Search results for: virtue

  1. Concentration Nurtured with Virtue
    Concentration Nurtured with Virtue July 23, 2009 The Buddha once said that concentration, when nurtured by virtue, has great fruit, great reward. Now, he wasn’t saying that you can’t do concentration without virtue. There are many examples around of people who have very strong powers of concentration but very little virtue at all. What he was saying is that if you want … 
  2. Views, Virtue, & Mindfulness
    Views, Virtue, & Mindfulness December 6, 2011 The Buddha compared mindfulness to a gatekeeper in a fortress at the edge of a frontier. In a fortress like that, you’ve got to have a gatekeeper who really knows what he’s doing, knows whom to let in and whom not to let in, whom to trust, whom not to trust. In the same way, the … 
  3. Part V : Finding a Teacher
     … So the restraint of virtue is an important part of learning to know the mind, to figure out where its unskillful qualities are, and why they have control over you. This is why virtue flows from conviction. Some texts actually say that virtue that’s pleasing to the noble ones is actually an aspect of conviction. Another quality in admirable friendship that goes with … 
  4. Good Eating
     … As the Buddha said, virtue is a type of gift. If you stick to your precepts in all situations, you’re giving universal protection to all beings, and you have a share in that universal protection as well. Recollection of your virtue is another form of meditation. It, too, is food for the mind. You can think back on times when you were tempted … 
  5. The Brightness of the World
     … In Buddhism, it’s actually a positive virtue, and it’s not a sign of low self-esteem. It’s a sign of high self-esteem. You value your virtue. You think of certain things that would go against your principles, and you would be ashamed to do them, because of the pride that comes with your virtue—and it’s not a bad … 
  6. Insight into Pain
     … Training in virtue is a way of avoiding those difficulties. At the same time, training in virtue is also training in mindfulness, training in alertness, training in compassion. In other words, you’re developing good qualities of mind. As you do this, you’re getting very sensitive to your intentions because the intention is what determines whether you’re breaking a precept or not … 
  7. Strengthening Discernment
     … through developing virtue and concentration. It’s not that discernment is the end product that comes once the virtue and concentration are developed. It’s in the process of developing the concentration, it’s in the process of working with the challenges of the precepts, that your discernment grows stronger day by day.
  8. Practicing from Gratitude
     … Here all that’s asked of you is that you train your mind through virtue, concentration, and discernment. These are the main things we focus on. This is how we train ourselves. All of these are a form of generosity. The Buddha also talks about the precepts as gifts, in that we’re giving protection to all beings. You decide that you’re not … 
  9. Remembering Ajaan Suwat
     … For example, the Dhamma says to develop your virtue, so you develop your virtue in all the detail that it requires. When you take the five precepts, you’re basically making a promise, you’re making a determination, that you’re not going to harm anybody or anything in any of those five ways. Then you really stick with them. But, of course, you … 
  10. The Need for Stillness
     … All of what they call the noble dhammas—virtue, concentration, discernment, and release—are all related to stillness in this way. Virtue is a way of stilling your actions, the things that you used to do without thinking. Suddenly you realize: “I can’t do that anymore.” You begin to see that those actions you’ve learned to stop doing really do cause suffering … 
  11. Ekaggata
     … So a basic part of the training in terms of generosity, virtue, meditation, is becoming more sensitive to your own actions. It’s interesting to note that when the Buddha starts out talking about the principle of action, he does it in the context of two particular types of action: gratitude and generosity. After all, what does gratitude mean, if not realizing that the … 
  12. Metta Meditation
     … There is a happiness that comes from training the mind—a happiness that comes from doing good things, developing qualities of mind like integrity, generosity, virtue, concentration, discernment. These are all good things to work on. The causes are good; the results are good. If you look at the human enterprise from this perspective, it takes on a whole new cast. And particularly if … 
  13. Brahmaviharas at the Breath
     … Developing happiness through generosity, virtue, meditation, is a way of developing happiness that spreads around, and the dividing line between your well-being and other people’s well-being gets dissolved. So try to bring these attitudes to your meditation, develop them in your meditation, so that you become more sensitive to which of the attitudes is appropriate at any one time, and to … 
  14. Caring Without Clinging
     … We come from a culture in which love is very highly valued—not only as a social virtue, but also as a religious one. So it’s a little shocking when we come to another tradition where it’s not valued so highly. The Buddha talks about dispassion, disenchantment, equanimity—and to us it sounds cold. But everything in the Buddha’s teachings is … 
  15. Levels of Truth
     … The duty here is to develop it, all the qualities you need in terms of virtue, concentration, discernment. You don’t just watch these things arise and pass away. You actively try to give rise to them, to maintain them, and to develop them. So these four truths are another level of truth. As the Buddha said, these are not other than what they … 
  16. Book search result icon Gather ’Round the Breath Generating Energy
     … These can be the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, your own generosity, your own virtue. Sometimes putting the breath aside for the time being and thinking about these things can be very helpful. Thinking about the Sangha for instance: Think about all the ajaans and the success they had in the practice. Remember that they were human beings, you’re a human being … 
  17. Patience & Urgency
     … Lucky in the sense that we get to hear the message that it is possible to put an end to suffering, that it is possible through the development of virtue, concentration, and discernment to find something deathless. We’re unlucky because we tend to bring all these notions into the practice and we want to see the results right away. We have everything all … 
  18. The Swinging Balance
     … If you want to see that person’s virtue, you have to live with the person for a long time and be observant. If you want to learn about a person’s integrity, you have to have dealings with that person for a long time and be observant. If you want to know about the person’s stamina and wisdom, you have to see … 
  19. Breath, Tranquility, & Insight
     … Or you can think about your own generosity or your own virtue, the good you’ve done in the world, the bad things you could have done but decided not to on principle. This gives you a sense of your own worth, your own dignity as a person. It gives you a sense of competence that you can handle these things. When it gives … 
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