Search results for: virtue

Starting Out Small Recollection of Virtue
Recollection of Virtue September 20, 1960 One of the things that defiles the mind is gaṇa-palibodha: concern over the group. You’re entangled with the group, or with the individuals in the group. This is called gaṇa-palibodha. Your mind isn’t at peace, and when the mind isn’t at peace, it gains no happiness or ease. It’s not conducive for …
Starting Out Small Understanding the World & the Dhamma
… The propellers and wheels here stand for the wheel of the Dhamma, which spins with virtue, concentration, and discernment. When virtue spins forward for the sake of purity, it cuts through sensual craving, and counts as the resolve for renunciation. When concentration spins forward for the sake of purity, it cuts through craving for becoming, and counts as the resolve for non-ill will …
Starting Out Small Fragments
… Don’t despise the gifts given by others, or their virtue or their meditation. They might have something good hidden inside, simply that it’s covered up by other kamma so that you can’t see it. If you treat them with disrespect, that kamma might come back at you so that you suffer from its results on into the future. § When directed thought …
Starting Out Small Noble & True
… Generosity and the virtues of the precepts are external wealth. They’re like royal robes and jewels that dress your body and make it beautiful. As for the internal merit of meditation, that dresses your heart to make it beautiful. These three kinds of clothing and jewelry are treasures that the Buddha left behind as an inheritance for his immediate followers, who can be …
Starting Out Small Introduction
… Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu January, 2016 This book has now been expanded with a second section (see Part III) of newly translated Dhamma talks, featuring one of Ajaan Lee’s longest recorded sermons, “Recollection of Virtue.” Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu September, 2016
Starting Out Small The Light of Discernment
… All three forms of merit—generosity, virtue, and meditation—depend on discernment. When we develop discernment, we’ll know how to look for merit on our own. And what kind of light will we want—torch light, candlelight, lantern-light, or electric light? Death is like darkness. When the time comes to die, outside light won’t be of any use to us. Our …
Starting Out Small On Target
… The virtues of your heart disappear without your realizing it. If you want to go back and start all over, it’s hard—like going back over a washed-out road. * * * When mindfulness stays with the body, it’s called kāyagatāsati: mindfulness immersed in the body. In general, this refers to being mindful of the four properties: earth, water, fire, and wind. To pick …
Starting Out Small Enduring Principles
… This is why the Buddha left the householder life and went off into the wilderness to be alone, developing virtue, concentration, and discernment until he attained full Buddhahood. Once he had attained his goal, he had another character trait—his great compassion—that inspired him to teach the Dhamma to his relatives and to living beings in general so that they could gain release …
Starting Out Small Housework & Fieldwork
… When the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha arise in the heart, there are bound to be things that will disturb or destroy them, such as visions or Hindrances, just as when a flower is pestered by insects, it may fall away from the tree. When it falls off the tree, it won’t be able to bear fruit. The same with your …
Starting Out Small The Electric Heart
… generosity, making donations of material things; virtue, keeping our words and deeds at normalcy; and meditation, training the mind. If the mind isn’t slowed down by the weights of what’s skillful and meritorious, there’s no way it can get relief from the heat of its fires. Sometimes evil pulls it in one direction, while goodness pulls it in another. Goodness is …
Starting Out Small Inner Eyes
… This is why we’re taught to develop virtue and concentration, making the mind still and free from hindrances. The hindrances are like dust, soot, and mud. Wherever these things are found, they make the place dirty. This is why a mind clinging to the hindrances can’t find any purity. When the mind is immersed in hindrances, that’s ignorance. People with ignorance …
Starting Out Small Merit
… generosity, virtue, and meditation. Generosity is a way of helping other people be happy. When we help one another and give useful things to one another, it has to mean something. So stop and think. All the suffering and turmoil in the world—thievery, arson, and world wars: What do they come from? They come from people not eating their fill. Not eating your …
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