Search results for: virtue

  1. Book search result icon First Things First Wisdom over Justice
     … The first is that, by encouraging generosity, virtue, and the development of universal goodwill, you’re addressing the internal states of mind that would lead to injustice no matter how well a society might be structured. Generosity helps to overcome the greed that leads people to take unfair advantage of one another. Virtue helps to prevent the lies, thefts, and other callous actions that … 
  2. Book search result icon First Things First Honest to Goodness
     … The second quality is virtue. You want to look for someone who sticks to the precepts and encourages other people to stick to them, too. This second quality follows naturally on the first, because anyone who really believes in the power of action wouldn’t want to harm any being at all. This means no killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, or taking intoxicants. In … 
  3. Book search result icon First Things First The Names for Nibbāna
     … Following the road involves fostering, among other things, generosity, virtue, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. Through these qualities, we develop the wisdom and compassion to see that nirvana really is the wisest and most compassionate goal we can set for ourselves: wise in that, unlike other goals, it’s more than worth the effort required, and will never disappoint; compassionate in that we not only … 
  4. Book search result icon First Things First All Winners, No Losers
     … Losing, one lies down in pain. — Dhp 201 But if you define happiness in terms of the practice of merit—giving, virtue, and meditation—there’s no need to create losers. Everyone wins. When you give, other people naturally gain what you’ve shared with them; you gain a spacious sense of wealth within and the love and respect of others without. When you … 
  5. Book search result icon First Things First In the Eyes of the Wise
     … The good qualities of admirable friends are four: • conviction in the Buddha’s awakening and in the principle of karma; • virtue, in the sense of not breaking the precepts or encouraging others to break them; • generosity, and • discernment. The discernment of admirable friends can be seen in two things: the standards by which they judge you, and their purpose in judging you. If they … 
  6. Book search result icon First Things First The Karma of Now
     … You can find happiness, not by lowering your expectations, but by raising them and by developing the skills to make the present more livable, through your generosity, virtue, and meditation, even in the face of negative influences from the past. In doing so, you can create better conditions for present moments in the future. But you also know that the Buddha’s focusing you … 
  7. Book search result icon First Things First Worlds & Their Cessation
     … Instead, they should be observed to see if they possess two very natural virtues: They wouldn’t tell a person to do something that would lead to that person’s harm; and they wouldn’t claim knowledge that they don’t possess (MN 95). In other words, teachers are to be judged by their actions, to see if they’re reliable guides on how … 
  8. Book search result icon First Things First The Limits of Description
     … On these stages, the perception of “not-self” is applied to things that would pull you away from the practice of virtue, concentration, or discernment. Only when these practices have been mastered (AN 9:36) can the perception of not-self be applied to all phenomena, for at that point the strategy of thinking in terms of a self is no longer needed. The … 
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