Search results for: virtue
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- Skills to Make You Free… The next two skills are that you train yourself in virtue and train yourself in discernment: your ability to see what’s going on in the mind, what choices you’re making, which ones are skillful, which ones are not. The final two skills are the ability not to let the mind be overcome by pain and not to let the mind be overcome …
- Being a Buddhist… then the very first thing is that you live a life of virtue. This is why nowadays when they have formal ceremonies for people who want to declare themselves Buddhist, after you take the Triple Refuge you take the five precepts, which means that you will not intentionally kill, steal, have illicit sex, take intoxicants, or lie. This sort of virtue is the second …
- Communal Harmony… You’re trying to develop good qualities of all kinds, not just mindfulness, not just concentration—but all the virtues of a good heart. When we have these qualities, qualities of a good mind, qualities of a good heart, then the fact that we’re living together here actually becomes a source of joy rather than an irritation. And our own practice will develop.
- A Radiant Practice… generosity, virtue, and meditation. They cover a lot of different activities. Generosity covers a huge range of activities. Simple things like cleaning up the place, little acts of kindness, anything that makes you feel good that you’ve gone out of your way to do something good: That’s merit. It’s the same with virtue. There are areas where you could have said …
- Meticulous… This is the point that Ajahn Chah was aiming at when he constantly talked about how virtue, concentration, and discernment are all the same thing. It’s not that you pick up one and then drop it when you go on to the next. You just get better and better at this one thing: virtue-concentration-discernment. And that’s how *all *the aspects …
- Long-term Wisdom… The same with virtue. Sometimes it may be difficult in the beginning to go against your old habits that the Buddha said you shouldn’t be doing, but once you get the hang of it, you find that it really is a lot more comfortable living in a world where you’re not causing anybody any harm. And the same with meditation. Once the …
- Mind the Gap… So it’s not just the meditation, it’s also the generosity, the virtue—all the things the Buddha said lead to your long-term welfare and happiness. Those are the things that protect you. From what? Well, from your own bad impulses. So the problem is inside, but the solution lies inside as well. Look for it. It’s there.
- Not Crushed by the World… In fact, that’s a large part of the virtue of following the precepts: that you want to be consistent. Even people who break the precepts aren’t breaking them all the time. They’re not killing all the time or stealing all the time. As the Buddha noted, even people who are really sloppy about the precepts actually spend more time not breaking …
- Developing Inner Wealth… That’s one of the virtues of having this kind of wealth inside: It’s protection. So focus your attention on inner wealth. As for outer wealth, learn to use it in a way that gives rise to more inner wealth. Because the inner wealth is where all the true happiness and security lie.
- Delighted but Not Satisfied… generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. Those are all things we can develop, and you can develop them all the time. When you think in these terms, it’s not just a practice for sitting with your eyes closed. It’s a practice in all ways: developing the right attitude toward other people; developing the right attitudes toward your …
- The Buddha’s Encouragement… This is true all the way from the practice of virtue through concentration and discernment. Sometimes in the practice of virtue it’s a matter of brute determination: that you’re just going to see it through, not let yourself get discouraged. One of the images is of a soldier who hears that there’s an army coming; sees the cloud of dust; actually …
- Serenity… You can reflect on your own virtue, you can reflect on your own generosity. These are calming thoughts as well: realizing that even though your virtue may not be perfect, you’ve got at least some good things that you’ve done in your past. Your generosity may not be perfect, but there are areas where you’ve helped other people: either through material …
- Samvegic Ironies… The only people whose virtue is firm are, at the very least, stream-enterers, those who have had their first glimpse of the deathless. And they’re going to be around for only seven more lifetimes at most. Otherwise, everybody is unreliable. They can be very good, but all too often their goodness depends on unstable conditions. They listen to the wise ones, they …
- Dedicating Merit… But if we look for happiness in virtue, generosity, and meditation, that creates a greater sense of unity. People see you’re doing something good. Even if they don’t immediately benefit from it, they see that it’s a good thing that the world has good people in it. They benefit. You benefit. The people who are recipients of your generosity, the people …
- Your News… They practiced virtue, they practiced generosity, training their minds again and again and again. So instead of looking for goodness through having to take things out of the world, you look for goodness in giving to the world. That way, you yourself achieve a greater deal of happiness and you set a good example for others. You become good news for them, good examples …
- Born for Perfections… generosity, virtue, endurance, wisdom, a long list of good qualities. It was because of those good qualities that he was able to find success in his endeavors, to find happiness. So if you want to find true happiness, you want to devote your life to developing the paramis, developing your perfections: being generous, being virtuous, learning powers of endurance. We like a birthday blessing …
- Evaluation… It could be recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, recollection of your own generosity, your own virtue, even recollection of the devas. **With the recollection of the devas, it’s not simply thinking about the fact that there **are devas, but thinking more about the qualities that make them devas. You realize you’ve got those qualities in yourself: conviction, virtue, generosity …
- The Bowl of Oil… It includes generosity and virtue along with the meditation, and so be happy in other people’s generosity. Now is a good time for us to practice our generosity, too. Especially for those of us who live here long-term, there’s a common tendency to start getting possessive about the place. And this is a good reminder: We’re not in this alone …
- Quick to Change… But to lose your virtue, to lose your right view: That’s a really serious loss. So once you know you’re going in a good direction, stay with the good direction. Maintain these things as your treasures: your goodwill; your right view; your precepts—maintaining mindfulness to remember these things so the mind doesn’t change directions on you, taking you down to …
- Taking the Long View… When the Buddha talks about the treasures that we can develop in the mind— things like conviction, virtue, shame, compunction, learning, generosity, and discernment—we can also develop their opposites. So the question is, which side do you want to take with you—the skillful side or the unskillful side? Because these are the things that you can take with you. The things of …
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