Search results for: "Generosity"

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  2. 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 … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. What’s Constant, What’s Not
     … virtue, concentration, and discernment, based on generosity. If you trust in the principle of causality, this is where your certainty lies. You put good causes into the system, and good things will have to come out. As for how soon they’ll come out, or how strong the good results will be, that’s something you can’t plan ahead of time. But you … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. The Advantages of Many Selves
     … It’s training in generosity, training in virtue, training in goodwill. Work on those. You already have those seeds inside you. This is a large part of what conviction means. When the Buddha gained awakening, it wasn’t just news about him. It’s news about us as well. We read about him in his last lifetime, and he seems amazing, almost superhuman. But … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. Mind the Gap
     … As the Buddha said, the things you need for a happy rebirth are conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. In some cases, he expands that list to the seven treasures: those four plus learning, shame, and compunction. These are the things that protect you. There are many stories of King Pasenadi coming to see the Buddha. Here was someone who lived his life looking for … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. In the Mood to Meditate
     … As the Buddha said, you can reflect on your virtue, you can reflect on your generosity. You may say, “My virtue isn’t all that great.” Well, think about the times when you did do something virtuous when you didn’t have to, or the times you were generous and you didn’t have to be. Those thoughts can gladden the mind. Of course … 
  15. Four Mountains Moving In
     … But it so happens that the path leading to this state of unconnectedness requires generosity, requires virtue. We leave good things for other people as we go, but always keeping in mind that the only true safety there is, is when we go. In the meantime, there are going to be dangers all around. And some of the worst dangers are the ones we … 
  16. You Can Do It
     … They include conviction, a sense of shame, a sense of compunction, learning, generosity. These are all things that human beings can work on, human beings can master. Some of those knowledges might be beyond us, but the ability to see a defilement and put an end to it is not, the ability to get your mind to settle down is not. These things are … 
  17. Teaching Old Selves New Tricks
     … Then as you learn how to look for happiness through virtue, through generosity, through development of goodwill, you find that you develop new skills. You look at your actions and you can be proud of them. Your sense of self will change. So remember it’s important that you don’t think that you have a certain kind of self that always has to … 
  18. The Real World Isn’t for Real
     … We develop virtue, we develop generosity, good habits inside, good habits in our relationships with people around us, so that we have a sense of self-esteem, that we do have some self-worth. That way, when things come up in the mind that challenge our self-image, we’re not devastated. We have the confidence that we have enough goodness to deal with … 
  19. More Buddhist Engineering
     … You can dedicate the happiness to others, because the happiness of generosity, virtue, and goodwill is something that spreads around. It has no boundaries. And when you follow the path and gain the results, you can share your knowledge with others. You can show them, “Yes, it still is possible to reach the deathless. This is not a made-up fairy tale about 2 … 
  20. Songkran Blessing
     … You can turn it into the perfection of generosity. You can turn it into perfection of determination, in which you want to use your wealth for a really good purpose. That way, these things do become blessings because you have the wisdom to use them properly. At the same time, you can think about long life, beauty, happiness, strength, in terms of inner qualities … 
  21. Go Out of Your Way
     … The Buddha would start his teachings with generosity. Of course, that doesn’t mean just being generous with things. It also includes being generous with your time, your energy, your knowledge, your forgiveness. Having that attitude of “What can I give?” or “What can I give up?” will give you the energy to go far.
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