Search results for: "Discernment"
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- All for the Sake of Freedom… And then all aspects of the path—virtue, concentration, discernment: Finally we let those go, too. This is the purpose of everything the Buddha taught. So we’re not here just to be mired in aging, illness, and death or what’s inconstant, stressful, not self; trying to embrace these things briefly and squeeze whatever little pleasure we can out of them before we …
- Established in Full… In fact, understanding what’s going on is what discernment is all about. And the first way you’re going to understand what’s going on is to try to get the mind really quiet, really still. As the Buddha says, you want your awareness to spread, to fill the whole body. You want a sense of ease and well-being, refreshment, to spread …
- Overconfidence & Underconfidence… In meditation, it comes down to looking how much energy you have, how much energy can you put in right now, so you adjust all the other factors of the practice in terms of your conviction, your mindfulness, your concentration, your discernment to be in tune with the amount of energy you have. For example, tuning your conviction: There are passage where the Buddha …
- Treasures from the East… Finally, there’s discernment. The Buddha defines this as “penetrating knowledge of arising and passing away.” “Penetrating” means that you see causes, you see results, you see the variety of results that a particular quality can give rise to, good and bad. You can also see how to avoid suffering around that particular quality. So, you’re not just watching things coming and going …
- The Kamma of Meditation… When you’ve trained yourself in virtue and concentration, you develop discernment to see that even the good things you’ve developed in the path as you’ve let go of everything else, you’ll eventually have to let go of those good things, too. There’s a time and place for using the perception of self. There’s a time and place for …
- Exploring Fabrication… That’s where you let go of everything, even the path, even the discernment that got you there. This is how we come to understand fabrication. This is what insight is all about—not just watching things arising and passing away, but realizing the extent to which the mind causes them to arise and to pass away. You’ve got to dig down into …
- Beyond Imagination… And the same with the thoughts that would give rise to discernment: The different ajaans talk about different ways that you can imagine taking the body apart and doing things with it: putting it here, putting the parts here, putting them there. Imagine a knife cutting through the different parts of the body you have right now. So there’s room for imagination on …
- Persistence… The author’s idea was that the first path is the one that uses more discernment and is wiser and easier. But I’ve never seen that path go anywhere. I’ve never seen the Buddha teach that path. He taught only one path, and in that path right mindfulness, right effort, and right concentration all have to go together. You remember to apply …
- Patience & Sensitivity… Because that’s what your discernment is going to be ultimately: your sensitivity. You’re not trying to impose the Buddha’s concepts on your experience. You’re trying to use his concepts as tools for opening up, becoming sensitive to areas you weren’t sensitive to before. It’s like people who learn how to be professional tasters. They have to learn a …
- Working from the Inside… As you learn how to do it with more and more skill, that’s when your wisdom and discernment start to show their results. This is why one of Ajaan Lee’s favorite types of imagery has to do with skills: the skills of weaving a basket, carpentry, sewing things, making tiles, taking silver and making objects out of the silver. It’s in …
- Four Bases of Success… He was very clear about the fact that we are trying to gain concentration, we are trying to gain discernment, we are trying to gain release. He would often use images of investment. You invest your time and energy in things that will give a good return. So success is a valid issue. We’re here because we do want to gain peace of …
- Resisting the Germs of Defilement… So it’s important to remember that the quality the Buddha calls analysis of qualities, which is the discernment factor in the factors for awakening, isn’t simply a matter of noting or recognizing. It’s more a figuring things out and knowing that these teachings are meant to be acted on, in terms of the things you bring into your mind right here …
- Tough Goodwill for a Tough World… Of course, you have to do that in skillful ways yourself, which is where goodwill involves a fair amount of discernment and equanimity. But think of goodwill as a strength. And it is a protection. When the Buddha talks about the rewards of goodwill, he talks about the protection that it gives from physical dangers, among other things. This theme is carried out in …
- Goodwill & Kamma… mindfulness, alertness, ardency, concentration, discernment. The simple choice to do this is good kamma, and as you maintain the choice, maintain that intention, that’s good kamma as well. The Buddha talks about two kinds of good kamma. One is the kamma that leads to a good course through samsara—or, because samsara is not a place, it would be a more correct to …
- Honesty… This is where insight comes; this is where discernment arises: not by memorizing what you’ve heard, but learning to develop your own sensitivity to causes and results, to your own actions, and the sense of ease or lack of ease that comes from your own actions. In other words, you learn to take responsibility for your own happiness. The Buddha’s teachings might …
- Compunction & Awe… It’s not just telling you, “Don’t do these things.” He teaches you the mental strengths you need—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—so that you’re strong enough to resist the temptation to do something unskillful, and you can feel more and more secure in yourself. The result of having confidence of this sort is that you behave in a moral way …
- Opportunities Everywhere… Then you can carry those qualities into your meditation, because an important aspect of the practice when you’re trying to develop concentration and discernment is seeing the little weeds in the mind and uprooting them along the way. They may not be the big issues you’ve read about in the books, but wherever there’s a little bit of defilement, you want …
- Ripples Go Far… Develop the members that are focused, the members that are discerning. These are the strengths in your mind. These are the committee members that you really want to encourage. These are the ones that do best when you’re not just watching TV shows in the mind, watching old movies in the mind. They’re the ones that are strengthened when you learn how …
- Right View as Tool… You try to use your discernment as a tool, just as you use all the other elements of the path as tools, and then you put it aside. And as with any tool, you want to learn to use it well. Part of that means when you’re dealing with people who disagree with right view, you don’t use the tool on them …
- Believe in Your Actions… It requires that you be very careful and very alert and very discerning in how you judge your actions and their results. This is why motivating yourself to practice is a constant requirement. You have to keep reminding yourself of why you’re doing this. When you find your energy flagging, what can you do to get your energy back up? Whether you’re …
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