Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Large-hearted Goodness
     … But if you provide the mind with the food that comes from concentration, the food that comes with discernment, the heart will achieve a state of satisfaction, a sense of enough that the world can never supply. So this is where we look: We look within. And we try to maintain this quality of the heart. Don’t let the world come in and … 
  3. Contentment vs. Initiative
     … You use it to develop discernment. When you find that it’s getting a little dull, okay, you stop the questions of discernment and come back to the concentration. Then finally, having good friendship on this level means realizing which members of your mind’s committee you can trust and which ones you can’t. This is something you have to learn over time … 
  4. Scribe Knowledge, Warrior Knowledge
     … You hold onto the practice of virtue, you hold onto the practice of concentration, you hold onto discernment as your tools. And you feed off the well-being that these things can provide. In this way, he gives you an alternative source of food. And when you’re better fed—the mind is not so worked up around things—ultimately it gets to where … 
  5. Everything You Need
     … The Buddha was a person of discernment, a person of compassion and purity. You try to emulate those qualities in yourself. But to know what they mean, it’s good to read about him, to get an idea of how he acted with different people and how he recommended practicing. The most important internal quality, he said, in addition to having an admirable friend … 
  6. The Boundaries of Mindfulness
     … And you want to use your discernment so that you can maintain this frame of reference. You can’t hold it simply through force of will. You’ve got to use your discernment. You’ve got to use your powers of judgment. Again, this goes against what’s normally taught about mindfulness, that it’s a nonjudgmental state of mind. But as you’re … 
  7. The Lessons of Equanimity
     … Other ways of making the mind like a large river of water are to follow the precepts and to develop the discernment that allows you to disengage from things that are causing you to suffer—in particular your own activities that are causing you to suffer—to catch yourself when you’re thinking in a way that’s like another arrow thrust into the … 
  8. Perplexity
     … At the same time, you develop the discernment that allows you to catch yourself when you’re lying to yourself. This is one of the big problems in ending your perplexity: figuring out, when is the mind lying to you? Our problem is that all too often we like the lies. Look at political campaigns. Politicians have learned that you can lie to people … 
  9. Honest & Observant
     … At the same time, you learn some discernment, which is another one of the qualities that you’re going to need. As for not being overcome by pain, which is another one of the qualities you’re going to need to protect you from past bad kamma, you’re going to run into pains as you meditate and you have to learn not to … 
  10. Antidotes
     … You have to develop your discernment by learning how to use the concentration and the mindfulness and the alertness. Discernment is not automatic. It’s not the case that once the mind gets very clear, all these wonderful insights will suddenly come springing up that you can trust 100%. After all, some of the worst delusions that meditators suffer from come from a concentrated … 
  11. Asalha Puja
     … So, it’s nice to think about the symbolism, but it’s even better to do the reality of the practice—to develop the virtue and the concentration and the discernment. As Ajaan Lee pointed out, concentration is the difficult one. It’s like a bridge going across the river. The pilings next to the banks on either side are relatively easy. But the … 
  12. The Wheel of Dhamma
     … developing virtue, developing concentration, developing discernment. You have to want to do these things. You have to use all your ingenuity in doing these things, because they’re going to take you to where you want to go. So learn to develop a desire for them. And keep in mind that third noble truth, too: There is a possibility for the end of suffering … 
  13. Focus on One Thing
     … What in your life still needs improvement? What your life is still lacking, in terms of the precepts, in terms of concentration, in terms of discernment? In other words, what’s lacking in the causes for happiness in your life? The causes that you have control over. So one of the things you can do this evening, in addition to focusing on the breath … 
  14. The Airplane Mechanic
     … If you find that the thought is insistent, that you keep going back and back and back to it, that’s when you have to develop some discernment. Remind yourself of the drawbacks of that kind of thinking. If you would allow yourself to indulge in that kind of thinking for 24 hours, where would it lead you? What kind of state would you … 
  15. Two Guardian Meditations
     … As he said, as he was practicing different practices while trying to find the way to awakening, he developed qualities of conviction, persistence, or energy; mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, as they were required for each path. Then when he taught the path that he discovered was the right path, he recommended these same five qualities because he had found that they really were important … 
  16. Lessons for New Monks
     … I mean, there are people who can know about the Dhamma without being virtuous—we see this all around us—but to really gain the concentration and discernment that allow you to see how the Dhamma applies in your life, in your mind, in your behavior requires that you be virtuous. To begin with, it requires that you have a sense of restraint and … 
  17. Honoring the Noble Ones
     … This is probably why, when Ajaan Lee was talking about these three qualities in his description of the establishing of mindfulness, ardency was the quality that embodied discernment. Because there is a wisdom in realizing that the Buddha’s teachings are not just to listen to or to think about or to argue about. They’re here to put into practice—to train the … 
  18. Eight Principles
     … No matter how much you understand the drawbacks of sensuality, no matter what you’ve read about the topic and worked on your discernment to see the drawbacks to sensuality, you’re going to need something to take it’s place. So for the time being, allow yourself to get passionate about concentration. As Ajaan Fuang once said, you’re never going to meditate … 
  19. Actualizing Your Potentials
     … The beginning of wisdom or the beginning of discernment lies in this ability to get a sense of what’s really important and what’s not. Back in the time of the Buddha, there was a list of the hot issues of the day: Is the world eternal or is it not eternal? Is it finite or is it infinite? Is the life force … 
  20. Practicing on Your Own
     … That’s what gives rise to the discernment. And of course the discerning answer is that the time hasn’t come to let go of the peel yet. If you took off the peel now, the banana would just be mush in your hands. You hold onto the peel until you don’t need it anymore. And it’s the same with right view … 
  21. Persistence: Lift Your Heart
     … I want something better.” Now, there’s some discernment in that desire, and you want to foster it so as to lift up the mind. The Buddha gives the image of discernment as a person climbing up into a tower, with a much larger view of things than people on the ground—i.e., your ordinary petty concerns. The pettiness of your defilements begins … 
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