Search results for: virtue

1. Beyond All Directions
   The fifth collection of essays. Includes: Beyond All Directions, Lost in Quotation, An All-around Eye, Mettā Means Goodwill, On Denying Defilement, Virtue Without Attachment, The Limits of the Unlimited Attitudes, The Essence of the Dhamma, The Middles of the Middle Way, and The Arrows of Thinking.
2. Beyond All Directions Virtue Without Attachment
   Virtue Without Attachment Sīla—a term that can be translated as “virtue,” “precept,” or “habit”—is the first of the three trainings that lead to the end of suffering. The other two are concentration and discernment. In the noble eightfold path, sīla covers three factors: right speech, right action, and right livelihood. Right speech involves abstaining from telling lies, from speaking divisively, from speaking … 
3. Beyond All Directions The Middles of the Middle Way
    … The Middles of Moderation The practice of moderation, in which you try to find an ideal point of balance on a continuum between two extremes, relates primarily to the factors of the path related to virtue and concentration, although discernment necessarily plays a role in governing how this is done. For instance, with virtue: If we compare the precepts recommended by the Buddha—no … 
4. Beyond All Directions The Essence of the Dhamma
    … Material gain, honor, and fame are like the twigs and branches; consummation in virtue is like the outer bark; consummation in concentration, the inner bark; while knowledge and vision—the various powers that come with concentration—are like the sapwood. MN 29 and 30 don’t make the point explicitly, but if we compare their image of the tree with the statements about essence … 
5. Beyond All Directions The Limits of the Unlimited Attitudes
    … For virtue, the brahmavihāras provide the motivation. You undertake the precepts both because you have compassion for others ( Ud 2:3) and because you have goodwill for yourself ( Ud 5:1). The Buddha once taught the brahmavihāras to a group of non-Buddhists—who weren’t sure whether actions lead to results beyond this lifetime, or even if there was a life beyond this … 
6. Beyond All Directions Lost in Quotation
    … Having a sense of oneself means knowing your strengths and weaknesses in terms of conviction, virtue, learning, generosity, discernment, and quick-wittedness. In other words, you know which qualities are important to focus on, and can assess objectively where you still have more work to do. Having a sense of enough applies primarily to your use of the requisites of life—food, clothing, shelter … 
7. Beyond All Directions Beyond All Directions
    … At the same time, these instructions show that the virtues of the Buddha grow within you, not by denying your desire for happiness, but by training it to be truly effective. Although this training requires doing battle with the greed, aversion, and delusion within you, it doesn’t require that you deny what, deep down inside, you really want: a happiness you can trust … 
8. Beyond All Directions The Arrows of Thinking
    … the ability to gauge how far you’ve come in developing qualities needed on the path—such as conviction, virtue, learning, generosity, discernment, and quick-wittedness—so that you can build on your strengths and focus your energies on the areas where you’re still lacking ( AN 7:64). However, the type of objectification that the Buddha most frequently advises as a part of … 
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