Search results for: "Generosity"

  1. A Generosity of Spirit
     … However, the Buddha does note that one of the nice things about generosity, when it’s done well, is that you feel good about it beforehand, while you’re doing it, and afterwards. This is where you go beyond simple generosity in terms of where you feel inspired, and where you try to turn generosity into a skill, realizing that because your resources are … 
  2. Mundane Right View
     … This practice builds not only on generosity, but also on gratitude. If you open your eyes right now and look around, every material thing you see here is the result of somebody else’s generosity—maybe some of it’s your own generosity, but it’s all the result of people’s generosity. It’s here so that we can practice. The roofs over … 
  3. No Dharma Without Karma
     … If you can create a good environment in which to practice through your generosity and virtue, you gain a sense of self-esteem. As Ajaan Suwat once noticed, if you come to the practice without practicing generosity and virtue, you tend to be pretty grim about the practice. You don’t learn the counter-intuitive lessons from generosity and virtue: that happiness comes from … 
  4. Generosity First
     … So it’s important that we develop the Noble Wealth of generosity to bring to our meditation. The texts mention that when you get discouraged in your meditation, when the meditation gets dry, you should look back on past generosity. This gives you a sense of self-esteem, a sense of encouragement. Of course, what generosity are you going to look back on if … 
  5. The Buddha’s Currency
     … In the future lives, your generosity in this life leads to states of well-being in the higher realms. But right now, you’ve got a state of mind that you can trade up to something even higher than that. That’s how the Buddha would teach: From generosity you’d go to virtue, from virtue you’d go to the rewards of generosity … 
  6. Your Goodness is Your Protection
     … And your goodwill and your generosity will help you survive no matter where you go. If you go into a new society where you don’t know anybody, goodwill and generosity are the things that will carry you through. When things begin to break down, goodwill and generosity will carry you through. So remember: Your protection lies in your goodness, in the skillfulness of … 
  7. Sensitivity Through Generosity
     … This principle of generosity is an important foundation for wisdom. In other words, learning how to be generous, learning how to accept generosity, learning how to take care of other people’s generosity – not just in terms of things but in terms of the things they do for you: That kind of sensitivity then gets turned into your own sensitivity to yourself – what the … 
  8. In Debt to Generosity
     … The monastery we have here—the meditation hall, the huts, everything you look at, everything you can see here at the monastery—is the result of someone’s generosity, which means that our practice depends on other people’s generosity. And so in addition to learning to be generous ourselves as a support for one another and as an internal support for the practice … 
  9. Lessons from Generosity & Virtue
     … They’re recollection of virtue and recollection of generosity. At the very least they remind you that you have done good, that there are good members to your mind. You’re not totally hopeless. You’re not totally incapable of doing good in the world. They also remind you also that you’re capable of overcoming some of the mind’s more blatant forms … 
  10. Put Some Heart into Your Practice
     … As for generosity, the Buddha says that’s perfected with non-return—an even higher level of attainment—when you give, not because of any idea of getting anything out of it, but total giving away. Now, to get up there to that level of generosity, the Buddha says you start with thinking of good ways of motivating yourself in terms of what you … 
  11. Give It Your All
     … He started with generosity. He started with something you do. And he wanted to hook into his listener’s experience of what it’s like to have been generous: what was your experience of generosity in the past. Then from that point, he leads you into the Dhamma. So, what is your experience of generosity? On the one hand, there’s the generosity you … 
  12. Going Out of Your Way
     … The first is basically a matter of virtue; the second, a matter of generosity. And it’s interesting to note that when the Buddha teaches, he brings generosity up first. When he explains mundane right view, it starts with: “There is what is given.” In other words, the times we go out of our way to be helpful to other people, generous with other … 
  13. The Wisdom of Merit
     … Through generosity you bring a more spacious sense of mind to the practice. You have a sense of inner wealth. Because that’s what generosity is all about: You realize you do have the wealth to share. When you see the good that comes from giving, then when you come to the meditation, your first question is not, “What am I going to get … 
  14. One Thing Clear Through
     … You simply add more and more levels of subtlety to your practice, more and more levels of generosity, goodwill, and gratitude. The Buddha started his teaching with very basic mundane right view: the teaching on kamma. And he introduced kamma with two teachings: one on gratitude, one on generosity. He started out by saying that generosity is real. The gifts you give actually benefit … 
  15. Appreciating Merit
    There’s that chant we have at the end of every chanting session: “Through the power of all the Buddhas, all the Dhamma, all the Sangha, may you forever be well.” What is that power? Where does it come from? The Buddha gained his power from his generosity, his virtue, and his meditation, developing concentration, developing discernment all the way to nibbana. As did … 
  16. Strategies for Generosity
    The Buddha’s teachings are a teaching of generosity, goodwill, and harmlessness. Those are the underlying motivations for the practice, the underlying motivations for the teaching. So it might seem strange that there are so many military analogies and similes in the teachings. The ideal monk is compared to a warrior. The ideal meditator is compared to an elephant in battle and to an … 
  17. The Freedom to Give
     … In one way you could say that he staked his whole teaching on the connection between freedom and generosity. When people would come to ask him, “Where should a gift be given?” he would answer, “Wherever your mind feels inspired, wherever you feel it would be well used.” In other words, generosity is free. No restrictions. No “you should give here, you shouldn’t … 
  18. Three More Recollections
     … So what are those last three recollections? When you recollect generosity, you’re recollecting your own generosity. And here we’re talking about times when you gave a gift not because you had to—because it was a holiday or somebody’s birthday—but because you felt like doing it. It was a totally independent choice on your part. Thinking about that can be … 
  19. The Primacy of the Mind (1)
     … In the practice of generosity, you place yourself in the position of a creator. You create generosity; you create a gift. You can spend your time thinking about what would be a good gift to give to whom, and find some joy in exercising your imagination in acts of generosity—and then even more joy in carrying through. As for the precepts, you’re … 
  20. Joy in Getting It Right
    Joy in Getting It Right August 16, 2022 When you meditate, you’re watching your mind, so you want to give yourself a good mind to watch—“good” not in the sense of being smart with book learning, but more in the sense of having good qualities of the heart—a mind that’s used to acting on impulses for generosity, virtue, and goodwill … 
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