Search results for: "Discernment"

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  2. Equanimity & More
     … But if you combine equanimity with discernment, you realize there are a lot of things you can’t control, but there are some things you can. Focus on those. You’ve got those three kinds of fabrication. You got the breath coming in and going out. You can change the breathing so that it’s comfortable. That’s bodily fabrication. As for verbal fabrication … 
  3. Unlimited Mind, Limited Resources
     … It requires some discernment to see when goodwill is appropriate, and when equanimity is called for. Now, these attitudes don’t come naturally. Some people say that goodwill and compassion are part of our innate nature, but you could also say that ill will is part of our innate nature, too. It’s just as easy to get angry as it is to love … 
  4. Dangers Outside & In
     … Then you develop the discernment that puts you in a position where ultimately you don’t need to feed at all. That’s when you’re totally safe: safe both in the sense that you’re beyond the reach of dangers outside, and you don’t present any inside dangers yourself. The dangers outside are things the Buddha says you’ve got to accept … 
  5. In the Driver’s Seat
     … He said the actions of the past give the same kind of result, which is something very, very different, because if you have a change of heart—which includes developing unlimited thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity; training the mind so it’s not easily overcome by pleasure, not easily overcome by pain; training it in virtue and discernment—then the results … 
  6. Respect Your Center
     … Your concentration practice is your food; discernment, your weapon; mindfulness and all the other aspects of the practice, the other things you need as a soldier. The question is: Who’s the soldier? It’s your determination not to come back as the laughingstock of the defilements to suffer ever again. You’ve got to have that determination that this is something really important … 
  7. A Happy Tradition
     … You develop your virtue; you develop your discernment. So, there are skills that can enable you not to suffer, no matter what your past karma is. He’s giving you power. For a lot of us, that takes a lot of getting used to. Either the culture of our families or the culture of the religion we were raised in told us to have … 
  8. Taking the Long View
     … When the Buddha talks about the treasures that we can develop in the mind— things like conviction, virtue, shame, compunction, learning, generosity, and discernment—we can also develop their opposites. So the question is, which side do you want to take with you—the skillful side or the unskillful side? Because these are the things that you can take with you. The things of … 
  9. Respect for Tranquility & Insight
     … Then tune all the rest of the strings in your lute to that—your conviction, your mindfulness, your concentration, your discernment. With conviction, that means really being convinced that even tiny steps are worthwhile. You’re not going to stay with the tiny steps. As you make the tiny steps and you get really perceptive about what you’re doing, you’re going to … 
  10. A Refuge in Mindfulness
     … mindfulness—keeping in mind all the things you need to remember to do this properly; alertness—watching what you’re actually doing; and then ardency—which is the discernment factor there—which wants to do it well, realizing that, of all the skills you could develop, this is the most important one, so you want to give it as much time as you can … 
  11. The Buddha’s Program
     … So what are the Buddha’s feeding instructions? He has you feed on generosity; feed on virtue; feed on meditation; thoughts of goodwill; and then the meditation of getting the mind to settle down with the breath, to gain discernment. All these instructions are the assumptions that you use to feed well—and feed in a way that takes you to a point where … 
  12. The Search for Happiness
     … As the Buddha said, to do it right, you have to develop wisdom and discernment, along with compassion and purity. After all, wisdom begins with the question: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” There are two value judgments right there. One is that the search for happiness is a good thing. The other is that long … 
  13. Don’t Limit Yourself
     … That’s how you train your discernment. It may start out with trial and error, trial and error. But after a while, by being willing to learn from your errors, it turns into trial and success. As you get more and more sensitive to what you’re doing, to what your intentions are, and as you work on trying to be as skillful as … 
  14. The Power of the Will
     … Your weapon is your discernment. Concentration and mindfulness: These are your stores of food. The question is: Who is the soldier? The soldier is the determination not to come back and be the laughingstock of the defilements ever again. That’s a very strong statement of the will. But things don’t stop simply with the will. The Buddha gives directions, because we’ve … 
  15. To Be an Adult
     … We have to use our opportunity to meditate, to practice the Dhamma in all ways—in terms of generosity, virtue, concentration, and discernment—as protection, both from dangers within ourselves and from dangers outside. As the Buddha says, the real dangers outside are not so much what people can do to us, they’re what other people can get us to do. They can … 
  16. Unchanged by Loss
     … When things that we’ve been dependent on, things that we’re attached to, suddenly stop, when conditions change, how much are we going to change? Do we have the stability inside that even when things start falling apart—outside or in—our virtue doesn’t fall apart, our concentration, discernment—the things that are really important—stay solid? In the beginning, we have … 
  17. Meaning in a Meaningless Universe
     … There’s generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. These are the qualities that the tradition has said lead to awakening. It’s not a list you’ll find in anything attributed to the Buddha directly. It comes from the Jataka tales, which were later compilations. But they’re all qualities that the Buddha himself, at one point or another … 
  18. Two Hands Washing
     … Has the stress actually gotten less? Has your concentration gotten stronger? Has your mindfulness gotten stronger? Is your discernment sharper? If so, you’re headed in the right direction. You’re getting more and more skillful in your thinking. That’s something a lot of people don’t like to hear. We like to think, “I’m pretty good at thinking things through, all … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
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