This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Discernment; Intro to Mindfulness Pt 2 (10) Faculty of Discernment. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Discernment; Dharmette: Intro to Mindfulness Pt2 (10) Faculty of Discernment - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on March 08, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Discernment

Hello and welcome. On this week of the Five Faculties¹ as the theme, we are now on Friday. The fifth faculty is wisdom. An alternative translation of paññā², often translated as wisdom, is discernment. It is our faculty, our capacity to be discerning in the moment—to have insight about what is useful and not useful to do, what is skillful, and what is wholesome.

This very basic distinction guides what we engage in and what we do with our lived life as we live it. It is invaluable that we always have a guide, a support, a reference point for how to go forward. That is maybe fundamental to every purpose we have. The activities in which we engage all fall back to a common denominator. When we are doing Buddhist practice, we see it with wisdom; we see it with discernment.

The simple gesture is that we know to do those things that bring happiness, bring well-being, or bring a feeling of ease, calm, or peace. And we avoid those things that do the opposite. So, when we sit and meditate, we start getting a clear sense that certain things we do are not really useful, not really beneficial for ourselves. To spend a lot of time thinking, planning, reviewing, or fantasizing—we see, "Oh, this is not so useful." There is a discernment, a clear knowing, a clear insight. It is obvious: "Oh, there are better things to do than be caught up in thoughts. We can be mindful. We can be present for our lived experience. Really be here with this."

Part of the reason to be here is that this is where the evidence exists for becoming discerning, for becoming wise. We see in our own experience that when we have the hindrances operating, it doesn't serve us. When there is greed or strong desire for something; when there is ill will; when we are stuck in or caught up in fear or torpor; when there is resistance; when there is restlessness and remorse that we are just spinning out on; and when we don't know what to do, we are uncertain, we have doubts, we are wavering—these are not so healthy for us.

But to have confidence in a path of practice where we show up for our lives in a clear way, that we engage with a certain kind of heroic effort—like, "Yes, being present here, this is invaluable"—this is valuable. To accompany ourselves with mindfulness, be present for our experience—yes. To immerse ourselves in the experience, to really be composed and steady here in our experience—yes. Stay here, be here. These are the valuable things to do.

We can feel how the unwholesome stuff creates stress and strain. In fact, the core discernment is between stress and the absence of stress—between "ouch" and "ah."

So when we sit today, let us sit with mindful discernment or discerning mindfulness, where we can discern, "Oh, this way of being is stressful. There must be another way." At least we can become mindful of it in a simple, straightforward, maybe calm way. Peaceful mindfulness—that is how we can engage.

Assuming a meditation posture and gently closing the eyes, take time to settle into your body. Begin by reorienting yourselves to your embodied experience. Whatever your mind is caught up in, gently tell your mind, "This is not the time. There is something more important to do now: to be present in lived experience through the body."

As you exhale, relax your body. With the mind's discernment, we can discern and see that holding tension is not so beneficial. That relaxing the tension, softening around the tension—that is wholesome. That is a good thing to do.

And then, relaxing the thinking mind. Having mental tension is also not so beneficial. What is beneficial is to soften and relax that tension, letting the thinking mind become calmer and slower. Maybe reassure your thinking mind that here and now, sitting in meditation is safe. This is a time for renewal and deeper connection to support you to live your life in a wiser way later. It is okay to let go of your concerns for these minutes. Maybe you will be in a better place to consider them after your meditation. Softening, let go of your thinking mind.

In the discernments of the Buddha, what he has discovered is that mindfulness is always helpful—the mindfulness that accompanies our lived experience. One of the really wholesome ways of doing that is to accompany your breathing. Accompany it with a peaceful presence, peaceful attention.

Meditate with the discernment of what is the most valuable thing to do right now in meditation. Is it to allow the mind to be hijacked by your thoughts? Or is it to wake up, to be here, so that this invaluable capacity you have—to accompany yourself, be present for your life—is applied to the lived experience in meditation of breathing, of the body being?

