Search results for: "Discernment"
- Page 61
- The Open Committee… Is this a desire that really is in your own best interest? Where is it going to lead? Use the powers of your concentration, the powers of your discernment to make sure you’re not swayed by any desires that are really contrary to the Dhamma, contrary to your own true happiness. In this way, you bring some order into the committee. You’ve …
- Fear & Conviction… You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but you do know that, whatever happens, you’re going to need more mindfulness, you’re going to need more alertness, more discernment, more concentration. You’re going to need to have a safe place inside. This is why we meditate. So if you find your conviction getting lax, it basically comes …
- Prepare to Die… You can develop qualities of mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment: These things really will hold you in good stead. A lot of the techniques we’re practicing as we meditate will come in useful as we get sick, and especially useful at death. Even this technique of focusing the mind on one thing and learning how to let go of everything else: That’s going …
- Engaging the Whole Mind… In other words, for discernment to arise, you have to engage all the powers of the mind. So it’s not just a matter of technique. The technique is there to give you something to work with. And in the course of working with it, you’re going to have to engage the whole mind. As you’re engaging the whole mind, that’s …
- Nuts & Bolts… This is one of the reasons why there’s no one discernment method or one insight method. In fact, the Buddha didn’t give any insight methods at all, aside from asking you to question things: Why do you go for that? What are the results? The questions are very basic, and I think it’s good that we keep things basic. If we …
- Forest Bathing… Those instructions come down basically to virtue, concentration, discernment, all based on a principle of generosity. So, stop for a while and think about what that means. Happiness is found through generosity and then perfected through virtue, concentration, and discernment. This is why we meditate. This is how we escape danger. A forest is a good place to do this because as you let …
- Kindfulness… conviction, persistence, mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment, goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. These are all good qualities to develop. As for the word qualities here, it’s best to think of them as habits you develop in the mind. That’s because it’s more useful to think of the mind in terms of what it’s doing than in terms of what it is …
- Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves… The first is that you’re developed in virtue and developed in discernment. In other words, you learn to see your own mind and understand what’s going on in your own mind. You can talk yourself into doing the things that you know are good but you may not like; and you talk yourself out of doing the things that you may dislike …
- Respect… The gradual slope comes from refining your powers of discernment. As the mind settles down, you’ll see things more clearly, you’ll see where you’re holding on to ideas or feelings that are weighing you down, and you let go of them. But then you’ll find there are other more subtle ones that are also weighing you down. So let go …
- Limitless Compassion, Limited Resources… Is it entangling? Because the more you get entangled with other people, the less time you have to practice concentration, discernment, the direct training of the mind. So this is one of the quandaries: How do you help without getting entangled? You learn from other people’s example. And you realize that the best help you can give to other people is to teach …
- The Real World… Whereas the wealth you get in the Dhamma is the wealth of conviction, a healthy sense of shame and compunction, virtue, learning, generosity, discernment. This wealth is really yours—and it’s really good. You can do good things with it, and you’re not the only one who benefits. With the pleasures of the world — gain, status, praise, sensual pleasures — all too often …
- Goodwill as a Strength… And you do that through a lack of goodwill, a lack of discernment. So goodwill’s something you have to keep in mind all the time. And as for the battles you fight in the world, choose them well. Choose your battles well. But always fight using goodwill. Remember that it is a strength.
- Clinging & Feeding… Then we feed the mind with conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, all of which are good food for the mind. These are the things that strengthen us, so that we can manage the path. So the Buddha doesn’t try to starve us right from the start. He simply tells us to take a different approach to our feeding. Feed on good food …
- Right View… Of course, you’ve got to have a lot of mindfulness and alertness to discern the bear’s motives when he’s chewing on you. That’s why the Buddha has us practice mindfulness and alertness as we meditate, not so much in case we’re attacked by bears, but because there are a lot of issues in the world in which the issue …
- Deep Understanding… On the level of listening and thinking, you can hear about mindfulness, you can hear about alertness, you can hear about concentration and discernment, but it’s when you actually try to develop these things in the mind you come up against issues you might not have thought of before, things that weren’t in the plan. And you find that as you develop …
- A Skillful Heart… This means your goodwill has to be backed up by discernment. There are a lot of people who want to have Dhamma without kamma. And so they say, “We have goodwill for all beings because all beings have Buddha-nature or all beings are intrinsically good.” In a case like that, your goodwill is not really independent. When you run across people who are …
- Equanimity as a Factor of Awakening… After all, a lot of the practice of discernment is learning to ask questions. That requires thinking. But what you’re trying to figure out here is which thoughts are the skillful ones and which ones are not. You want to have a basis from which to watch these things. It’s best if that basis is still so that you can see their …
- Monologue on the Breath… In this way, you take the part of the mind that tends to cause so much trouble—its constant chatter—and you train it to be a help, because the directed thought eventually turns into concentration, the evaluation turns into discernment. The two of them working together, focused on this one topic, get stronger and stronger, more and more sensitive, until they lead to …
- More than Just Letting Go… And as you get to know the ways the mind deals with perceptions, that becomes the basis for discernment as well. So that’s the big problem—the processes of fabrication done in ignorance—and to solve it, you have to fabrication a lot of good qualities with knowledge. You’re developing concentration; you’re developing discernment. Eventually, yes, you will have to put …
- Endurance & Contentment… That’s what the Buddha said lies at the essence of discernment: seeing things as separate. You don’t have to identify with them. You can choose your identity; you can choose the voices in the mind that you’re going to side with. So take advantage of that fact. That will make all the difference between whether you’re discontent or content with …
- Load next page...
