Search results for: virtue

  1. Page 28
  2. In an Imperfect World
     … So we work on the perfections, starting with generosity, virtue, renunciation, all the way up through goodwill and equanimity. But we have to do it in an imperfect world. Just accept that fact. Then do your best with what you can inside the mind, inside the qualities that you develop, while you’re meditating, while you’re engaged with other people. All your activities … 
  3. Good Judgment
     … But then you find people who really are good, who have the qualities of an admirable friend—conviction, virtue, generosity, discernment—then you try to spend more time with them. As you get skillful at judging things outside, then you start getting more skillful at judging your own mind. The factors of right concentration include evaluation, as when you evaluate how well your mind … 
  4. Opportunities in the Present
     … What are you doing right now? What are you saying, what are you thinking? Are you making the most of the opportunity to do something good, in the form of generosity in the form of virtue, all the other good qualities of mind? The potential is always right here. So look right here. Stay right here as consistently as you can. You’ll get … 
  5. Book search result icon It's Like This It's Like This: 108 Dhamma Similes
     … The same with virtue, concentration, and discernment: Virtue, in simple terms, is abandoning evil. A person without virtue is hot. If he abandons evil, he cools down, for he has no guilt. That lack of guilt is the reward of virtue. It makes the mind peaceful. The mind gets concentrated. When the mind is concentrated, it’s clear and clean. You can see lots … 
  6. Mountains Moving In
     … But if you look at the qualities that the Buddha asks you to develop as you practice the path—virtue, concentration, and discernment, or wisdom, purity, and compassion: These are all qualities you can be proud of. Ajaan Suwat used to make the point that sometimes you hear it said in Thailand that the essence of the Buddha’s teachings is that you shouldn … 
  7. You Are Not Powerless
     … Getting your passport is like practicing the precepts, developing virtue. And then learning the language of where you’re going means learning how to meditate. But you don’t practice just to shape a future lifetime. The Buddha also teaches us how we can shape a better lifetime for ourselves right here, right now. For instance, he describes the four things that lead to … 
  8. Abandoning Effluents (1)
     … The way the Buddha would prepare you is through a life of generosity, a life of virtue. As for your reflections on your generosity and virtue, you ask yourself: What kind of actions lead to long-term well-being? And how do you relate to long-term well-being? After all, ordinary actions that are relatively skillful can lead to good results. But the … 
  9. Make the Causes Complete
     … Some people like to do meditation but are not interested in generosity or virtue. Other people are interested in generosity but not interested in meditation. The happiness that comes from that kind of attitude is very partial. It’s not complete. So when we want the results to be complete, we have to make sure the causes are complete. That way, our happiness is … 
  10. Life in the Context of the Practice
     … Based on that there’s virtue, and then a sense of shame and a sense of compunction. Virtue is the desire not to harm. It’s making up your mind not to harm. We have to consciously take this on as our value because there are so many arguments and so many voices saying that there are times when you do have to kill … 
  11. True Values
     … Then there’s the wealth of virtue, where you abstain from harming anyone at all. You hold to the precepts. That’s your expression of giving safety to everyone. And when you give safety to everyone in that way—you’re not going to kill, you’re not going to steal, you’re not going to have illicit sex, you’re not going to … 
  12. Happiness Comes from Your Actions
     … generosity, virtue, and meditation. What’s interesting with meditation is that he also defined it as a restraint, in other words keeping your mind under control, restraining it from doing anything that would be out of line with the qualities you have to develop for the mind to be really skillful. We start first, as he said, with heedfulness. That’s the basis for … 
  13. One Thing Clear Through
     … Every aspect of the path, starting with generosity as a foundation for the path, and then the training in what the Buddha calls heightened virtue, heightened mind, and heightened discernment: This is the way out. We’re training not just the mind but also the heart, which is why generosity is a good place to begin. The word citta, in Pali, covers both mind … 
  14. Mindful All the Way
    The Buddha says that among the rewards for generosity and virtue is rebirth in heaven. But then we read that rebirth in a good destination is guaranteed only in the case of a stream-enterer—in other words, someone who’s had a first taste of awakening. That sets the bar a lot higher. So the question is, what about those earlier promises? The … 
  15. Getting Along, Inside & Out
     … This would, of course, involve discernment, virtue, and all the other factors of the path. But behave consistently toward yourself as a meditator. Make sure that your mind stays in the right place as you go through the day. It’s not that you’re a meditator only when you’re sitting here with your eyes closed. You’re a meditator all through the … 
  16. Truths of the Will
     … What am I becoming right now?” What kind of person are you becoming? We’re all becoming older, but what kind of older person are you becoming? Are you gaining in wisdom with age? Are you gaining in discernment, gaining in concentration, gaining in virtue? Or is your aging pulling you someplace else? That’s a question you have to ask day after day … 
  17. Goodwill for the Breath
     … We practice generosity, we practice virtue, as means for long-term happiness. We come to meditate, and it’s for the same purpose. So you want to do the meditation with an attitude of goodwill: goodwill for the people around you, goodwill for yourself, and goodwill for your breath. That’s the object of meditation you’re going to be working with. If you … 
  18. A Good Purpose in Life
     … generosity, virtue, renunciation, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. In our practice, we have to develop all of these qualities and we have to see the opportunity to develop them as something really precious. There was one time when Ajaan Fuang was going to lead a group of his students up to the chedi at the monastery in order to meditate. The chedi … 
  19. Still Right Here
     … There’s virtue; there’s concentration; there’s discernment. It’s called the triple training. As he said, this training is a middle way between two extremes: the extreme of self-torture and the extreme of sensual indulgence. For most of us, those are the only alternatives. If we see there’s pain, we run to sensual pleasures. If we can’t find sensual … 
  20. You Are a Factory
     … You can create generosity, you can create virtue, create mindfulness, concentration, discernment. There all kinds of good things that you can create. So look at your factory here. What are you manufacturing? And what kind of quality control are you exerting? Sometimes you just create things and let them out into the world without really looking at whether they really should be let into … 
  21. You Can Take It With You
     … There’s generosity, virtue, renunciation, patience or endurance, truthfulness, effort and energy, determination, goodwill and equanimity. These qualities are good for the mind. These are qualities that keep it strong. You carry them with you wherever you go, even as you leave this life. When you come into this life, you bring them with you; when you go on to the next life, you … 
  22. Load next page...