Search results for: "Conviction"

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  2. Sensitive to the Mind
     … So when we operate with that understanding, the understanding of right view, then even though we may not know yet, at least we have the conviction that this is the way out. We apply that conviction and begin to see that it really works. It really is true. We see for ourselves what’s going on in our own minds. That’s what it … 
  3. Admirable Friendship, Inside & Out
     … They have conviction in the principle of kamma, they’re virtuous, they’re generous, and they’re discerning. You try to become a friend with people like that, and you try to emulate their qualities. You ask them about their conviction, their generosity, their virtue, their discernment, and then you try to follow their example. Most difficult, of course, is the discernment. You find … 
  4. Generating Power
     … Have a sense of conviction, a sense of confidence in the practice, and don’t try to second guess things. When the concentration has developed to a proper level, it’ll start showing its results on its own. In terms of that simile I often use about the unripe mango: You don’t keep yellow paint on hand just in case, to make the … 
  5. Inner Discontent
     … Doing things you’ve never done before means putting more into the path than you might want, sticking with it even as it gets hard, with the conviction that there have got be rewards here. It’s part of right effort: generating desire. Sometimes generating desire means generating conviction, nourishing it, looking around and seeing all the suffering around you, and realizing if there … 
  6. Investing in Noble Wealth
     … So the first step in developing inner wealth is having conviction that it really can be developed. Just as any investment requires confidence and trust, you have to trust in the Buddha’s awakening, that the Buddha wasn’t pretending; you have to trust that he knew what he was talking about: that there really is a deathless and it really can be reached … 
  7. Discernment on the Path
     … The other four—conviction, persistence, mindfulness, and concentration—are the rafters that you put up. But they’re not really secure until you put that top rafter at the peak of the roof. Once that’s in place, it holds everything else in position and makes it secure. In other words, your discernment is what protects your conviction and your persistence. It guides these … 
  8. Three Levels of Refuge
     … When you find a good friend like that, the whole point is to emulate that person’s wisdom, generosity, virtue, conviction—what human beings can do. That’s one level of refuge, the external level. Then the next level is that you try to develop the qualities of that person or of those people within yourself. Take the example of the Buddha. His main … 
  9. Tranquility & Insight
     … We talk about having conviction. Conviction in the Buddha’s awakening basically means conviction in our own power to act, and the power that our actions can have in shaping our lives. We want to make the most of that power. And it’s all happening right here, right now. We look at our minds and realize that we ordinarily act on all kinds … 
  10. Up for the Challenge
     … Strength of conviction, strength of your persistence, strength of mindfulness, concentration, discernment: These are things you can keep working on. And you’re going to need them, too. Sometimes we like to think that as life reaches its end, things get easier. After all, we’re not as strong as we were, it’s time to rest. But actually some of our most difficult … 
  11. Faith in Karma
     … It’s based, of course, on the conviction that your actions really do make a difference. It’s a point that the Buddha can’t prove for you. As he says, you’ll know it when awakening comes that, “Yes, that was true.” It was because you had made choices and your choices had power that you were able to gain awakening. But up … 
  12. Practice in Dying Skillfully
     … You don’t have to worry about those things.” You can hear about it and you can have conviction in it, but there may be part of the mind that’s not 100 percent there—and that can change very quickly, the little bit of percentage that’s not fully on board with this. If you’ve seen the deathless, though, you know that … 
  13. One Thing Clear Through
     … When you’re radiating goodness from generosity and virtue, you’ve got to go on conviction, you’ve got to go on a lot of internal conversation where you tell yourself that this is a good thing. But when you have the sense of ease and well-being, even the sense of rapture and fullness that can come from the concentration, then it’s … 
  14. Persistence: Lift Your Heart
     … If we have conviction in the Buddha's awakening, we believe these really are categorical. The problem is that they’re not truths that just sit there. They have duties associated with them. They tell us what to do, what to abandon, what to develop. And here our old habit of picking and choosing our views based on our likes and dislikes runs up … 
  15. To Delight in the Path
     … So you learn to take delight in doing good, being generous, helping other people who are generous, being with admirable friends—people who have conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. These things lift not only the mind, but also the heart. Remember, we’re training both the heart and the mind. In Pali, the word *citta *covers both. So the practice is not just a … 
  16. Paying Off Your Debts
     … The list starts with conviction, conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, that he really did awaken to something special. It wasn’t just the result of his cultural conditioning or his preconceived notions. He learned an awful lot in the course of his quest for awakening. He tried out various paths that occurred to him, which were basically the common paths in those days … 
  17. Mindfulness as Refuge
     … It takes strength to say, “No.” Part of the strength comes from your conviction that what inhabits your mind really is important because it’s going to come out in your actions, and then your actions are going to shape your life, and you want a life that’s well shaped. So you have to start with the seeds. You have to start with … 
  18. Strength Training
     … The Buddha talks of the path as a path of strength, and the strengths of the mind are conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. The Buddha has one way of formulating the path in these five terms. He himself often compares the path of practice to various skills, and some of them have to do with strength. The skillful meditator is one who can … 
  19. Preparing to Die Well
     … You have to develop a strong conviction that the sacrifices you might have to make in observing the precepts are really worth making, that there are some things of greater value to be gained by letting go of the pleasure derived from those unskillful activities. Without that conviction, you can’t change your unskillful habits. So you’ve got to develop that conviction, keep … 
  20. Faith in Goodness
     … When talking about having faith in the principle of karma, or conviction in the principle of karma, it sounds rather dry and theoretical. But if you think of it as faith in goodness, it gives you a better idea of how you should relate to it. We have this power within us to do good and to act on motives that are selfless, not … 
  21. The True Cause of Suffering
     … As the Buddha says, the best way to overcome that kind of doubt is not with blind conviction. You need to have conviction in the principle that your actions really do make a difference, but that’s not asking you to believe in anything impossible or illogical. The Buddha gained his awakening by using qualities that you already have in a potential form. And … 
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