Search results for: "Discernment"

  1. Page 72
  2. A Message for the Universe
     … She could settle down, get her mind quiet really quickly, very firmly, but it was concentration without discernment. She actually needed somebody there to remind her to come out, her mind was so blank when it got into concentration, so unthinking. She once complained to Ajaan Fuang, saying, “I don’t see how my meditation is helping me in my daily life. Sometimes my … 
  3. The Mind’s Ostinato
     … You develop the habits of right action, right speech, right livelihood, the practice of jhana, the practice of discernment. You commit yourself to these things, and then you watch your actions. This is how the Dhamma is known. I’ve told you the story of the scholar who complained one time that he couldn’t understand what happened to the Buddha on the night … 
  4. Lifting the Mind
     … You can watch the concentration and ask yourself, “Is there anything in this state of concentration that still could be more refined? Is there any stress here? Any sense of being burdened? What are you doing that’s causing that sense of being burdened to come and go?” It’s in the coming and going that you actually notice it or discern it. If … 
  5. Brahmaviharas at the Breath
     … Heedfulness is what helps you develop the skillful ones—the realization that your choices are important, that life is short, our time here to meditate is short, our time with one another is short, and so you want to be as careful, as vigilant, and as discerning as possible in how you learn to get the most out of our short time here.
  6. Four Roles to Play
     … You have to use your discernment to figure out what’s skillful and what’s not skillful, and how to encourage what’s skillful and discourage what’s not. So concentration always requires all four. The difference among the different types of concentration is mainly a matter of emphasis. It’s important, though, that you remember you’re here to understand how things work … 
  7. Doubting the Buddha
     … So instead of getting involved with the agendas of a particular thought world, you can just see it as an instance of stress, and develop your powers of concentration, mindfulness, and discernment as ways of putting an end to that stress. It can be disorienting, because we put so much meaning and importance into our thoughts. But when you can learn to pull yourself … 
  8. You Can’t Eat the Buddha
     … conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. These are qualities we all have to some extent, but we’ve got to learn how to strengthen them, and they in turn make the mind stronger. So our food here isn’t bread and wine. Our food is concentration. The Buddha compared the different levels of concentration to different types of food. The first jhana, he said … 
  9. Acceptance Isn’t the Issue
     … how to have conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, how to be generous, how to be virtuous, how to develop your discernment. These are things we can learn from one another. The people who embody these qualities are the people we should search out; we should learn from them and emulate them. It’s not the case that we accept people or don’t … 
  10. Something Good to Cling to
     … We hold on to the concentration, we hold on to the practice of generosity, virtue, we hold on to our discernment, because these things enable us to strengthen the mind and give us a good place to stay as other things in the world come and go, so that as the other things that we tend to hold on to and we tend to … 
  11. How We Cling
    You may remember that passage where the Buddha says that wisdom or discernment begins with two questions: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” The wisdom lies in seeing that happiness and suffering come from your actions. Your actions are important because they … 
  12. Defilements
     … This is why the Buddha said that to gain discernment, we have to see all these things as separate. Whatever comes up in the mind, good, bad or indifferent, you have to see it as something separate from your awareness. You can actually look at it. Where is it going? Where does it come from? Is it taking you someplace you really want to … 
  13. Light Your Way
     … You have to be virtuous, generous, develop your discernment, so that you can understand how the mind is creating suffering for itself. And then when you get there, you have to be extra specially careful, not to get complacent. If you have this right attitude, it’s like driving in a car. You’re driving at night, but you’ve got headlights. As long … 
  14. The Anatomy of the Present
     … It’s developed in virtue and developed in discernment. And it’s trained so as to not be overcome easily by either pleasure or pain. When your mind has these qualities, it’s like the large river, so that whatever past karma you’ve done in the past doesn’t really pain you that much. This gives you a sense of how things are … 
  15. Expanded Possibilities
     … Virtue, concentration, discernment: These are all good things. The qualities of mind that can be developed as you practice are all good things. Prior to meeting Ajaan Fuang, I’d always wondered if someone who attained nibbana would be dead or defeated—in other words, seeing that there was nothing worth desiring in the world, so you just give up on desire. But with … 
  16. Three Parts of Right View
     … As we look at the process of fabrication in the breathing, and the perceptions that go around the breath, that’s the beginning of discernment. We’re showing compassion for ourselves and for others. We’re looking for true happiness, and we’re doing it in a way that doesn’t harm anyone. As you’re sitting here, you’re not oppressing anybody at … 
  17. Choices
     … choosing to be generous; choosing to be virtuous; choosing to develop your mindfulness, your concentration, your discernment; judging what gives rise to long-term good results and what doesn’t; and learning the skills to make the mind want to stay with what gives long-term good results and not identify with the other things. We know that it’s not good to be … 
  18. Cornered
     … But here, again, the Buddha has you corner yourself with discernment. He wants you to think about the past, think about the future—that this is as good as it could possibly get anywhere. Sometimes you think, “Well, right now, this is as good as I can get for right now, but I’ll save some energy for anticipating something better in the future … 
  19. Strength of Body, Strength of Mind
     … In Ajaan Mun’s final sermon, he talked about how every meditator is a warrior who requires discernment, mindfulness, and concentration as his or her support. But who in you is the warrior? The warrior is the determination not to come back and be the laughingstock of the defilements. Those are Ajaan Mun’s words. To be determined not to come back and suffer … 
  20. Wise about Pain
     … That sensitivity is the wisdom, the discernment, that we’re aiming at. It’s wisdom in action—that, and the sensitivity that allows you to deal with situations as they come up without having to refer back to books all the time. When you meditate, a lot of things coming up are not in the books. You need to have the attitude that “I … 
  21. Raise Your Standards
     … a mind that’s very clear, very still, so it can be very discerning, seeing clearly where the actions are. These movements of attention, now focusing here, now focusing there: Ask yourself, what caused you to change focus? When you frame things to yourself, what are the terms you use to frame them? You encounter this immediately when you’re working with the breath … 
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