Search results for: "Generosity"

  1. Page 21
  2. Goodwill & Gratitude
     … After all, generosity, virtue, meditation: These things are all beneficial for others in addition to being primarily beneficial for ourselves. So we’re looking for a happiness that doesn’t create boundaries. This is why the Buddha said we should develop goodwill in all directions: goodwill without limit, compassion without limit, empathetic joy without limit—along with equanimity without limit to balance out our … 
  3. The Perception of Space
     … With generosity, when you give something, you let go. This was one of Ajaan Fuang’s major pet peeves, when people would come and give things to him and then insist that he had to do this or do that with what they had given. As he said, if they didn’t really give it, if they gave it with strings attached, then it … 
  4. Noble Wealth
     … the treasures of conviction, a healthy sense of shame, compunction, virtue, knowledge of the Dhamma, generosity, and discernment. He talked about them as a wise investment. This is very much unlike what we’ve heard in modern days about how bad it is to have an attitude of spiritual materialism, the idea that you’re going to get something out of the practice or … 
  5. Self Determination
     … You practice generosity, you practice virtue, and especially you practice meditation, developing qualities of the mind where you take charge of your own mind for the sake of your long-term welfare and happiness. It’s one of those rare cases where you really do get to practice self-determination. Or in the Buddha’s terms, you direct yourself rightly. You choose your direction … 
  6. Planting a Tree
     … Practice generosity. Practice virtue. Practice meditation. Squeeze as much goodness as you can out of it before you have to discard the rind. And that connects with the last of the guardian meditations, which is recollection of death. The purpose of death recollection, of course, is heedfulness. We don’t know how much time we have, but we do have right now. When the … 
  7. Goodwill
     … It’s dependent on the generosity, the goodwill of other people. You look around the monastery here, everything here is a gift, or the result of a gift. So as we practice here, we’re doing it not just for ourselves, we’re also doing it for everyone who has provided the place where we live, the food that we eat, everything that makes … 
  8. Restlessness & Anxiety
     … Have some confidence in the Buddha, when he said that you protect yourself through your virtue, you protect yourself through your generosity and meditation. The more you can do these things now, the more protected you’ll be. In other words, make sure you’re living in a world where a Buddha is still remembered, the Dhamma is taught and practiced, and the Sangha … 
  9. Metta Meditation
     … There is a happiness that comes from training the mind—a happiness that comes from doing good things, developing qualities of mind like integrity, generosity, virtue, concentration, discernment. These are all good things to work on. The causes are good; the results are good. If you look at the human enterprise from this perspective, it takes on a whole new cast. And particularly if … 
  10. To Sustain Your Practice
     … The third quality is generosity. This means being generous with material things, but also being generous with the Dhamma, being generous with your time, being generous with your knowledge, being generous with your energy, being generous with your forgiveness. The fourth thing to look for is for someone who’s wise and discerning, and particularly who really discerns why we suffer and how we … 
  11. An Admirable Friend — In Memory of Luang Loong
     … You see the wisdom of generosity. As Ajaan Lee used to say, it’s like getting a coconut. You squeeze the milk out of the coconut flesh and you throw the dregs away. You take the milk. In the same way, when you give something away, you’ve basically squeezed all the good out of that thing. The object itself is like the dregs … 
  12. How the Tree Leans
     … Whereas if you develop the treasures of the mind—virtue, conviction, a healthy sense of shame, a healthy sense of compunction, learning, generosity, discernment: These things lean the mind in the right direction. Even more so, there’s the noble eightfold path. Why do you want the mind to lean? Well, think of a tree. There are trees that are leaning over all the … 
  13. Undefeated Goodwill
     … the causes and be willing and able to act on them.” When you think about it, the ways of looking for happiness that would be safe and effective come down to generosity, virtue, and meditation. This is where we look for happiness—if we have goodwill for ourselves, goodwill for others. The second quality that goes into determination is truth. Once we have thoughts … 
  14. A Post-goodness World?
     … welfare and happiness? What when I do it will lead to my long-term harm and suffering? And first-level answer to those questions is the three types of meritorious action: generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill. As the Buddha said, the term “act of merit” is another word for happiness. It’s a type of happiness that’s blameless. It doesn’t … 
  15. 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.
  16. 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 … 
  17. 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 … 
  18. 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 … 
  19. 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 … 
  20. 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 … 
  21. 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 … 
  22. Load next page...