Search results for: "Generosity"
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- Varieties of Mindfulness… This doesn’t mean that you have to reflect on examples of perfect virtue or perfect generosity. Reflect on what you’ve been able to do as a means of encouragement. So there are topics of recollection to deal with just about every direction the mind can go when it falls off the path, topics of recollection to bring it back onto the path …
- Respect for the Path… virtue, concentration, discernment, based on generosity. So you show your respect for yourself by showing respect for what you do. Be careful in what you do, because it will have a big impact on not only the present moment, but also the future. When you take on the precepts, you’re being careful in what you do. No killing, no stealing, no illicit sex …
- Inconstant, Stressful, Not-self… our generosity, our virtue, our meditation. On the other hand, we have to reflect that we’re going to die, too. Where are you going to put your energy, where are you going to focus your time, however much time you have left? Because you don’t really know how much time you have. The Buddha says that the only people who are really …
- Insight Is Seeing What’s Worth Doing… term welfare and happiness?” Now you can interpret that on an external level, but you can also interpret it on an internal level. The external level is the practice of merit. Generosity leads to long-term welfare and happiness. Virtue leads to long-term welfare and happiness. Developing attitudes of universal goodwill in the mind leads to long-term welfare and happiness. Those are …
- Pissing on Palaces… What we’re living for as meditators is to develop the qualities—in some cases they’re called the noble treasures—of conviction, virtue, a sense of shame and compunction over the idea of doing something harmful, the willingness to learn, generosity, and wisdom. These are qualities of mind you can take with you, and you don’t want to scrounge around for them …
- Inner Refuge Through Inner Strength… For instance, as you’re sitting here meditating, you don’t have to think about generosity or virtue too much, except when you find that it gives you strength. Your sole concern right now is to remember that you want to be with the breath. And you keep reminding yourself that you want to stay here. Together with mindfulness, there’s alertness: You watch …
- Suffering Is a Feeding Addiction… You can feed it off generosity. You can feed it off virtue. You can feed it off concentration—all the good things that the Buddha set out in the path. This is why the path is an eightfold path. It requires all eight factors for it to do its work.
- Willing to Learn… Translate the skills of generosity and virtue into meditative skills. Then work on the more refined skills that come from just sitting here with the pain, sitting here with the stress in the mind, and realizing that the physical pain doesn’t have to stress the mind. You’re doing something wrong if you let it stress the mind. It’s not that you …
- Capable… But because of what the devas said, it’s become a tradition in the Buddha’s teachings that if you make merit—the devas limited it to the people who make merit by being virtuous, but other people have expanded it to include making merit through generosity—then you can make a determination. You can dedicate the merit to a particular result that you …
- Bless Yourself… Some of us have a lot of generosity in our background. Some of us tend to be more intelligent in a book-learning sort of way. Others have intelligence in other ways. Part of the Buddha’s wisdom was realizing that he could take you from wherever you are and, if you followed his instructions, he could get you to where he was. This …
- Recollection of the Buddha… an admirable friend, a person of conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment. That’s the kind of friend we want to develop outside, and the kind of friend we want to develop inside, too, so that we can be our own best friend. As we sit here and meditate, we can make it a pleasant pastime—doing it every now and then—or we can …
- Victory over Death… One of our strengths, of course, is meditation, training the mind, based on generosity, based on virtue. You develop good qualities of the heart and mind. It’s good to remember when training the mind that the Pali word for “mind,” citta, also means “heart.” So we’re not just training the thinking side of the mind. We’re also training the part of …
- New Feeding Habits… You don’t have to feed off of your generosity anymore. You don’t have to feed off your virtue; you don’t have to feed off your discernment. The goal is that good. The path is a good path. After all, learning to be a person of conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment—these are all good things: good things to do, ennobling things …
- Hindrances to the Heightened Mind… You could think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, think about your generosity, think about your virtue. As long as you’ve got the energy to think, think about good things. And finally, uncertainty: Ask yourself, what’s wise about uncertainty? You’re looking for the allure of these hindrances, that’s basically what it comes down to. Why do you go for …
- Guardian Meditations… You can think about your past generosity, especially when you’re feeling discouraged in your practice, when you feel that “I don’t have any good in me,” tell yourself, “What do I have in me? What do I have in the past that’s good?” Think of the times you’ve been generous when you didn’t have to be. Think of the …
- Choosing Freedom… You can think about your own generosity. You can think about your own virtue. Maybe your virtue isn’t perfect, but there have been times when you’ve been good. You’ve done the honorable thing; you’ve acted on your principles. You could think thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. Extend those to everybody you can think of—whatever you find calms …
- The Ennobling Path… It might be the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha; qualities of generosity, goodwill, any of the brahmaviharas ; the practice of virtue. Contemplate these things until the mind feels inspired. Once it gets lubricated, you can settle down with the breath again. And you find that the mind is willing to settle down and be still. So the practice of concentration is designed specifically …
- Generating Desire… You’re living off their generosity. As a return act of kindness to your supporters, you want to keep practicing partly to pay back the debt, partly so that their gifts to you will bear great fruit for them. That’s part of the way kamma works: If you purify your mind, those who support you will reap great rewards. The Buddha also talks …
- Accepting the Way Things Function… If you’re feeling discouraged, think thoughts about your generosity and your virtue: the good that you’ve done. Think in a way that gets the mind more and more in the mood to meditate. Then you can focus on the breath. Here, again, it’s not just awareness of the breath. There are also your perceptions, your visualizations. How do you visualize the …
- Feeding your Attack Dogs… So their consumption is actually an act of generosity. It’s an act of giving. It’s a very special way of living, so that instead of attack dogs eating, it’s all giving, giving, giving. As that comment Ajaan Suwat made once, when someone told him, “This Buddhism you guys teach would be really good if you had a god to give you …
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