Discerning to let go of what is stressful, that you can let go of, and engage in what is beneficial—accompanying yourself with discernment, here and now.

[Silence]

To gently, quietly, maybe peacefully be discerning about this moment. As you go into the next moment, how will you engage with the next moment? How will you show up for it so that it feels wholesome, beneficial, without stress or strain? Not just being present for what is in this moment, but being discerning of how you are going to be now, so you can receive the next moment.

[Silence]

And then, coming to the end of the sitting with some discernment, some care and wisdom to bring forth something in the family of good will, kindness, basic friendliness.

For yourself: will you let yourself know that you are here to accompany yourself with good will, with friendliness and care?

And to extend that good will, care, and friendliness out into the world. Yes, to this world, this difficult world that we live in. I have the discernment to know how valuable it is to show up with good will, not with ill will, not with distraction, not with a mind hijacked by regrets and anxieties. To show up for this world as a friend of the world.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

May the way that I show up for this world contribute to that possibility, even if it is only for the next person I meet.

May all beings be happy.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Intro to Mindfulness Pt2 (10) Faculty of Discernment

So, hello everyone. Welcome to this fifth talk on the Five Faculties. These five kind of inner powers that we have. Whereas in the ancient world they called them aspects of Indra—the great god, so divine qualities inside—in colloquial English we might say these days that they are superpowers that we have. They are so important, these five indriyas³, these five faculties or capacities.

They all have to do with action. Not about just understanding and seeing, except that understanding and seeing is a kind of action; it is an engagement. This idea of choiceful engaging, continuously engaging with our life, is not something we often hear in meditation circles, where a lot of it is about relaxing, settling back, being receptive, not asserting oneself. Those are fantastic ways to engage—they are a kind of engagement. There is something we do with choice; we are activating something to be receptive, we are activating letting go.

Here, in the Five Faculties, we are emphasizing the activation of something which is nourishing, helpful, sustaining, and freeing for us. So, to activate confidence in what we are doing. Not to do things out of habit, not to do things just because we should, not to do things because we are forced to. But when you come to meditation, to choose to engage in a conscious, kind of deliberate way: "Yes, I'm engaging in this. I'm going to be here for this." But not in a way that is stressful, not in a way that stirs things up. It does the opposite: it helps us to embody and inhabit what we are doing so that something settles and relaxes.

Like someone who is engaged in doing something like yoga, Tai Chi, or Qigong. It takes effort; we have to put ourselves into it. But in the movements of these practices, something begins to quiet, settle, and let go, and we are more and more embodied in here. But there is a choice to engage, to activate, and to enter into the activation so that something harmonizes.

So the confidence in practice is that which gets us going and chooses, "Yes, big yes, let's do it." Sometimes it takes heroic effort. It takes courage to show up here and now. Sometimes it is courage because it goes against the prevailing winds of society—that there are more emails to answer, there are more Netflix movies to watch, there is more this and that and things to do and get busy. Things are, you know, in dire straits; we are alarmed by how things are, so we have to kind of get anxious and busy. To be courageous means we don't have to do that. In fact, we show up better for the world and care for the world better if we show up calmly, relaxedly, openly, prepared, and smart to be able to tune into what is happening. So to have the courage to do this.

Then the fifth faculty—or usually the third, but mentioned here—is mindfulness, which this week I have been presenting as accompaniment. We choose to accompany. We engage in this practice of accompanying ourselves and the world around us as if we are a good friend, a non-judgmental friend who is there to listen, see, and hold everything there with care.

And then to steady ourselves in that, to immerse ourselves in this present moment experience. That is concentration or stability (samādhi). Like again with these movement practices of yoga or Tai Chi or Qigong, or other ones, we immerse ourselves in the activity. Almost like we forget ourselves and forget time playing a musical instrument or doing a craft. There are things we do which take effort and energy, but when we finish doing them, we feel much more relaxed. The steadiness comes because we are immersing ourselves in what we are doing.

