Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Slowing Down to Look
     … This is one of the problems of translating pañña, the word for discernment, as “wisdom.” We tend to think of wisdom as being wise sayings, and you can memorize lots and lots of wise sayings, but then the wise question is: When are they relevant? Discernment is a matter of seeing things as they actually arise, seeing what’s skillful and what’s unskillful … 
  3. Make a Difference
     … Wisdom, discernment, for him, is a matter of passing judgment: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What will lead to my long-term harm and suffering?” It comes down to judging what actions are worth doing, which actions are not. So we’re passing judgment as we try to make a difference, based on our understanding … 
  4. Admitting Mistakes
     … Because that’s the aspect of the mind that turns into discernment. If the practice were simply a matter of following a recipe, following a mechanical process, the Buddha would have described all the steps in the process. But it can’t be done that way. Each meditator has to develop his or her own powers of judgment and powers of observation—because those … 
  5. A Heart Bigger Than the World
     … Goodwill is not a Pollyanna kind of wish, thinking that “Everybody’s going to be good, therefore I’ll be good to them.” It’s because people are often not going to be good that you’ve got to be good to them, good in a discerning way, thinking about what would be in their best interest, the best interest of their true well … 
  6. Everyday Feeding Habits
     … That’s what’s going to give your discernment the opportunity to look into your feeding habits and do something skillful about them.
  7. Evaluation: The Voice of Heedfulness
     … At the same time, you’re developing your own powers of judgment, your own discernment. You’re developing the voice in the mind that tells you what to try and then comments on what you’ve done. You’re trying to train this voice to be healthy. All too many of us have very unhealthy voices in the mind that pass judgment, but this … 
  8. Skillful Fear
     … The only drawback you might have was that you might get attached to it, not wanting to go on to the higher levels of discernment and insight. But compared with sensuality, it’s much less damaging. Nobody kills, steals, cheats over jhana. And even though they have jhana wars, they’re just wars where ink is spilled. No blood is spilled. So nurture that … 
  9. When You Hit a Plateau
     … How can I question those assumptions?” That’s a lot of the work of discernment right there: It’s not so much finding the answers, but knowing the right questions to ask. It was a while after reading Ajaan MahaBoowa that I came across the Buddha’s instructions on breath meditation. I discovered that the Buddha gives, in a very cursory form, precisely the … 
  10. Bowing & Chanting
     … The Dhamma teaches virtue, concentration, discernment, release. The Sangha represents your willingness to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma—in other words, not just in accordance with your preferences, but in accordance with what the Dhamma really demands. It’s aimed at disenchantment, dispassion, and the freedom that comes from dispassion. These are all qualities that are good to develop within yourself … 
  11. Mountains Moving In
     … But if you look at the qualities that the Buddha asks you to develop as you practice the path—virtue, concentration, and discernment, or wisdom, purity, and compassion: These are all qualities you can be proud of. Ajaan Suwat used to make the point that sometimes you hear it said in Thailand that the essence of the Buddha’s teachings is that you shouldn … 
  12. Tranquility & Insight
     … This last method is the method of last resort, because it requires a lot of willpower and not much discernment. You can keep it up only for so long, but it can sometimes clear the air. You could make a comparison with a toolbox. It’s like having a sledgehammer in your toolbox for the times when the more refined tools don’t work … 
  13. Taking a Stance
     … mindfulness, alertness, your discernment in telling what’s comfortable and what’s not, your ingenuity in figuring out ways to make things more comfortable. And the qualities of goodwill, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity — they play a role here as well. When you learn to relate to the breath with these qualities of mind, then every time you get in touch with the breath, the … 
  14. The Size of Your Eyes
     … Try to develop your discernment to do the looking. The same holds true for you listening and your engagement with all the other senses. It’s not like we’re just sitting here perfectly normal with nothing happening and then, all of a sudden, something comes in and strikes us and either appeals to us or it doesn’t appeal to us. We’re … 
  15. Mange in the Mind
     … You’re taking the concentration and discernment and mindfulness that you’ve been developing. That all goes with you. Then all the potential for insight goes with you as well because you’ve done your inner exploration first. So if you’re going to wander or travel, wander and travel here in your body. Because that’s that kind of wandering that actually takes … 
  16. In Restraint Is Strength
     … So here’s an opportunity to strengthen your discernment. You realize that the things that clutter up the mind come from the senses. Something you’ve never seen, never heard of, or never thought of: It’s not going to clutter up the mind. Even though there may be things that you’ve seen and heard or thought of way in the past, if … 
  17. Pleasure on the Middle Way
     … And a lot more discernment. And a lot less desperation. So the pleasure of concentration is an important part of the path. You can’t do without it. Sometimes you hear that right concentration is an optional part of the path, that you can just go straight for insight. But that’s like that saying they have in Thailand, which is something of a … 
  18. True Values
     … Then there’s learning, generosity, discernment: These are all good things, good wealth, solid wealth, reliable wealth. So if you want to be wealthy, this is where you should look. As for status, genuine status doesn’t come from being put in a position of power outside. It comes from having power over your own mind, your own ability to say No to your … 
  19. True to the Teachings
     … When the Buddha talked about the fact that it’s possible to put an end to that, Añña-Kondañña followed the path of practice, and in his particular case, he had already developed strong powers of concentration, so he worked mainly on discernment, seeing how his cravings were the causes suffering and how he could put a stop to those cravings. So there are … 
  20. The Pursuit of Happiness & Goodness
     … This, too, develops your discernment, develops your alertness, develops your ardency. To begin just getting the mind into concentration, pursuing this particular type of pleasure, requires certain qualities of character. And these qualities are going to serve you in good stead as you go to higher and higher levels, because the pleasure gets more refined, goes deeper, gets more alluring, and there is a … 
  21. Mindful All the Way
     … Ideally, of course, if you can develop the qualities of mindfulness, alertness, and discernment, you can decide you don’t want to come back at all. But failing that, come back to a place where you keep on practicing. The best way to create the opportunities to do that, of course, is just to keep on practicing as you go through life. So as … 
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