Search results for: "Generosity"
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- Long-Term Welfare… We develop generosity, we develop virtue, and we meditate as ways of bringing about long-term happiness. The happiness that comes from giving lasts a lot longer than the happiness that comes from taking. It goes deeper. The same holds true for the happiness the comes from holding to your principles. If you gain the kind of happiness the comes from breaking your principles …
- The Equanimity of a Victor… Otherwise, if you simply focus on looking after other people—it is a form of generosity, and it does develop good qualities inside—but you realize you can never come to the end. I saw a faith healer in Brazil one time. The line of people coming to see him stretched for hours. And I stopped to think about it: All these people who …
- Dedicating Merit… We were talking today about dedicating merit, which is a very important way of expanding the goodness of your meditation, the goodness of your generosity, the goodness of your virtue in all directions. A brahman once came to see the Buddha and asked him, “We brahmans dedicate the goodness of our actions to our dead ancestors. What does the Buddha have to say about …
- A Connoisseur of Happiness… The ones that clear the mind include not only the pleasure of concentration, but also the pleasure of generosity and the pleasure of observing the precepts. The Buddha talks about how the practice of generosity and the precepts gives rise to a sense of joy, a sense of wellbeing, that then becomes a basis for concentration. From there, you develop the more refined levels …
- Noble Happiness… the practice of generosity and the practice of virtue. Because the practice of meditation is both virtuous and generous. So meditate with confidence. As you notice the mind slipping off the breath and you bring it back, have a sense that what you’re doing is something very important, something very noble. It may not seem like much right now, but as you develop …
- The Challenge of Faith… When the Buddha lays out his most basic teachings, he starts with generosity. And he isn’t just mouthing platitudes. The experience of generosity is probably one of your first tastes of freedom as a child: that point where you realized that you have something that you can give to somebody else, and nobody’s forcing you to give it, but out of your …
- Ingenuity… The four are conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. Conviction means conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, and that translates into conviction in the power of your actions. You want to pay careful attention to what you’re doing because your actions really do make a difference. You really do have choices in the present moment. The Buddha is very clear on this. You have …
- Songkran… Look in terms of your generosity, your ability to hold by the precepts, your ability to develop goodwill for all: Which area is lacking right now? We live in a topsy-turvy world right now, and it’s very easy not to have goodwill for everybody. So, it’s important to think about what goodwill means. We’re wishing for happiness. But again, happiness …
- Look Around… There are a lot of people who put a lot of generosity into making these a reality, and they like to see that the people staying here take care of them. So when your chores are done for the day, look around. See what else needs to be done. This is supposed to be one of the characteristics of Ven. Sariputta. It’s a …
- Learning from What You Do… finding people who are exemplars, people whose virtue you admire, whose generosity you admire, whose conviction and discernment you admire. Try to learn from them, talking over these issues, emulating them in areas where they’re worthy of emulation. Because we do have our blind spots: That’s what ignorance is all about. It’s not an abstract thing. It’s being ignorant of …
- Looking at Your Life… One is conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment. Another list is what he calls the seven noble treasures. It starts again with conviction, which means conviction in the fact that what you do is important, not necessarily important in the eyes of the world, but important in shaping your life, shaping your mind. So you want to be as skillful as possible in your intentions …
- Meaning Through Perfections… Everybody recognizes that generosity is good, virtue is good, goodwill is good, truthfulness is good. What makes the Buddha’s perfections special is the one exception: the perfection of discernment, because it’s the only teaching in which discernment is really all-around: to understand how things are originated in the mind; how they pass away; what their allure is; what their drawbacks are …
- An Auspicious Night… Next on the list is generosity. How generous are you with your time, with your belongings? If you have something, do you see it as an opportunity to give it away? If you don’t have things, what non-material gifts can you give? We live together. We know that there’s the ideal for us to go off and meditate alone, but that …
- Death Is All Around… Your true treasures are things like conviction in the principle of your actions, a sense of shame at the idea of doing anything that’s not noble, concern for the harm that can come from unskillful actions, virtue, learning, discernment, generosity: These things are your treasures. People can take your body away from you, they can kill you, but they can’t take these …
- Strength of Persistence… If generosity comes with difficulty, if virtue comes with difficulty, goodwill comes with difficulty, try to look at these activities as a challenge, look at them as an adventure. You’re going to try something new, and you’re going to learn to see satisfaction in seeing your stinginess fall away or the carelessness that would get in the way of virtue: You see …
- Objectivity… This is what we’re working on as we practice generosity, virtue, and meditation. We’re trying to show to ourselves that these activities really do provide a happiness that’s more lasting than anything that unskillful desires can offer. Particularly when you’re meditating: As the Buddha said, a major factor in the first jhāna is pleasure and rapture born of seclusion. In …
- In Training… Then there’s generosity. Are you a generous person? This doesn’t necessarily mean being generous with things, but are you the sort of person who feels inspired to help other people with your time, your energy, your knowledge, your forgiveness? Forgiveness should be the easiest of all because it’s free, but it’s often the hardest, partly because we misunderstand it. In …
- Feeding on Right Resolve… And goodwill is expressed in what sorts of actions? It’s expressed through our generosity; it’s expressed through our virtue. In the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta, the Buddha talks about all that goes into living a life that makes it possible for your goodwill to be honest and sincere. It requires being restrained. In fact, the Buddha calls goodwill a type of restraint. You …
- Feeding Off of Others… There’s a social aspect of the path as you practice generosity and observe the precepts, in which you’ll be feeding off of your interactions with other people. You’re doing it, though, in a very skillful way, a harmless way. But when you get to the meditation, it’s purely an internal affair. There will be some outside influences emanating from your …
- Worth… things like generosity and virtue, persistence, patience, discernment, goodwill, and equanimity. Renunciation, truthfulness, determination. These are all qualities that the heart needs. And they’re things that stick with you, in this life on into the next life. This is where you look for value: your value as a person. Of course, it’s not something anyone else can measure, and it has only …
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