Search results for: "Discernment"
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- Encouragement… your mindfulness, your alertness, your discernment. When illness comes, when accidents come, when loss and suffering come, when death comes: The qualities of mind you build through the meditaiton are the only things you’ll be able to depend on to see you through. It’s at times like that you’ll be really grateful to yourself that you did put in this time …
- Training Your Moods… Your discernment has a chance to make the decisions. It also has a chance to understand the things that would pull you away. This should be one of the most fascinating things in the world—how the mind can lie to itself. Now you can start seeing into that, understanding that, learning how to not be fooled by its lies. So try to cultivate …
- The Psychology of Self… The Buddha defines that as part of the definition of discernment as well. You’re wise to the extent that you want to know what to do or say or think that would lead to long-term happiness. This principle is so basic that many of these principles of the healthy self are the things that the Buddha taught to his son, Rāhula, when …
- Doing, Maintaining, Using… There is a use for concentration, there is a use for mindfulness, there is a use for discernment. These things can help overcome all the issues of suffering that we create for ourselves in life. But was need all three stages. Simply being able to do it when you’re on retreat is not enough. You have to be able to maintain it in …
- Question Your Perceptions… I think it was Ajaan Chah who said that his own efforts at gaining discernment really got going when he started looking into this issue of perceptions and seeing how arbitrary they are and how much they depend on our desires. When Ajaan MahaBoowa said that he was able to really get a handle on body contemplation, again it was an issue of perception …
- Defiant Like the Buddha… It’s a path of virtue, a path of concentration, a path of discernment. These are all safe qualities. There’s not only safety in these qualities, but there’s also victory: the defiant attitude that the young prince had when he was thinking that there’s got to be a way out of here. He was actually able to carry it through. When …
- The Buddha’s Cost-Benefit Analysis… It’s the active side of discernment. Think of Ajaan Lee when he talks about the three qualities of mind that go into mindfulness practice. There’s mindfulness itself, the ability to keep something in mind. Then there’s alertness, knowing what you’re doing while you’re doing it. And finally, ardency, the desire to do this well. Of those three qualities, he …
- Perceptions for Training the Mind… Of the various methods, this is the one that involves the least in terms of discernment, the most in terms of willpower, but at least it can clear the air. After a while, you can pull out from that and use one of the other methods. Get back to the breath. So the Buddha’s providing a whole repertoire of perceptions, both to help …
- A Sense of Duty… the fourth noble truth, which boils down to virtue, concentration, and discernment. These are your duties. Now, no one’s imposing them on you, aside from the fact that suffering imposes them. If you really want to get beyond suffering, these are the things you have to do. It’s important that you have a strong sense that if something is a duty, you …
- Cut the Currents… As the Buddha said, you develop the faculties of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment—all the qualities you need to keep the mind strong and still, not flowing out anywhere. That’s what keeps you safe. So, this is our practice. We try to keep the mind with the breath. Any thought that has to do with anything else besides keeping the mind …
- Possessiveness… me from attaining, in terms of the good qualities of the mind?” Those good qualities are your genuine treasures. Those are yours: Conviction. Sense of shame and compunction. Virtue. Generosity. Learning. Discernment. These are genuine treasures and they’re genuinely yours. Nobody can take them away from you. So if you want to be wealthy, focus there because those treasures don’t lead to …
- Mindfulness, the Gatekeeper… You can have great fortress walls, which the Buddha says are like discernment. You can have a moat, a road encircling the fortress to protect it—that’s a sense of shame and compunction in terms of your behavior. You can have all of these good things in the fortress, but if there’s no food, everybody dies. You need the nourishment of right …
- Stay… As you go through life you’re going to need whatever powers of concentration, whatever powers of mindfulness and discernment you can muster at any one time. You can’t tell the problems of life, “Go away and come back when I’m ready for you.” Some of them demand to be resolved right then, right there, and so you use what you’ve …
- Inner Discontent… But then again, this is how you develop discernment, this is how you develop insight, realizing that there are distinctions you have to make and, through trial and error, finding out exactly where the lines are drawn.
- In the Elephant’s Footprint… That self can take you all the way through the levels of concentration and get you started on discernment, but then you come to a point where you realize that one of the actions you’re doing that’s causing stress and suffering is clinging to an idea of self. You create a sense of self. The Buddha calls it ahaṅkāra mamaṅkāra: “I-making …
- Strength of Conviction… That’s when the mind is really strong, and it goes beyond even the strength of conviction and the strength of persistence, of mindfulness and concentration and discernment. It finally arrives at a strength that’s totally independent, where it’s not just conviction. It’s knowledge that keeps you going, for you’ve confirmed it in yourself. You’ve developed that strength within …
- Reliable Action… So why do you have to identify with it? Why would you want to cling to it? And who is this ‘you’ who’s doing the clinging?” It’s right here that the Buddha’s wisdom or discernment teachings really show their worth. They help you to act in more and more skillful ways. You become more reliable. You can trust yourself more because …
- Right Effort… In other words, you choose the right tightness for your persistence, and then tune your conviction, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment to what you’re capable of right now.” If you find some days then you’re really capable of a lot, put in as much energy as you can. Other times when you find that you’re not up to it, either physically or …
- The Desire for Things to Be Different… A large part of discernment lies in seeing where you can make an effective change, where it’s worth your efforts, and where your efforts are wasted. Right now, you can work with your breath. Given that you’ve got this body sitting here and that you’ve got some skillful attitudes and some unskillful attitudes in the mind, you can work with those …
- Inconstancy… That’s how you use insight into inconstancy with wisdom and discernment, so the teaching fulfills its intended purpose.
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