Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Ready to Evacuate… This is why discernment on its own is not enough. The four qualities that go with discernment, that support it, are conviction, persistence, mindfulness, and concentration. Conviction here is the conviction that your actions really do matter and that you do have the ability to take this principle of action, which explains why we suffer, and you can learn how to master it so …
- The Economy of Goodness… Finally, the chariot of discernment that discerns the noble paths, but even that discernment is not the fruit. The fruit is when you get out of the last chariot. You’ve arrived. You don’t carry the chariots around with you. Or think of the Buddha’s image of a raft. You take the twigs and branches on this side of the river. You …
- Seven Facets of Discernment… And you see why he looked for these qualities when you look at the way he defines discernment. There’s a sutta where he talks about seven facets of discernment. And they’re not just a matter of memorizing the Dhamma or being able to explain it. There’s a lot more to being a discerning person, although the first quality the Buddha does …
- The Missing Truth… This is why the Buddha said that discernment comes in three levels. The first two are the discernment that comes from listening and the discernment that comes from thinking things through. We’ve listened to a lot of Dhamma, we’ve thought a lot about the Dhamma. What remains is the third level, the discernment that comes from developing. We may have started developing …
- Fire… Then there’s your desire to develop your discernment so that you can figure out exactly what is “just right” effort: That exercises your wisdom and discernment as well. So we’re working on concentration and discernment at the same time, tranquility and insight at the same time, based on desire. Then, as you have a sense of these qualities working together rather than …
- The Long-Distance Meditator… Discernment here covers all the other qualities of a good determination as well, because you need to be discerning in how to be true to your determination, how to stick with it. You need to be discerning in what you’re going to have to give up. As the mind wants to wander around, thinking about this, thinking about that, ask yourself: How many …
- Obsessive Thinking… This is concentration fostered by discernment. So, as you’re training yourself, don’t wait until your virtue is perfect before you do concentration, and don’t wait until your concentration is perfect before you work on discernment. Work on all three. Using your discernment here requires some thought. Those techniques where they say, “Just note, note, note, and you’re going to get …
- The Gift of Spiritual Materialism… Finally, there’s discernment, the treasure that protects all the others. What this means is this: As the result of the good kamma of generosity, the good kamma of virtue, you’ll be reborn in really nice places and have a really good situation in life. But if you don’t have discernment, you can abuse that goodness. Discernment is what helps you see …
- The Taste Is Release… When the mind is nurtured by discernment, it gains release from what are call the effluents, qualities that flow out of the mind, bubble up in the mind, and create a flood that can often sweep us away: sensuality, becoming, ignorance. Those are the four noble dhammas: virtue, concentration, discernment, release. In other words, the instructions remind us that the whole point of this …
- Vows… All of this comes back to discernment, that first quality. It keeps popping up again and again. To be truthful requires some discernment: How are you going to stick to your vow? Say that you make a vow you’re not going to lie at all, not even little white lies. Then a friend comes and asks you a question about something you’d …
- Basic Wisdom… That’s when your discernment has to focus on working on your motivation and on figuring out what’s going to work in your case—because this is something that varies from person to person: the reasons that will induce you to want to do the skillful thing. This is where discernment comes together with right effort. Sometimes, to get you motivated, the Buddha …
- How to Look, How to Listen… There’s the discernment that comes from listening or from reading, and there’s the discernment that comes from thinking things through—and you need both. But the discernment that’s really going to make a difference is the discernment that comes from developing. That means you try to develop mindfulness, you try to develop alertness, ardency, concentration, discernment. And, of course, in developing …
- Accepting the Way Things Function… It’s simply a matter of learning how to bring your concentration and your discernment together, so that your discernment makes your concentration easier to attain, because you understand what’s going on in the mind, so that when there are obstacles you know your way around the obstacles. At the same time, your concentration makes your discernment more subtle, because the more still …
- The Bright Tunnel“Those who don’t discern suffering.” It sounds strange. We all know that there’s suffering in life. The problem is that we don’t really look at it. We try to run away, we try to cover it up—anything not to have to deal with it. As a result, it keeps hounding us. No matter where we go, there it is, right …
- The Power of Choice… It’s an exercise in discernment, and you’re using your discernment to get the mind to settle down. This is the ideal way of meditating. If your concentration contains an element of discernment, it’s a lot easier to use the concentration as an object of discernment, to understand what’s going on in the mind. You can pull out a little bit …
- Noble Treasures… conviction, virtue, a sense of shame, a sense of compunction, learning, generosity, and discernment. When he got to the end of the talk, Ajaan Lee said that of the seven, the most important one is your discernment. If you have discernment, he said, all you need is a single machete and you can set yourself up in life. In other words, you may not …
- The Ten Priorities… Under the determination of discernment, you have the paramis of discernment and goodwill. Goodwill is an essential part of the Buddha’s take of discernment. We can use our discernment for all kinds of things, but it’s the wise person who realizes that discernment is best used in trying to figure out why we’re suffering and how we can give rise to …
- Intelligent about Change… To deal with the first type of change, you have to develop discernment. To deal with the second type, you have to develop mindfulness. You hear again and again the ajaans in Thailand talking about how the essential factors of the path are mindfulness and discernment. The two words—sati and pañña—go together in Thai. In fact, in Thai when you put the …
- Think… No discernment gets developed there. Remember, the path requires not only right concentration but also discernment, right view, which means you have to learn how to talk to yourself in new ways, develop new types of perceptions. First you want to see what perceptions you have around the pain. How do you talk to yourself about it? If you find yourself talking about how …
- Producing Experience… The same principle holds true as we try to develop discernment. We’re often told that discernment consists of seeing things as inconstant; and because they’re inconstant, they’re stressful; and because they’re stressful, they’re not-self. Now, most of us in the West are used to consuming our experiences. We don’t buy a Ford Explorer. We buy the Ford …
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