Search results for: "Generosity"

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  2. Karma & Not-self
     … It’s part of developing generosity, developing virtue, and all the factors of the path. You’re sitting here meditating: Who’s responsible for the meditation? Well, you are. Ajaan Fuang once said that the one thing you have to believe in when you meditate is the teaching on karma, that what you do is what makes a difference. We’re not just sitting … 
  3. Clinging & the End of Clinging
     … A different you develops around your ability to meditate, around your ability to observe the precepts, around your ability to take joy in generosity.* *It’s one of the reasons why these meritorious activities are an important part of the path. They create a healthy you. They help you realize how much your self-esteem, your self-worth should depend on doing things that … 
  4. The Limits of Interconnectedness
     … This is what generosity is for; it’s what virtue is for Meditation helps in this way as well. The stronger we are inside, the less we have to lean on others. The more clarity we bring to our own actions, the less we’re likely to harm others. And the greater sense of strength we have inside, the less we’re likely to … 
  5. Getting Out of Karmic Debt
     … After all, generosity can’t be accused of being selfish, and that is part of the path. Virtue, harmlessness, is also part of the path. The good qualities you develop in your mind send a good influence out and they pay off all your debts. So the Buddha’s attitude toward people who come to the practice is not that they’re entitled. They … 
  6. The Need for Goodwill
     … I’d come back to the monastery and I’d remind myself, “Okay, today you were the beneficiary of a poor person’s generosity. That’s something really special, so you want to honor that. Practice extra hard so it will be for that person’s long term welfare and happiness.” They say that the arahants in the Theravada tradition are selfish, but one … 
  7. Happiness – Yours & Others’
     … When you’re generous, people are happy to receive the fruits of your generosity. When you observe the precepts, people can learn to trust you. They have a sense that they’re safe around you. And when you train the mind to bring some control over its greed, aversion, and delusion, these things don’t go prowling around and biting the neighbors. So in … 
  8. The Beginnings of Wisdom
     … the pleasures of generosity, the pleasures of virtue, and the pleasures of meditation. Even though these may not be permanent—they have their ups and downs—still, they’re more long-term than your typical pleasures because they’re totally blameless. And as you look for happiness in these ways, you get a sense of self-esteem. You realize that you’re being responsible … 
  9. Expand Your Expectations
     … This is one of the reasons why generosity is one of the prerequisites for meditating. You learn from experience that the good things in life come when you give. You don’t just sit there and wait for them to come—or demand that they come to you. And your first thought isn’t what you’re going get out of this. Your first … 
  10. The Joy of Renunciation
     … That covers generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill. Under the heading of virtue, you’ve got not only the five precepts, but also the eight, the ten, the 227 precepts that the monks observe. When you compare the five to the eight, you see that the eight basically add the principle of sense restraint to the five. The precept against no eating after … 
  11. Family Ties
     … As he said, some parents have no virtue, no generosity, no conviction, and no discernment. And your way to repay them is not just to hang around and do everything they tell you. You try to find some way of inducing them to be generous if you can, more virtuous if you can. The “if you can” here is important. Sometimes you realize you … 
  12. Learning How to Talk to Yourself
     … It’s one of the reasons why we begin the meditation with thoughts of goodwill, and why the whole practice is bracketed in the practice of generosity and the practice of virtue. To do those things, you have to learn how to talk to yourself well. Talk to yourself in a way that gives you encouragement that “Yes, generosity is a good thing. Virtue … 
  13. Neither Here nor There
     … He starts out with generosity and virtue. He talks about sensual heavens, where the rewards of generosity and virtue are at their highest. But then he talks about the drawbacks of sensuality—even the degradation, as he says, of sensuality. That’s when the mind is ready to think of renunciation as a good thing—and when you’re ready for the four noble … 
  14. Character
     … needs your help, and here’s a way of proving whether you really have goodwill for other people. So it’s good to keep in mind the whole list of perfections: generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. These are all qualities that we can develop in daily life in our duties at work, our duties at home, and whatever … 
  15. The World Offers No Shelter
     … develop qualities in the mind that have a lasting value. They start with the qualities of the path: virtue, concentration, and discernment—and even before that, with the bases of merit: generosity, virtue, developing goodwill. Even though these things are not permanent, they can take you to a place that does not get swept away. In the meantime, they provide you with a certain … 
  16. The Need for Right View
     … It starts by developing the right attitude to your actions and your interactions with other people, so that when you tell yourself the story of your life, the underlying framework is this framework of skillful and unskillful kamma, issues of generosity, issues of gratitude. When you can rework your narrative that way, it puts you in a much better position to sit down and … 
  17. Concentration & Renunciation
     … We can’t have everything, and the need to develop good qualities in the mind has to take precedence—qualities like generosity, determination, patience, equanimity. Sometimes learning to do without a certain pleasure is like a trade. This is what renunciation is all about. It’s interesting that in the ten perfections, concentration is not listed. But it’s there under renunciation, because without … 
  18. The Noble Search Makes Us Human
     … And the sense of indebtedness that came from being the beneficiary of poor people’s generosity: I’d come back, have my meal, and I’d remind myself, “Okay, now you’ve really got to practice today.” So the act of going forth is a social event. It’s an interconnected event. That psychologist who thought that life in a monastery was just very … 
  19. Rewriting the Mind’s Song
     … Because after all, we’d like to see all the unskillful people in the world stop being unskillful and learn to work in ways that are conducive to generosity and virtue and general well-being all around. So you have to consciously learn to think these thoughts. Goodwill doesn’t mean that you’re giving your approval to what people are doing or that … 
  20. The Four Bases of Success
     … And each person is willing to go out of his way for the other people, to develop what the Thais call naam jai , which probably is best translated as “generosity of spirit” or “warm-heartedness,” a willingness to go that extra mile. Community life becomes a life conducive to the practice. The practice goes a lot more easily. You want the same principle of … 
  21. Wise Endurance
     … You can develop your generosity. You can take some initiative. There’s always something that can be done. The same when you apply the teachings of the four noble truths: Being with what is unpleasant, being with what is unloved, is one of the examples of suffering listed in the first noble truth. But remember: All the forms of suffering that are listed there … 
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