Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Appreciating MeritThere’s that chant we have at the end of every chanting session: “Through the power of all the Buddhas, all the Dhamma, all the Sangha, may you forever be well.” What is that power? Where does it come from? The Buddha gained his power from his generosity, his virtue, and his meditation, developing concentration, developing discernment all the way to nibbana. As did …
- Stay Centered… Real discernment sees connections, both the causes and the effects, and the only way you’re going to see those connections is if you watch continually. And this is the spot to watch.
- Taking Stock… You’ve got the potential for virtue, concentration, discernment. It’s simply a question of learning to develop these potentials. Of course, you’ll find, as you look in your mind, there are a lot of other potentials as well, a lot of less skillful potentials. You’ve probably had some practice in developing those, too. But it’s important that you realize you …
- Part III : Daily Life… So as you feed yourself with a sense of well-being inside that comes both from the inner sense of physical well-being that you can maintain with the breath, and the mental well-being that comes as your mindfulness, alertness, concentration, and discernment get stronger, your food-source gets more secure. You find yourself taking less and less from the world, and having …
- The Importance of Being Focused… This means that the primary ability you’re going to need will be this ability to stay focused, to be mindful, to be alert, so that you can use your discernment to deal with the situation as skillfully as possible. So as you’re sitting here, keep reminding yourself of the importance of being focused, maintaining a focus, and of whatever skills you can …
- The Good We Already Have… a sense of “knowing” that has no discernable limits. It’s all there. What makes the difference is simply your ability to stay tuned in the right way that will nourish these useful qualities. In other words, they’re always there, but the question of being able to tune in to them when you need them – that’s what you’ve got to work …
- A Good Mood to Meditate… Remind yourself also that you’re following a good path, the path of the Buddha’s teachings—virtue, concentration, discernment—which harms no one. It helps foster good qualities in the mind. It’s a path that was found by people without defilements and taught by people without defilements who, when they taught it, had no ulterior motives are all. They had found what …
- Training Heart & Mind… Concentration, the discernment, mindfulness, a sense of well-being: All of these things should come together. But fortunately, you don’t have to think about all of them all the time. You just think about the breath and pose those questions in the mind: “What kind of breathing would feel good right now? When it does feel good, how can I maintain that sense …
- Issues of Control… So when the question comes up about what to identify with, ask yourself, “What, when I identify it, with, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?”—basically, the same question that underlines all aspects of discernment. You’re simply taking what you do and replacing it with what you identify with. You’re still dealing in actions, as long as you can …
- The Mind's Immune System… Ultimately, when discernment finally breaks through to the ultimate level, you can go wherever you want. No germs can touch you because your immune system is totally in control. But until that point, you have to be careful, working both on the outer and on the inner level. When you work on the two of them together, that’s when you get the best …
- Helping Yourself by Helping Others… This way, the meditation becomes an activity that you really look forward to, and you do develop the kind of sensitivity that’s going to be an important part of your discernment into suffering and its causes. So the outside helps the in; the inside helps the out. Sometimes Theravada is criticized for being focused solely on getting your mind in shape and not …
- Identifying Weeds… We’re trying to develop good qualities in the mind—like mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment—yet there are qualities that stand in the way. You’ve probably heard of what they’re called: the hindrances. These are the things that stand in the way of our concentration. You can compare them to weeds of different sorts. Sensual desire is like a vine. There’s …
- Free for the Time Being… The things you’re going to need for the future for sure are mindfulness, alertness, and discernment. The future is extremely uncertain. You don’t know how much longer you’ve got in this lifetime, or where you’re going to go after this one, or what things are going to happen in the meantime. But you do know that if anything difficult comes …
- Overcoming Obstacles… So there is that possibility, but to get there requires training—heightening your virtue, heightening your concentration, heightening your discernment. So try to be very clear on who your internal friends are, who you want to be spending time with inside. Because it really does make a difference. Just because a feeling comes into the mind doesn’t mean that it has to be …
- Cleanliness is Next to Mindfulness… the desire to do it skillfully; the persistence that sticks with it till you’ve mastered it; intentness, paying a lot of attention to what you’re doing; and analysis, using your powers of discernment to see what’s not yet right, trying to figure out how to get around problems, how to solve them. This fourth factor also involves ingenuity — all the active …
- The Lightness of the Concentrated Mind… This is why the Buddha says discernment deals with penetrative insight into arising and passing away: seeing things as they come just as events, seeing them go away as events, and realizing that some events will be useful for the practice. So for the time being, let those events have some meaning. But as for everything else, allow it to be meaningless. As you …
- Using the Committee of the Mind… That’s when you gain the discernment that allows you to be free. Otherwise, you’re just coasting along, plugging in, and getting a buzz, and that’s it—no understanding, because you’re not making any of the choices. The voices in the mind can continue chattering along as they did in the past. It’s when you learn how to argue with …
- True Honesty… Rather than simply sitting where we are, we see how much better we can get in terms of developing mindfulness, developing concentration, developing discernment, how we can skillfully work at that process of understanding what it means to act. Reflect back on whatever skills you’ve learned in the past and what attitudes you needed in order to be really good at the skill …
- Equanimity Isn’t Apathy… You’ve got to go through the process because mastering the process is what develops your discernment. The mind can find all kinds of ways of avoiding the effort in the practice. You might decide, “Well, I’m just not up to this. I’m not good enough for this. I’m not cut out for this.” Learn to recognize that kind of thinking …
- The Skill of Stillness… And there is an element of discernment that you develop in settling the mind this way. You begin to see different mental events, different mental actions, that you didn’t see before. But for the time being, you don’t focus on them—you focus on the stillness because you’re going to need that on the path. Think of Ajaan Mun teaching Ajaan …
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