Search results for: virtue
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Straight from the Heart
Glossary
… Perfection of the character—generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, forbearance, truthfulness, determination, good will, and equanimity. Parisā: Following; assembly. The four groups of the Buddha’s following are monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Pāṭimokkha: The basic code of 227 precepts observed by Buddhist monks, chanted every half-month in each assembly of monks numbering four or more. Phala: Fruition. Specifically, the fruition of any …Show 2 additional results in this book- Strength of Persistence… If generosity comes with difficulty, if virtue comes with difficulty, goodwill comes with difficulty, try to look at these activities as a challenge, look at them as an adventure. You’re going to try something new, and you’re going to learn to see satisfaction in seeing your stinginess fall away or the carelessness that would get in the way of virtue: You see …
- Bless Yourself… It’s something, like virtue, that you want to make universal. It’s a wish for your own happiness and a wish for happiness of all other beings. The way the Buddha expresses this, in what might be called his metta phrases, always includes the fact that people are going to be happy not because you wish them happiness, but because they behave in …
- Steal the Dhamma… You ask yourself, “How far have I come in conviction? How far have I come in generosity, virtue, discernment, learning, ingenuity?” Four of those qualities—conviction, virtue, generosity, discernment—are the qualities of an admirable friend. So, to what extent have you learned from your admirable friends? To what extent are you an admirable friend to yourself? Then there’s learning, which means learning …
- Not Resolved on Self… This relates to the practice of virtue. So right resolve is basically taking the insights that come from the four noble truths and applying them to your practice of virtue, concentration, and the discernment that sees that goodwill is the way to go—in other words, really working on developing goodwill, because you see that the skillfulness of your actions depends on goodwill for …
- Refuge in the Dhamma… What qualities do you want to develop in the mind? Virtue, concentration, discernment, mindfulness, alertness, patience, endurance? This is where you develop another level of refuge, when you start to take the Dhamma inside and you turn yourself into a more reliable person. If you work on developing your mind through mindfulness, you find over time that it really does make a difference in …
- Your Karma Comes First… We’re convinced of the value that the real treasures that we have are our virtue, our concentration, our sense of shame and compunction, the effort we put into the practice. These are our treasures, because they really do have value. There are times when in following the precepts we may lose out in terms of the goods of the world. But those goods …
Beyond All Direction
… persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment, virtue. He showed that by developing these things, we can get the same results he did. So when anyone else teaches otherwise, we have this to hold on to: that our actions really do make a difference. They really are important. Having that external refuge helps protect us from external dangers. In terms of the Dhamma, the external level of …- Good All Around… Ananda went to see the Buddha and said, “When I heard that Sariputta had passed away, I lost my bearings.” The Buddha responded, “Did he take virtue with him? Did he take concentration? Did he take discernment with him?” “No.” Those things are still there. They’re still things that we can do. So that gives us hope, that there are good things that …
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Bringing Daily Life into the Practice
… Those come under virtue—training in heightened virtue. Seclusion comes under training in heightened mind, or concentration. And then, right view comes in training in heightened discernment. So, you’re taking this triple training and you’re making *this *the framework of your life. Then you can judge which parts of your life as you’ve been living it so far fit into that …
- The Dhamma Bucket List… Generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity: Which of these qualities is lacking in your mind? See if you can squeeze some of that out of your activities. And how would you go about developing those qualities? You can develop them in daily life. You can develop them by making up your mind you’re going to make a special donation …
- How to Look, How to Listen… Right speech, right action, and right livelihood are factors of heightened virtue. Right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration are factors for heightened concentration, or the heightened mind. But then when he lists the order in which they come as the triple training is accomplished, he starts with virtue and then the concentration, and then—from the virtue and the concentration—you foster discernment …
- The Need for a Purpose… Someone asked the Buddha one time, “What is virtue for?” “Virtue is for the sake of developing concentration.” “What’s concentration for?” “Concentration is for the sake of developing discernment.” “What’s discernment for?” “For the sake of release.” “What’s release for?” “For the sake of unbinding, total freedom.” “What’s unbinding for?” The Buddha said, “No, stop there. Your question is going …
- Skillful Thinking… Now, to be able to do this, you’ve got to develop good strong qualities in the mind—virtue, concentration, discernment—-which are things you want to develop. Then when you see the craving passing away, that’s something you want to notice. You want to watch that and realize what’s happening. So there are four potential duties you’ve got here in …
- Audacious & Undaunted… Everything from right view to right concentration boils down to virtue, concentration, and discernment. These are the qualities that allow you to abandon your cravings if you do them right. You practice virtue to get some control over your cravings, and also to get sensitive to what the mind is thinking, what its intentions are when it acts. Because the precepts can be broken …
- Hold On to the Right Perceptions… One of the virtues of meditation is that it gets you skilled at sticking with one perception despite other contacts that are coming in. The contact comes and it goes. And the perceptions, if you’re not careful: They can come and go, too. But you want to latch on to the ones that are really helpful right now. That gives you the strength …
- Magha Puja… The incense stands for virtue. As the texts say, the fragrance of virtue is greater than any other fragrance in the world because it can go against the wind. Other fragrances can only go downwind, but this one goes against the wind. A person who’s virtuous is attractive to other people no matter where they are. So the incense stands for virtue, the …
- A Dhamma Bucket List… The second quality is virtue. You want to make sure that your actions are in line with the five precepts, because you don’t want the kind of kamma that comes from having broken the precepts. This involves a certain amount of pride, a certain sense of self-esteem. This is a healthy pride that goes with observing the precepts. And it builds up …
- Your Inner Teacher… As he said, if you want to know a person’s virtue, you have to live with that person for a long time and be very observant. If you want to know that person’s purity—in other words, that person’s honesty, uprightness—you have to have dealings with that person over a long period of time and you have to be very …
- Anumodana… Not necessarily to encourage them to come back and give more, but just to encourage them in the qualities of generosity virtue, and developing goodwill. These are things that should be encouraged because we all benefit. After all, the practice is one where we’re not in competition with one another. If someone else is practicing really well, it gives energy to the people …
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