Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Painful Thinking… The phrase, “Those who don’t discern suffering,” sounds kind of strange. Everybody has suffering; everybody knows they have suffering of one kind or another. But the problem is, do we really understand it? The Buddha’s challenge is that if you really understand it, you’re not going to suffer. It’s because we don’t understand our suffering, we don’t understand …
- Think Outside the Ruts… Basically, what discernment teaches us is that a lot of the things we think are worth doing are not worth doing at all. Our perceptions have been skewed one way or another. We have to learn to develop some dispassion for them, so that we can get out of them, because they tend to be like ruts in the mind. The Buddha uses the …
- Go, Do Jhana… And in trying to find that balance, you develop sensitivity to the mind — the basis for discernment. This is the whole purpose of jhana practice. It’s not a matter of showing off: “Well. I’ve got the third jhana; you’ve only got the second.” Or, “I jumped through all eight jhana hoops in eight days. How about you?” That’s not the …
- A Meritorious Heart… But the actual energy and attention, mindfulness and discernment that are needed to develop a skill: Those are things you have to bring to the practice. So there is work involved, but it’s good work. This is why people are happy to do it. In Thailand, they have the phrase, jai boon, which literally means someone with a meritorious heart, someone who enjoys …
- Abandoning Craving… mindfulness, alertness, ardency, concentration, discernment. These are all good things to desire. That kind of desire for change is actually part of the path. So look to see where the suffering is and why you would desire it. We don’t think we desire suffering, but that’s what the Buddha says, and that’s what’s so ironic about what he says: Precisely …
- The Source of Goodness… As you develop the qualities we’re working on—mindfulness, alertness, concentration, discernment, tranquility and insight—you find you become a steadier person. Your mind has a good grounding and a good home. You’re not so open to influences from outside, especially negative influences. In that way, you develop a greater solidity. And the solidity is in and of itself a gift to …
- Unskillful Voices… Ultimately that leads to the strength of discernment, when you begin to see through all of the motivations that would lead you to do unskillful things. You realize that you don’t have to identify with them at all, that they don’t need to have power over you. Those are the strengths you need on the path. As you develop them, you don …
- Action & the End of Action… This goes from outside actions to actions inside the mind—the movements of intention, attention, mindfulness, concentration, discernment. These things move. They’re activities. You want to see where they come from, in terms of what activities inspire them, and what kind of feelings they lead to, and whether they lead to something that’s reliable or to something that’s not. There’s …
- The Image of the Raft… It’s the raft of the noble eightfold path, which boils down to virtue, concentration, and discernment. All three of those are going to be required to take you all the way across. Those are the things you hold on to. And don’t be embarrassed that you’re holding on, because when you hold on to these things, it allows you to let …
- The Story-telling Mind… You weave new stories in the mind, stories in which you have a change of heart, new stories that come together right here, enabling you to stay right here with a sense of wellbeing, clarity, concentration, mindfulness, and discernment. Without anything tugging you back into the past, pulling you into the future, you’re able to just be right here, right now, aware right …
- Success Through Maturity… But these bases of success help not only with concentration, but also with the development of discernment, because they force you to be more sensitive to what’s possible. And they spur you on to want to keep succeeding on higher and higher levels. As the Buddha said, the total ending of suffering is possible. Listen to that: Total. Ending. It’s not simply …
- The Dignity of Restraint… Even more so when you develop the discernment that’s able to dig out the source of those impulses to see where they come from, to the point where the whole issue of temptation is no longer an issue because there’s nothing tempting. You look at the things that would pull the mind out of its stillness, out of its independence, and you …
- Victory… The soldier has his weapon, which is discernment, and his supply corps, which consists of all the other factors of the path, such as mindfulness and concentration. The soldier himself is the determination not to come back and be the laughingstock of the defilements ever again. So this is the battle we want to win. Greed comes up, you recognize it; you can work …
- Love for the Dhamma… If you can find that sense of wellbeing within, if you can stir up those resources of goodwill and discernment that you’re going to need in order to live in the forest, in spite of the fact that things seem to be weighing in on you from all directions, that’s where you really learn the strength of the Dhamma, the importance of …
- Dhamma in Vinaya… What other agendas do they have right now? This is where Ajaan MahaBoowa talks about using your discernment to foster concentration. Think about the drawbacks of that kind of thinking, or whatever the other agendas are, until you realize you don’t really want to go there. It’s not in your best interest. The Buddha describes this with a perception. He says to …
- Own Your Actions… This is why the ajaans in general warn against going to not-self too quickly or without any discernment. And Ajaan Suwat’s distinction is one of the important distinctions to make: What are you doing right now as opposed to what’s coming in at you? Because the suffering you’re feeling right now, whatever stress or strain or sense of burden or …
- Merit: Actively Happy… It’s the realization that certain things are within your control, and you can turn those things to a really good and noble kind of happiness, a happiness that prepares you for your concentration practice and for discernment practice. It’s nothing to be looked down on, the practice of merit. It’s a type of happiness that forms the foundation for everything else …
- Attachment to Precepts… When you reach the deathless, you realize that holding the precepts was very helpful, but you also needed to use your own discernment to get there, and the goal itself is something else entirely. That’s why the Buddha gave that riddle when the farmer offered his daughter to him. After the Buddha rejected the daughter, the farmer asked him, “What is this goal …
- Truths of the Will… What are the perfections? Generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, energy, tolerance or endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. Sometimes when conditions are difficult, you’ve got to work on the equanimity and the endurance. Other times when opportunities are good, you have to work more on the energy, not to let good opportunities pass you by. When you keep these qualities in mind, you find …
- Insight Is a Judgment Call… I’ve got to work on that.” This enables you to step back from your thoughts, both through concentration and through discernment. In every case, it’s a value judgment. Insight is always a judgment call, and the practice is designed to improve your values, improve your sense of judgment, so that you can finally judge where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering and …
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