Search results for: "Generosity"
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- Unattractive… He wants you to use the body in the right way—to help you with your concentration, to help you with the practice of generosity and virtue. He’s taking your happiness seriously. He’s more concerned for your true happiness than you are. So learn from him. It’ll be for your own good.
- In Accordance with the Dhamma… practicing generosity, practicing virtue, developing concentration, developing your discernment. He gives very clear instructions on how to do these things. So you want to clear away all the encumbrances that get in the way of really focusing where the problem is: your own clinging, your own feeding, things you hold very dear. If you can’t let the things you hold very dear be …
- A Post for the Heart… This is what we try to develop as we develop the mind in concentration and also with the practice of virtue and generosity—a good solid post in the mind. If the mind isn’t firmly planted like this, it’s like a post that’s just lying there on the beach. The water rises, and the post gets washed up with the water …
- Look at Yourself… The practice of virtue, for instance, builds on generosity. Virtue is a type of gift. It’s a gift to yourself; it’s a gift to others. It’s a gift to yourself in the sense that you’re not creating the kind of kamma that’s going to lead to suffering down the line. It’s a gift to others in that you …
- A Happy Tradition… This is one of the reasons why the Buddha has you practice generosity and virtue as a foundation for meditation. When you look at your actions, you can see that there are good things you’ve done, bad things you’ve avoided. There’s a sense of joy that goes with that, a sense of strong self-worth. So the question of deserving never …
- Taking the Long View… When the Buddha talks about the treasures that we can develop in the mind— things like conviction, virtue, shame, compunction, learning, generosity, and discernment—we can also develop their opposites. So the question is, which side do you want to take with you—the skillful side or the unskillful side? Because these are the things that you can take with you. The things of …
- The Buddha’s Program… So what are the Buddha’s feeding instructions? He has you feed on generosity; feed on virtue; feed on meditation; thoughts of goodwill; and then the meditation of getting the mind to settle down with the breath, to gain discernment. All these instructions are the assumptions that you use to feed well—and feed in a way that takes you to a point where …
- Admirable Friendship… One is that you ask these people about issues of conviction, virtue, generosity, discernment. And this doesn’t necessarily mean just asking the teacher. You can ask other people in the community who have admirable qualities as well. See what special insights they have on how to develop those qualities. After all, they’ve obviously got experience, and you’d be wise to pick …
- To Be an Adult… We have to use our opportunity to meditate, to practice the Dhamma in all ways—in terms of generosity, virtue, concentration, and discernment—as protection, both from dangers within ourselves and from dangers outside. As the Buddha says, the real dangers outside are not so much what people can do to us, they’re what other people can get us to do. They can …
- Dealing with Limitations… with the many limitations we face as human beings in trying to find happiness. The Buddha talks about three basic ways of finding happiness: generosity, virtue, and meditation. These are all tools, but they each have their different limitations. Generosity is sometimes limited by how much time you have, how much energy, and of course the material resources you can draw on. You have …
- Meaning in a Meaningless Universe… There’s generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. These are the qualities that the tradition has said lead to awakening. It’s not a list you’ll find in anything attributed to the Buddha directly. It comes from the Jataka tales, which were later compilations. But they’re all qualities that the Buddha himself, at one point or another …
- The Power of Intention… It’s one of the reasons why the Buddha, when he would describe the steps of understanding leading up to the understanding of the four noble truths, started with generosity—the intention to give. In this case, he tries to protect it as a free intention: freely chosen, a voluntary intention to give. For many of us, that’s our first real sense that …
- Keep Your Spirits Up… It could be the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha; your own virtue, your own generosity; the fact that you have the qualities that would make a person a deva. Those are things you could think about, too. Think about that inspiring theme until the mind settles down, happy to be with that theme, and then see if you can transfer that sense of calm …
- Friendship Leading to Seclusion… Ideally you’ve been working on your precepts, you’ve been working on your generosity, so you can see that the mind has at least some good qualities inside. It’s a lot easier to look at the mind when it has good qualities than when it doesn’t. But you really want to get to know it because there will be times when …
- Gladden, Steady, Release… This is why the Buddha has us think about our past generosity, our past virtue, whatever we can think of that gives us confidence that we are competent to settle in and find some peace of mind right here. Do what you can to steady the mind, to keep it really firmly here. Any attachment to anything that would pull you away, just learn …
- Right Livelihood… There are lots of rules to make sure that one monk, say, doesn’t try to monopolize all the generosity of the lay people at the expense of the other monks. So that’s right livelihood for monks. It’s a very pure livelihood. You take what you get. You content yourself with what you get. It’s purely an economy of gifts. For …
- Questioning Impermanence… Otherwise, the generosity in which we’re living here is going to waste. So find ways to make the breath interesting, so that it becomes pleasant to meditate. As I said, be on good terms with the body. Treat it as your friend. Ask it questions: “What kind of breath would you like right now? How about now? Where are things going well? Where …
- An Auspicious Birth… over in Thailand they have a more Buddhist attitude toward birthdays, which is that when it’s your birthday you give the presents, you make donations, you practice the virtue of generosity This is in line with the Buddha’s teachings on what makes a day auspicious. It’s what you do with the day, not so much what you receive or get. It …
- No One in Charge… It starts with generosity and it ends with total letting go. But you also have to work on developing—in other words, developing the good qualities that will allow you to let go with skill, because if you have nothing at all in the mind, then when you let go of things, you’re a pauper. There’s nothing left that you can use …
- Goodwill for the Breath… We practice generosity, we practice virtue, as means for long-term happiness. We come to meditate, and it’s for the same purpose. So you want to do the meditation with an attitude of goodwill: goodwill for the people around you, goodwill for yourself, and goodwill for your breath. That’s the object of meditation you’re going to be working with. If you …
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