Search results for: "Discernment"
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- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
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