Search results for: "Discernment"
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- The Limits of Control… This is not only to give the mind a pleasant dwelling place, but also to develop more mindfulness and more discernment. It’s easier to be mindful when your sense of the breath in the body feels really good. It’s easier to stay with it for long periods of time. So you want to take advantage of that. It’s easier to see …
- Delight in Striving… You develop your powers of concentration and discernment so that you can be a more reliable observer and see things clearly. These are all good things to be doing. You look at the things that other people are doing in the world right now to make themselves happy, and they can make you despair. So take joy in the fact that we have this …
- The Primacy of the Mind (2)… In the first tetrad of the instructions for breath meditation, the Buddha has you start out by discerning short breathing and long breathing. That should alert you to the fact that the way you breathe will have an impact on how you experience the body. Of course, short and long can be extended to include deep, shallow, heavy, light, fast, slow. Get a sense …
- The Heart to Keep Going… The soldier has the weapon of discernment, and is fed by concentration. But what keeps the soldier going is that firm determination—a firm desire not to be fooled by greed, aversion, or delusion ever again. That’s your motivation. That’s you right now. And the more you can make that “you” identify with all the thoughts that cluster around that identity, the …
- Knowing & Acting… This is how discernment arises from the practice of jhāna. You’re paying very close attention to what you’re doing, you begin to see slight movements in the mind, slight movements in the body, that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. Without this point of comparison, things could move and you’d hardly know whether they were moving or not, how fast, in …
- The Wisdom of Incongruity… That’s a lot of what the process of discernment is all about: seeing incongruities, where things don’t quite come together, and then using those incongruities for the sake of freedom.
- In the Context of the Deathless… You look at the things the Buddha asks you to do in terms of virtue, concentration, discernment: They’re all honorable qualities. They’re all things you can be proud to do. Good qualities of the mind. Qualities of the mind that you respect within yourself. The Buddha’s asking you to develop them even further. So there’s a joy in being on …
- Overcoming Complacency… Then apply the qualities that come with concentration—mindfulness, alertness, discernment—to see even more subtle levels where you might still be complacent, where you’re still missing cause and effect. Keeping looking and experimenting until you reach the point where you can finally take it all apart. That’s when you’re free. But until you reach that point, constant vigilance is required …
- Attahi Attano Natho… You work at it and you find yourself getting more and more perceptive, more and more sensitive, more and more discerning as the practice progresses, as you keep committing yourself to the practice and reflecting on what you’re doing, and then taking what you’ve noticed and plowing that back into your next decision for what to do. So you do look out …
- The Buddha Respects Your Potential… In fact, it aids the mind in developing more and more discernment, more and more insight into what’s going on inside itself, to see the even subtler ways in which it’s causing trouble for itself. And when you cause trouble for yourself, you’re going to cause trouble for people outside. So, have some respect for the state of concentration. Have some …
- When You Don’t Like Your Selves… Develop your discernment as to how to master those strategies, so that your sense of self comes out and does the things that would really be helpful. When you can put it away, you can replace it with another one and another one as needed, until you finally get to the point where you’ve attained the highest happiness and there’s no need …
- The End of the World… But as he said, if you have discernment, then even if the only other thing you have is a machete, then you can set yourself up in life. In other words, you’ve got the skills, you’ve got the knowledge, the inquisitiveness, a sense of generosity, all these other treasures that you’ve developed: Those will see you through. Look at the forest …
- Make the Most of Right Now… Only when you’ve developed the discernment that can let go of these things will you not have to come back again and again to further becoming. It’s all fueled by our craving. There’s the same sentiment that Ratthapala had when he first listened to the Dhamma. He realized, as he said, The world is swept away; it has no shelter; you …
- Why Now… As the mind settles in, it can see itself a lot more clearly and become a lot more discerning about where it’s causing itself unnecessary suffering. And whatever the activity is that’s causing that suffering, it’s in a better position to let it go. So this is some of the work we do right now. We put the mind in good …
- Renunciation… You have to develop a lot of discernment as well. But, having this alternative pleasure makes it a lot easier to step back and see, well, that fascination with sensuality is really something you’d rather give up. The Buddha himself said that it was hard for him to give up sensuality, but when he realized that there was an important level of well …
- Ingenuity… The things you’ve read, the things you’ve heard, provide one level of discernment, but then as you try to develop these things in the mind, that takes things to a whole new level. Sometimes what seems very simple as it’s written down becomes a lot more complex when you actually try to apply it. Especially, as you try to apply different …
- Visakha Puja – Shaking the Earth… If they ask you, ‘What does your teacher teach?’ how would you answer them?” The monks took advantage of the fact that there was Sariputta who, among the Buddha’s students, was known to have the most discernment, so they asked him what he would say. He told them, “Tell them that your teacher teaches the ending of passion.” Then he said, because they …
- Take the One Seat… The mind is active, and your discernment has to be active as well, in order to outsmart all your active old habits.
- Values of the Noble Ones… generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity. Those are all good things to develop. You simply have to figure out which ones are appropriate right here and now. If the list of ten is too long, just think, “How about goodwill?” Goodwill is not just a pink-cotton-candy attitude you spread out with cloud machines. It’s basically thinking, “What …
- Meaning & Becoming… It includes generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity. When you develop these qualities, they take you out. So, if you’re looking for meaning and significance., it doesn’t have anything to do with the relationships you develop, although if you want to find what the Buddha calls an admirable friend, someone to helps you develop these qualities, that’s …
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