Search results for: virtue

  1. The Meaning of Happiness
     … generosity, virtue, and meditation. And those three activities cover pretty much all the goodness in the world. The acts that give meaning to our lives come under these three headings. Generosity means not only giving material things, but also giving your time, giving your energy, giving forgiveness, giving help in all kinds of ways. It’s in the act of giving that a lot … 
  2. Train Your Hunger (The Sea Squirt)
     … We train it through virtue, concentration, and discernment. This will take time. It’s like trying to wean yourself off of sugar: It takes a while to grow used to not constantly getting, or going for, the quick hit of sugar. But once you’ve managed to stay away from it for a while, then you begin to realize that if you go back … 
  3. What We Have in Common
     … He gave a list of his pre-eminent monk-, nun-, layman-, and laywoman- disciples, pointing out the distinctive talents or virtues of each. Each had something distinctive to offer to the group—in terms of wisdom, harmoniousness, or the sacrifices he or she made on the path. But it was all for the same purpose, which added to the honor of the group as … 
  4. A Noble Warrior’s Path
     … If you can’t get the food of right concentration, learn to develop the food of generosity, the food of virtue. All these things are nourishing to the heart. Reflection on your generosity and reflection on your virtue help to give rise to that sense of confidence—and to the sense of honor that we’re doing something really noble here. And it’s … 
  5. Don’t Underestimate Merit
     … It’s simply a matter of how refined you can make your sense of how you benefit from the generosity or how you benefit from the practice of virtue, how you benefit from the meditation. As your mind grows, it just gets more and more refined. There are some Buddhist circles where people like to say, “Our meditation practice is totally pointless and we … 
  6. The World of Conviction
     … This is especially important as we live here in this land of wrong view, where truth gets turned into truthiness, the virtues are called into question, and everybody says, “Well, just find your own way and go for the immediate hit.” And they accuse Buddhism of being pessimistic. The Buddha’s actually saying, “Look. Through your efforts, you can gain true happiness. You can … 
  7. Inner Refuge Through Inner Strength
     … For instance, as you’re sitting here meditating, you don’t have to think about generosity or virtue too much, except when you find that it gives you strength. Your sole concern right now is to remember that you want to be with the breath. And you keep reminding yourself that you want to stay here. Together with mindfulness, there’s alertness: You watch … 
  8. Justice vs. Skillfulness
     … We try to leave some good things behind as we get out—in fact you can’t get out without leaving some good things behind, in terms of your generosity, virtue, and goodwill—but sometimes the best gift you can give to other people is simply to show them that there is a way out that they can follow, too. Try to keep that … 
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