area of your identification, so that when the body goes, you realize it’s just the body. You don’t have to identify with it. Even when your brain starts malfunctioning, you realize it’s just the brain malfunctioning. You don’t have to get upset by it …
- The Allure of Self… You’re preventing the mind from gaining some insight, some discernment. And when the mind doesn’t have any concentration or discernment, there’s no way it’s going to have an experience of the deathless. As Ajaan Maha Boowa once said, if you could take the deathless out and show it to everybody, nobody would want anything else. The problem is that it …
- Ajaan Suwat’s Gift… virtue, concentration, and discernment, based on a foundation of generosity and goodwill. Right here is where the real work has to be done. And when the work is done here, to the point where you have something solid inside, then you can share. Up to that point, you really have to work on, as Ajaan Suwat would say, “getting” yourself. He would often comment …
- Calm… And in arriving at calm here, you’re gaining some important lessons in discernment, in using the factor of analysis of qualities. It’s in this way that all the factors for awakening come together. Each one provides an important part of the mix that gets the path just right. So in calming the mind down, don’t be afraid to use your discernment …
- Don’t Get Discouraged… Some people find the concentration easy but then the discernment is hard. Other people find the discernment easy but the concentration hard. Some people find both sides hard. So we have to have a way of reinforcing our conviction until we begin to see the results. Then the results themselves begin to become fuel for our further practice. But you look at the Buddha …
- The World Is Swept Away… There’s the determination on discernment, which includes the perfection of discernment and the perfection of goodwill. As the Buddha said, if you have ill will for anybody, that’s wrong view. If you think anything good would be accomplished by seeing somebody else suffer, you’ve got the wrong attitude. Then there’s the determination on truth, which includes the perfection of truth …
- Responsible for Your Actions… Lack of persistence, lack of mindfulness, lack of concentration, lack of discernment: These things are all irresponsible. And you can’t be apathetic about being irresponsible in that way, because it’s your happiness that’s at stake. You want a happiness that lasts, which means it has to be a happiness that doesn’t harm anybody. It has to come from your actions …
- The Dhamma Wheel in the Heart… You don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future but you do know that you’ll need more discernment, more mindfulness, more alertness to deal with unexpected things as they arise. And where are you going to get those qualities? Well, through the meditation. All too often our worries come with a thought, “I should be worried.” You have to …
- Cause & Effect Right Now… You can catch a few things that will lighten the burden of suffering you’re creating for yourself or lighten the burden of stress, but only when your discernment is really well-trained can you catch everything. So it’s bit by bit by bit. You begin to see, “Oh, I’m doing this and I don’t have to.” It’s the “I …
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