Search results for: "Generosity"
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- Between Either & Or… You pursue certain pleasures—the pleasures of jhana, the pleasures that come from mastering virtue and concentration, generosity—so that you can use them. Use the pleasure of concentration to put the mind in the proper mood and the proper frame of mind, making it stable enough so it can really see things in a balanced way. And often this requires a lot of …
- Three Recollections… the six recollections are a standard list—recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Saṅgha; recollection of generosity, virtue, and the devas. They fall into two sets. The first three, of course, have to do with the three refuges. The last three have to do with reflecting on yourself—in a positive way. So tonight I’d like to talk about the first three …
- Holding On to the Path… reach that point, though, hold on tight, because these things really do carry you through all kinds of dangers, all kinds of problems. Each of them is a kind of protection. Generosity is a protection, the precepts are protection, concentration, discernment: These things are all protection for the mind. As long as it needs protection, they provide it. So hold on to them. Work …
- Help Others, Help Your Mind… Maybe Buddhist practice includes more things, like generosity and virtue.” She was right.So try to see this as an all-around practice. When you’re helping other people, as I said, be clear on the fact that you’re not just pleasing them. You’re trying to do things that are actually good for them, which sometimes may or may not be pleasing …
- Intelligent Respect… We live totally off of people’s voluntary generosity. We learn how to keep our needs small so that we don’t burden them. And we find that by living off gifts, we can give the Dhamma as a gift, which creates a special environment for learning the Dhamma, teaching the Dhamma. You may not notice that immediately when you hear about how things …
- Determination… As for relinquishment, that involves renunciation and generosity. Renunciation here doesn’t mean just giving up on things. Specifically, it means renouncing sensuality. Years back, I was reading an article saying that people don’t like the idea of renunciation, but basically, renunciation asks only that you give up your unhealthy attachments, which is to some extent true. But at the same time you …
- The Buddha’s Buffet… The third quality the Buddha recommends is generosity. Realize that giving a gift is a trade. By giving any excess wealth away, you develop good qualities in the mind. You develop a more expansive mind, a more generous mind, a more spacious mind, one that really does develop goodwill for others. As Ajaan Lee says, when you’re generous with other people, they’re …
- In Search of What’s Skillful… So this is something we should keep in mind all the way through our own practice, beginning with the practice of generosity, the practice of virtue, and on through meditation. You want to be very clear about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, what you anticipate, and then the results you actually get. As you get results, you have to learn …
- Perfection in an Imperfect World… After all, a part of developing perfections, of course, is developing the perfection of generosity and the perfection of virtue. These are the perfections with which you help the world as you’re helping yourself. With the perfection of renunciation, the Buddha is basically not talking simply about doing without. For him, renunciation means looking for your pleasures in places besides sensuality. That includes …
- Examine Your Happiness… There’s the pleasure of the precepts, the pleasure of generosity, both of which are conditioned things. There’s the pleasure in concentration, which is also conditioned, and you want to motivate yourself to develop that and to appreciate it, so that it can provide you with nourishment on the path. If you jump right in and say, “Well, everything is inconstant, stressful, and …
- Goodwill & Heedfulness… I’d come back, and the thought would really strike me: “Here I am, the beneficiary of a poor person’s generosity. I’ve got a lot to repay.” So I’d dedicate my practice to that person. So remember that when you’re meditating here, it’s not just for you. Other people are going to benefit. It begins with the example of …
- Non-Reactive Judgment… In the beginning, we work with generosity and virtue, and we want to be clear about what we’re doing, when we’re in line with our precepts and when we’re not. I got another phone call this morning from someone who, in a fit of real anger, had intentionally killed a mosquito. Even though it was a very small animal, the fact …
- Things As They Function… In other words, we practice generosity, we observe the precepts, and that trains the mind. Then we use that trained mind to look deeper into the mind. But it’s never a question of just sitting there and looking at whatever comes up in the mind. You’re trying to get the mind to act in as skillful a way as possible in its …
- The Context for No Context… We’re living off of other people’s generosity. Always keep that in mind. I’ve been told over the past week or so that people have been very careless about leaving the lights on. You may have noticed that the generator gets turned on every morning automatically when the batteries go too low. Solar electricity is essentially free, but when we use too …
- Alone with Your Mind… how fortunate it is that we’ve found a teaching that was discovered by someone who in the course of finding the truth was able to find true happiness—who needed nothing from anybody else and so, when he taught, he was engaged in a completely pure act of generosity. This is what he shared. This is what he discovered after having fought the …
- Dhamma in Line with the Dhamma… It starts with meditation, although meditation lies in a larger context where you’re learning to be generous and virtuous as well—practicing good qualities and seeing how happiness comes from being generous, from being virtuous, from being willing to follow whatever the dictates of your sense of what the appropriate way of generosity would be, and the dictates of the precepts as to …
- Noble Treasures… This is what the next treasure is about, i.e., generosity, the willingness to give, seeing that you’ve got something you’d like to share. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a material thing. It could be that you give of your time; you give of your experience; you give of your energy; you give forgiveness. This willingness to share, in itself …
- Delight… As the passage that we chant says again and again, “It’s admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable in the end.” We start with good principles like generosity and virtue, we move on through concentration and discernment, and arrive at a goal that’s absolutely excellent. So, when your defilements want to get you to delight in other things, think about …
- A Haven for Inner Wealth… And there’s generosity: realizing that you have more than enough. In other words, through your good intentions you’ve been creating lots of good things, and you can share them with other people. That lightens the mind, it expands the mind. There’s a sense of well-being that comes with that. That well-being, again, becomes food for the mind. It encourages …
- Refuge in an Admirable Friend… The Buddha goes on to talk about other qualities that you want to emulate in an admirable friend, such as conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. There’s even a passage where he adds the quality of learning. It’s good to read about the Buddha on a regular basis, to remind yourself that we live in a world where there has been a Buddha …
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