And then the fifth faculty for today is usually translated as wisdom. Today I am offering it as discernment, because wisdom is always present-moment focused—to see in such a way that we are wise. That is another meaning for discernment. The idea is to discern useful ways to be present for this world, useful ways to activate our accompaniment, our mindfulness, our life. This wonderful gift we have been given of consciousness—being consciously aware—be discerning about how we can use that. How we can be aware so that it reduces stress, it doesn't add to stress. Not only does it reduce stress, it also brings forth a higher quality, beneficial way of being in the world. It allows for some deeper sensitivity, deeper flow of good will and wisdom and freedom.

Not so different, again, from doing a movement like yoga, Tai Chi, or Qigong. We might even be stressed out and hardly able to think very well for ourselves when we start, but at the end of the class, we are much more present and ready to have conversations with people, take care of things, and be in the world in a nice, open, clear way.

So to be discerning about what we are doing as we engage in our accompaniment of life. How do we accompany it so there is less stress? Tensing up, rushing, being angry, having ill will, having desires, being caught up in fantasies that obscure how well we can see what is there—those are not skillful. We can see that. We can feel it. We learn over time that is not the way to live a life. A free life, a productive, a useful life is one where we engage and activate being present with this beautiful capacity of conscious awareness.

So to inhabit that, to have confidence in that, to have courage to show up this way, to have the accompaniment that allows conscious awareness to really flower, and to sustain it, to be steadied in it, composed in it—that is what discernment supports us to do.

In the teachings of the Buddha, it tends to be binary. The distinctions are between what is helpful and what is not helpful. That is my paraphrasing of it. "Is what I'm doing now helpful, or is it not helpful?" If it is at all unhelpful, don't do it. Have enough discernment to recognize, "Oh, I don't think this is helpful." And certainly, if you are going to make the situation worse, don't do it. Have enough discernment to know what not to do. Just that is life-changing.

But then, if in addition you have the discernment, the clarity in this moment to know how to activate, how to bring forth conscious awareness in a way that is beneficial, is onward-leading, helps you become wiser and clearer, helps you to be present in a nice way for this world of ours and for others—do it by all means. And do it a lot. Let it fill your life. Let yourself be immersed in a life of conscious awareness with the confidence, the courage, the showing up, the giving yourself to being discerning.

Having the discernment to know that confidence is good. What is good to have confidence in? This practice. To have the courage to know what to do: conscious awareness, showing up. To have discernment to know the value of accompaniment—that how you accompany your life is where conscious awareness can flower. To have the discernment to know that jumping around and being scattered and preoccupied is not so useful; that being present, steady, continuous, being here—that is useful.

So these are superpowers. These are amazing capacities we do have. Each one of you has this. In Buddhism, these are becoming activated, these are becoming used and flowering for us in ways that are so beneficial. When these become strong—in fact, the Buddha called them the five powers. So to call them superpowers is maybe a little bit cute, but in fact, he called them bala⁴ in Pali, meaning "strengths" or "powers." To have these strengths, then, they are not only faculties we wake up and use, but they become sustaining qualities that are there carrying us along, supporting us in everything we do.

So thank you very much.

Next week I will be on retreat at IRC⁵. I am just going to see who is speaking next week... Matthew Brensilver⁶ is going to be here next week. He is a wonderful teacher, and you will be in very good hands with Matthew. I will be back the following week, and we will continue on this introduction to mindfulness part two that we are doing now.

Those of you who might be new: for the beginning of the year, I did a 25-part introduction to mindfulness, the basic practice we do here at IMC. I am following that with this now, this part two. Now we have done ten in the series: the Five Hindrances, and now the Five Faculties. We will continue with this theme when I return. Thank you for being here and being part of it. I certainly look forward to coming back in about ten days.

The last thing I want to say before we quit is that I think today marks the end of four years of doing these YouTube teachings for me. I think sometime next week, maybe like the 14th of March or something, is the four-year mark. We started on a Monday four years ago. Those are four wonderful years. I am grateful to be doing this and grateful to all of you that we have this chance to meet this way, practice, and teach. So, my appreciation for this opportunity. Thank you.