Search results for: "Generosity"
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- Heightened Skillfulness… In this case, you heighten the way in which you practice your generosity, your virtue, and your meditation. In terms of generosity, you look at your motivation. Instead of giving away good things in hopes of getting good things back, you think less about the things, and more about the quality of mind you’re developing as you develop generosity. It’s a spacious …
- Control from Within… As we practice, we tend to overlook these teachings on generosity and virtue. After all, generosity is a pretty generic virtue. Every society talks about it. A lot of the precepts are things that we’ve learned from our own society, and we see them in many, many other societies, too. That’s part of the Buddha’s point, but he takes it a …
- The Energy to Be Generous… The issue is the distinction between compassion and generosity. You can have compassion for all beings but you can’t be generous with everybody. Your time, your money, your energy: These things are limited. So as you try to decide whom to help, how much help to give, think of what the Buddha had to say about generosity, because that’s the framework for …
- The Lessons of Good Kamma… In another place where the Buddha introduces kamma, the main emphasis is on generosity and gratitude, focusing on the fact that people do have choices they’re responsible for, and because we have choices we’re responsible for, generosity means something. A lot of people don’t like the idea of responsibility. They’d rather have kamma-free zones in large areas of their …
- The Skillful Heart… It begins with generosity, which is a quality of a good heart. The Buddha emphasizes a generosity that’s voluntary. When he was asked where a gift should be given, he said, “Give where you feel inspired, where you feel it would be well-used.” That’s your choice. And the culture of generosity that gets developed around that tries to protect that choice …
- Merit: Actively Happy… For instance, with generosity: The Buddha always protected the idea that generosity should be voluntary. He never gave dana talks in the way they’re given now. He never tried to put a squeeze on people or demand that they give to Buddhists. King Pasenadi once came to the Buddha and asked him, “Where should a gift be given?” He was used to hearing …
- In the Mood to Meditate… So recollection of the virtue you’ve practiced in the past and recollection of the generosity you’ve practiced in the past are not just to put you in a good mood. They’re also to remind you: You’ve learned lessons from generosity, you’ve learned lessons from virtue that are going to be really useful as you sit here and meditate. After …
- The Graduated Discourse… Then, when the Buddha saw that people were amenable to hearing about what was good about generosity, what was good about virtue, he would talk about how after death, generosity and virtue are rewarded with the pleasures of heaven. And here, it’s interesting: In the Canon there are a lot of suttas on generosity, there are a lot of suttas on virtue, but …
- The Graduated Discourse… what was called his “graduated discourse” or “step-by-step discourse.” There are stories about people coming to see the Buddha, and he would start with a talk on generosity, a talk on virtue, then a talk on the rewards of generosity and virtue in heaven, and then the drawbacks and, as he said, even the degradation involved in sensuality—in a sense, what …
- Doing Favors & Making Merit… It’s interesting that when the Buddha introduced the topic of karma, the two areas he focused on were generosity and debts of gratitude. It’s because we have freedom of choice that generosity means something. If we had no freedom, the fact that you gave something to someone else would have been forced on you by the stars or whatever influences are coming …
- Becoming Capable of Happiness… As you develop skills—the skills of generosity, virtue, and meditation—they can overcome those weaknesses and change you into a different person. And they are skills. Generosity is a skill. At the very least, it’s an exercise in free will. So many of the Buddha’s lists of teachings start with generosity because an act of real generosity—when you give something …
- Noble Ardency… from generosity, with the realization that we do have choices. We don’t have to be pushed by the questions of hunger that demand an answer right now, right now. And from that first act of material generosity, we find there are other kinds of generosity as well: There’s the generosity of giving your time, giving your energy, giving your knowledge, giving your …
- Faith in Awakening… conviction, a sense of shame, a sense of compunction, virtue, learning, generosity, and discernment. These treasures come down basically to three things: generosity, virtue, and right view. These are the things we can take with us. Generosity, of course, is a form of wealth. The texts talk quite a bit about the wealth that will eventually come from being generous but also about the …
- Broaden Your Range of Choices… When the Buddha would start out his teachings, well before he’d talk about the four noble truths, the very first thing he talked about was generosity. He had a strong etiquette around that. He wouldn’t talk about generosity in hopes of making people generous. The reason why generosity has gotten such a bad name in a lot of American Buddhist circles is …
- Succeeding at Happiness… You want to succeed at generosity, succeed at virtue, and succeed at meditation. Despite what you may sometimes hear, that there is no such thing as a good or a bad meditation, there really is. Good meditation helps you to settle down. The mind is still, satisfied, nourished by the meditation. It can be done. The same principle applies to generosity and virtue. You …
- Ready for the Truth… He’d start out with generosity and the rewards of generosity, and then virtue, holding by the precepts, and their rewards. Then he’d talk about heaven, the pleasures that come from being generous and being virtuous, even on into future lifetimes. But then he would talk about the drawbacks, even of heavenly pleasures. They don’t last forever and they tend to make …
- Generosity & Gratitude… This is why the Buddha also mentioned generosity when he was discussing karma. There is a virtue to being generous, because again, you’re not forced by fatalistic forces to do that. You have the choice. The Buddha wants you to appreciate the fact that you do have that choice, to reflect on how good it feels when you’re generous in ways where …
- Admirable Friendship… And you become happy to give, realizing that something good does come from generosity: You develop good qualities in the mind. The mind becomes more spacious. The world around you becomes a much more humane place, because when you’re generous, you break down barriers. If you put a price tag on things all the time, you’re putting up barriers. Generosity tears them …
- What Are You Bringing?… The teaching is offered to you in genuine generosity, so it’s good that you offer some generosity in return. Again it’s the question: What do you bring in? It’s good to reflect on how the Buddha would start his teachings, and generosity was often one of the first things he mentioned. If not generosity then gratitude, but the two of them …
- Better to Give than to Consume… So when generosity is presented as part of a begging talk—that’s what those “dana talks” are; they’re begging talks—it’s not really welcome. As a result, we miss the meaning of generosity, and we miss a lot of the other aspects of the practice, too, because the practice has to start with generosity. Generosity is not just a matter of …
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