Search results for: virtue

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  2. Page search result icon Names for Nibbāna
     … Following the road involves fostering, among other things, generosity, virtue, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. Through these qualities, we develop the wisdom and compassion to see that nirvana really is the wisest and most compassionate goal we can set for ourselves: wise in that, unlike other goals, it’s more than worth the effort and will never disappoint; compassionate in that we not only remove … 
  3. 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 … 
  4. 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 … 
  5. 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 … 
  6. 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 … 
  7. 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 … 
  8. 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 … 
  9. 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 … 
  10. 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 … 
  11. 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 … 
  12. 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 … 
  13. 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 … 
  14. 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 … 
  15. Overcoming Doubt
    We listen to the Buddha’s teachings about goodness and how it’s generated from within. Generosity comes from within. Virtue comes from within. Goodwill comes from within. We listen to the teachings, and they make sense. That’s called acceptance. But beyond acceptance there’s conviction. Conviction is not merely a matter of saying, “Yes it sounds good.” You actually try to live … 
  16. No Happiness Other than Peace
     … Generosity, virtue, meditation. Those are just the beginning. Those are just the big ones. There are lots of subsidiary ones as well. And they all can be developed in here, because we have these good potentials inside. We have so many good potentials that we don’t take advantage of because we’re looking in the wrong place. Look in the right place. Look … 
  17. Wanting Harmless Happiness
     … Whereas when you’re practicing virtue, concentration, and discernment, when you’re practicing generosity as well, you’re finding happiness that enables us all to get along. So you don’t see any need to harm anybody else in order to get what you want. We’re learning to change what we want because we realize that what we wanted in the past that … 
  18. Protection in all Directions
     … He would start out with generosity and virtue. The virtue here would cover all these ten skillful actions. Then he would move on, talking about the rewards of these skillful actions, but then he’d point out that those rewards have their drawbacks, if you don’t have something more solid. That something more solid is when you learn how to give up your … 
  19. Your Actions Are Yours
     … As the Buddha says, with stream-entry, you’ve perfected virtue, but there’s still work that needs to be done in terms of concentration and discernment. And the “I am” is going to be doing that work. When that work is done, then you can put the “I am” aside. So there’s an “I” lingering around even at that stage of the … 
  20. Dispassion Is Freedom
     … Without any passion for the path, it’s hard to develop virtue, hard to develop concentration, hard to develop discernment. So you do concentrate passion on the path. As it says in that chant we have from the Ariyavamsika Sutta, you develop a passion for developing and a passion for abandoning: developing skillful qualities, abandoning the unskillful ones. You want to take your pleasure … 
  21. Two Roads to the Grand Canyon
     … If virtue were easy or natural, it wouldn’t require training. The Buddha wouldn’t have called it a training. The same with concentration: You do have to put an effort into it. It’s a very delicate effort in the sense that it requires a lot of precision, but it also requires strong dedication. The same with discernment: You have to think things … 
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