Search results for: "Discernment"

  1. Page 54
  2. A Good-natured Attitude
     … It may sound cruel when one person is laughing at somebody else that way, but when you’re able to laugh at yourself, that’s the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of discernment. So what we’re trying to do here is to get our path of practice on the right path. Some people have problems with the idea of a right path versus … 
  3. Truthfulness
     … If you blindly accept, “Well, this has to be the way it is,” and throw yourself into a particular practice without questioning, you’re not developing the qualities that lead to wisdom, that lead to discernment. You’re not developing the quality of heedfulness that the Buddha said lies at the base of all skillful qualities. There has to be an element of wariness … 
  4. The Luminous Mind
     … In the process of developing the path, we’re going to be developing skillful qualities, learning how to abandon the things that get in the way of knowledge and to encourage qualities like mindfulness and alertness that strengthen your knowledge, strengthen your awareness, strengthen your insight and discernment. These things, like the defilements, are not part of the nature of the mind. Ajaan Lee … 
  5. Generating Power
     … In other words, when your powers of concentration are strong enough, when they reach the point where they’re ready, then the work of discernment gets a lot easier. Things separate out right before your very eyes without your having to do an awful lot of analysis. When the mind has been concentrated long enough and solidly enough, you just pose a question and … 
  6. Sources of Lasting Happiness
     … And the third is developing the mind—by which he meant developing good qualities in the mind, qualities like goodwill, mindfulness, concentration, discernment, alertness: qualities that help you act in skillful ways because they enable you to see what’s actually going on. They can help you see what you’re doing and see the results of what you’re doing. If you see … 
  7. Changing Your Mind
     … So we have to bolster our mindfulness with some discernment, reminding ourselves of why we want to be on this path. I was talking with someone this morning who was saying that he tried not to think very much during his meditation. But he came across the Buddhist teachings on analysis of qualities, and that mystified him. And as I said to him, “You … 
  8. Merit & Skill
     … The path has eight factors, or can be divided into three types of training—training in virtue, training in concentration, training in discernment. Meritorious activity has three kinds—generosity, virtue, and meditation. The Buddha was famous for making lists of all the different qualities that were required in the practice. There’s never a list of ones, which means that as you practice you … 
  9. Cheerfully Ardent
     … If you’re not glad, try to figure out: “Where is the cause? Where is the effect?” This is how discernment is going to get developed. After all, you want to understand the four noble truths. You want to comprehend suffering, abandon its cause, and you have to figure out what’s the link between the two. How do you do that? Through trial … 
  10. Wisdom, Compassion, Purity
     … And then discernment: being able to use that concentration to see what’s going on in the mind—where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering; what you’re doing that’s getting in the way of finding the happiness whose potential lies within. The Buddha wasn’t operating from the position that we’re all basically good or that we’re all basically bad … 
  11. The Burning House
     … He taught people to think, and to think in the long-term: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” That’s the question that lies at the beginning of wisdom and discernment. So to be discerning, you’ve got to think out to the long term as to what is really important. And that gives you a … 
  12. Turning Points
     … This is why discernment is needed to cut through all these things. It’s discernment based on the strategy of learning how to give the mind some pleasure right here right now so that you’re not so hungry that you go along with your angry desires. When the mind is well fed with a good sense of ease, pleasure, and rapture, it can … 
  13. Investing in Noble Wealth
     … This is where discernment comes in. It comes in at the end of the list but you actually need it all the way along. Then there’s learning and generosity. “Learning” here means spending time in listening to the words of the Buddha, the words of the noble disciples. Their values go at cross-purposes with a lot of values of the world that … 
  14. Generosity & Virtue as Skills
     … Then as we look at that skill and understand it, that’s what gives rise to discernment. So when things aren’t going well in the meditation, ask yourself, “What are you doing that’s not skillful?” It may be in the way you breathe, it may be in the way you approach the breath, it may be in the attitude that you bring … 
  15. The Culture of the Practice
     … The four qualities the Buddha pointed out—and these apply not only to monks and nuns, but also to lay people—were (1) conviction, (2) virtue, (3) generosity, and (4) discernment. These are the qualities that create the culture of awakening, the culture of the practice. There has been a tendency in Buddhist circles, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, to reduce everything … 
  16. No One Size Fits All
     … And your ability to deal with unexpected things as they come-up is an important part of discernment. As for the topics you use, in general, the Buddha said it’s an issue of learning how to look at fabrication: this process by which the mind creates thoughts, intentions, urges. You can look at fabrication from any number of angles: from the five aggregates … 
  17. Sensuality
     … And this knowledge of the elements of the body will also provide us with a good foundation for discernment—first the discernment that comes from simply learning to get in touch with these elements and to realize how many of the different sensations in the body are related to these properties. And how we do have a certain amount of control over them. Through … 
  18. An Examined Life
     … This is called using discernment to foster concentration. Some people find it easy for the mind to settle down; other people don’t. It’s like different types of trees. If a tree is out the middle of the field, with no other trees are around, it’s very easy to cut it down, because it’s not entangled with anything else. But if … 
  19. Broaden Your Range of Choices
     … Giving is a trade that teaches you to use your discernment by making distinctions and seeing that you have choices. As you start thinking about being generous, it opens up your mind to other choices you have as well: the choice to observe precepts or not; the choice to meditate or not; the choice to train your mind or not; the choice to hold … 
  20. Rooted in Desire
     … Then you can get it glad with concentration and discernment. The path creates a sense of well-being. It doesn’t lead only to nibbāna. That’s not the only pleasure it provides. It provides pleasure all along the way: When you’re generous, there’s a sense of self-worth, that you’re not a slave to your emotions. It’s not like … 
  21. Trust in the Power of the Mind
     … That was through your own discernment. So once you’ve had these things confirmed, you’re really on the path. Prior to that point, you’re on for a bit and then you’re off, and then you’re on again, off again. You try to make it on as much as you can. But the sense of confidence in the Buddha, the sense … 
  22. Load next page...