Search results for: virtue
- Page 16
- Direct Your Life… the path of generosity, virtue, and meditation.” It’s up to you to decide whether you want to follow his directions. If you do, then he’s got a lot to tell you: about how to think about generosity, how to think about virtue, how to practice the meditation so that you get the most out of it. So you look to his directions …
The Power of Karma
Patterns of Karma | February 17, 2026, morning
… So, in looking at these various good courses of action, you can see that skillful karma is not just a matter of precepts or of external virtue. It also relates to concentration and discernment. All levels of skillful action are interrelated. This also means, though, that having good virtue and understanding the principles of karma are an important foundation for the entirety of the …Show 9 additional results in this book-
Fistful of Sand & The Light of Discernment
Blatantly Clear in the Heart
… Come to see clearly what sufferings virtue can drive out of the heart, what obstacles to happiness and peace it can drive out of the heart — to see what sorts of benefits it can bring. Ask yourself: if you didn’t observe this or that precept, what would appear in your physical or verbal actions? A life composed of those actions: in what direction …Show 5 additional results in this book
- Thinking Your Way to Stillness… recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, virtue, generosity, and devas. He said to keep these things in mind while you’re living at home with your children and you’ll find that it will lead the mind to a sense of well-being, a sense of confidence, and from that sense of confidence the mind will eventually get concentrated. So these are …
- Like an Athlete in Training… Train your grandchildren to realize that virtue is what’s important in life. Of course, that’s true not only for grandchildren. It’s true for all of us. We want to behave in an honorable way, and so look at the opportunities for honorable action that come your way. Ask yourself, when you’re faced with a decision: What’s the honorable choice …
- Beyond Gratitude… the potential for virtue, the potential for concentration, the potential for discernment. They’re all here in one form or another. So you start out by depending on whatever virtue you have, whatever concentration, whatever discernment you do have already. Then learn how to make it grow so that it’s all-around. Ajaan Chah says that Ajaan Mun used to talk about making …
- The Bridge to Concentration… Ajaan Lee talks about restraint as the middle level of virtue beyond the lowest level of virtue, which is just practice on the level of the precepts. The middle level is when you start gaining some control over your sense doors. You have to be careful about how you look at things, how you listen and relate to all your other sensory input. You …
- The Karma of Self & Not-Self… What’s serious, he says, is loss of virtue and loss of your right view. These are areas where the world says, “Oh, those things are not important.” So you can see the Buddha’s values are very different from most people’s. He looked at things from the perspective of the really-long-term. If you lose your virtue, you’re going to …
Joy in Getting It Right
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, goodwill. That kind of mind is easy to watch. You …- Medicine for the Mind… Intentions that aim more toward generosity, toward virtue, toward goodwill for all. These are qualities you can develop inside. They’re good for you, and they’re good for the people around you. When you’re generous, of course, people benefit from what you give them. But you develop a broader mind, a more spacious mind, a more spacious heart inside. When you’re …
-
Contents
… Right View Mundane Right View Transcendent Right View Final Right View This/That Conditionality Readings Mundane Right View The Complexity of Kamma From Mundane to Transcendent Right View Giving Virtue Heaven Drawbacks Renunciation Transcendent Right View Perceptions for Inducing Dispassion for the Aggregates Craving for Becoming & Non-becoming Dependent Co-arising Final Right View On Not Confusing Levels of Right View IV. Right Resolve …
- An Island in the Flood… The texts talk about how mindfulness and concentration are dependent on virtue. As the Buddha said, the things that foster mindfulness are views made straight and careful virtue. But mindfulness and concentration help with your virtue as well, because they give you this center of strength, this island you can stand on, where you feel secure, where you feel well established. When you’re …
- The Heart of the Teachings… Perfecting skill in virtue also means developing the positive virtues that correspond to the precepts: It’s not that you simply don’t kill. You also show kindness and gentleness to living beings. It’s not that you simply don’t steal. You also help to protect other people’s belongings, and so on. And then you cleanse your intentions. Any intention that would …
- A Refuge Bigger than the World… loss of right view and loss of your virtue. Right view teaches you that your actions are important, that you have to hold on to your actions no matter what’s happening outside. No matter what other people are doing, you make sure that your actions are skillful, and to that extent you’re safe. That, of course, applies to your virtue as well …
- The Tools of the Path… At the same time, in developing virtue through these precepts, you’re focusing on what? You’re focusing on your intentions. That’s what makes the difference between breaking a precept and not breaking a precept: the intention behind your action. So the practice of virtue gives you practice in focusing on your mind. After all, concentration is what? It’s a solid, steady …
-
Things as They Can Be
The Desire to Make a Difference
… By affirming the value of giving and virtue, he showed his listeners that he was a principled teacher, unlike many of the teachers of his day who taught that giving and virtue were fruitless conventions and a waste of time. If his listeners had any sense of integrity—even hired killers can have a sense of right and wrong—they would recognize that the …Show 4 additional results in this book
- Resilience Plus… You think about your virtue, that you’re going to hold by your virtue in your response. And your generosity: You’re coming from a place of giving rather than being a place of being threatened. And finally, your discernment. What’s the most skillful thing to say or do at this time? Here, your discernment is aided by two other qualities that the …
- Always Observe Your Mind… The Buddha talks about four qualities conducive to a good rebirth—conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment—and there’s a lot of overlap between that list and the list of factors in the path to the end of suffering, especially in the virtue and the discernment. More basically, there’s overlap in the sense that, as you’re following those four practices that lead …
- Born for the Perfections… generosity or giving, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. The list doesn’t have a progressive nature, which is why I like to discuss it under the headings of determination. There are four qualities that go into determination, and the different *paramis *can fit neatly under the four qualities. The first determination is discernment. That includes the perfection of discernment …
- A Trustworthy Mind… The next quality is virtue or restraint—which is what virtue is all about, restraining yourself from doing harmful things. Again, if you encounter that in another person, that person is likely to be a person you can trust—much more than someone who doesn’t exercise restraint, who’s very casual about the principle of trying to restrain himself from doing harm. Stay …
- Load next page...
