Search results for: "Generosity"
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- 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 …
- The Intelligent Heart… You’ve seen what the Buddha has to say so far about the virtue of generosity and the virtue of the precepts, the virtue of goodwill for all beings, and you see that it really is a good thing. It’s a happiness you can create under any circumstance, no matter where you are. Then you look at what he has to say about …
- 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 …
- In Gratitude- Ajaan Suwat… Part of straightening out yourself inside means that you have to overcome your stinginess, your lack of generosity. It also means that you have to get rid of any activities that would break the precepts. So, as you’re being self-centered in this way, you’re actually helping a lot of other people in the meantime. But the main focus is right here …
- Protection in all Directions… He would start out with generosity and virtue. The virtue here would cover all these ten skillful actions. Then he would move on, talking about the rewards of these skillful actions, but then he’d point out that those rewards have their drawbacks, if you don’t have something more solid. That something more solid is when you learn how to give up your …
- The Joy of Monotasking… The joy that comes from generosity: When you focus on your motivation, realize that your motivation is a good thing, and it’s good to have that good motivation in mind and to act on it. Learn to savor that. The same with the joy that comes from observing the precepts, being virtuous: You look back on your behavior and you realize there’s …
- Dispassion Is Freedom… You think of all the good things in generosity, the good things in virtue; the rewards of those things, but then you start thinking about the drawbacks. You work hard to get sensual pleasures and then they spoil you. As I’ve said before, it’s as if samsara were a sick joke. You work hard to get all these good things and then …
- Metta… through generosity, virtue, meditation. When you can think in this way, you realize that goodwill isn’t something that requires you put on rose-colored glasses or send out pink clouds or cotton-candy of nice thoughts. It’s extremely practical. It’s essential. It’s what allows you to live safely in the world.
- Ready for Death… by doing good in terms of generosity, virtue, meditation, creating opportunities for good places to go, and also by working on the skills you’re going to need at the moment of death. Just sitting here meditating as you want to stay with the breath, other thoughts come up that can wander away and lure you to wander away. You have to say, “No …
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