Search results for: virtue
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- Timeless Practice… Or, in the case of Thailand early in the 20th century, it was excuse for the government to get monks to get involved in starting an educational system, to do things besides their basic practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment, leading to release. But those excuses have no force if you don’t want them to have any force. It’s up to you …
- Scaffolding for the Practice… the practice of generosity, the practice of virtue, the practice of meditation. These are things you hold on to. These are the scaffolding. And you want the scaffolding to be strong enough to hold you. So whatever time it takes, put in the time. Sometimes we have the feeling that we’ve got to rush through the various steps to get to the good …
- Grateful to Our Mothers… So when you have an opportunity to do good in terms of generosity, in terms of virtue, in terms of meditation, remember you got that goodness from your mother and your father, you got that goodness from your parents. And so you want to make sure that that goodness doesn’t die. What makes human life worthwhile is the good things we do for …
- Why We Practice the Way We Do… The same with the practice of virtue: You abstain from harming others and you develop a mind of goodwill. Not only is it a mind of goodwill, but it finds its expression in what you do and say around other people. You develop good qualities in this way and you abandon unskillful ones. You’re getting the mind ready to practice concentration, because virtue …
Glossary
… conviction, virtue, shame, compunction, erudition, generosity, and discernment. Āsava: Effluent; fermentation. Four qualities—sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance—that “flow out” of the mind and create the flood of the round of death and rebirth. Asura: A member of a race of beings who, like the Titans in Greek mythology, battled the devas for sovereignty in heaven and lost. Atammayatā: Non-fashioning, i.e …- Voluntary Practice… There’s generosity, there’s virtue, and there’s meditation: These are the three things that we work on. But they’re all good. Again, nobody’s forcing you to take the precepts, but you begin to see as you follow them that life really does get better. You create fewer problems for yourself, fewer problems for the people around you. So you try …
- A Sense of Direction… It starts out with virtue: the decision not to indulge in any actions or words that harm yourself or harm other people. You realize that if your happiness depends on other people being harmed, it’s not going to last because they’re not going to stand for it. So you start with virtue. You move on to concentration. Again, concentration causes no harm …
- What You’re Choosing to Do Right Now… In terms of developing generosity, virtue, and meditation, these are all exercises in learning about your freedom of choice. Generosity is probably one of the first ways, as children, that we realize our freedom of choice. We can choose to give something or not give something. The Buddha’s teachings on generosity deal not with gifts that we give because we have to, but …
- Consistently on the Path… You can have the pride and self-esteem that can come with virtue. When people try to tempt you—with their money or their rewards, their recognition, or their whatever—to do something against the precepts, and you can say no, that means you’ve got a precept that’s worth more than whatever amount of money they were offering, more than any amount …
- Dethinking Thinking… Why is it that in some of the lists you have discernment coming first, and then virtue, then concentration, and in others you start out with virtue, then concentration, then discernment—or mindfulness, discernment, then leading to concentration? What’s going on there? And what patterns are consistent? You’ll find that one pattern is always consistent: that mindfulness comes before concentration. In some …
- One Thing Clear Through… The same with virtue: You realize there are some things you would want to do that would cause harm but you realize, okay, you’re better off not doing them, so you give them up. When you sit here and meditate, there are other things you could be thinking about. But, no, you’re going to stay here with the breath. Any other thoughts …
- Getting the Most Out of the Present… In particular, whatever goodness you may want to develop in terms of generosity, virtue, all the qualities that are called perfections: Those are things you develop. That’s the duty there, and in that way your life away from formal practice is not wasted. We have only so much time, but we also have duties that are imposed on us, either from outside or …
- Appreciating Goodness… He lists three types of goodness in particular—generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill—because these are ways of finding happiness that don’t cause any harm to anybody. The Buddha never said that the search for happiness is a bad thing. He never said that you should try to deny your happiness for the sake of others. He said you should work …
- Dedicating Goodness, Spreading Goodwill… One is generosity and the other is virtue. Generosity, of course, means giving. And as the Buddha said, you give where you feel inspired. But if you want your giving to be skillful, you want to be careful about your motivation for giving, the actual items you give, and the people you give to. You can turn generosity into a skill. Your motivation may …
- Prerequisites for the Practice… The second quality is virtue. You want to look for someone who sticks to the precepts and encourages other people to stick to the precepts. That means following the precepts in all situations, without exceptions. As the Buddha once said, when you hold to the precepts in all situations, you’re giving universal safety to all beings and you have a share in that …
- Strong Against Anger & Fear… The virtue you maintain, the discernment you develop—these are all treasures. They’re not the kind of treasure that the kings can take away from you, dictators can take away from you, fire can burn, or water can wash away. The only way you can lose them is if you throw them away yourself. So you have to be heedful. That’s the …
- Right Action & Right Livelihood… Remember, as the Buddha said, “Concentration fostered by virtue has great fruit.” Now, it is possible to get the mind into concentration without virtue, but the fruit is going to be spoiled. As you’re practicing right concentration, remember: You want a good crop of fruit—something you can feed on to maintain the livelihood of the mind. So make sure that these factors …
- A Day of Gratitude… As Ajaan Lee said, the teachings on how to practice virtue, concentration, and discernment are like a recipe for a medicine. If you’ve never taken the medicine, you don’t know how good it is, so the recipe just sits there. If nobody pays any attention to it, after a while people say, “Well, this is just old trash, old pieces of paper …
- A Good Path to Be On… He says you can develop the skills of virtue, concentration, and discernment so that they can lead to total freedom. Think about that. Whenever you’re getting discouraged, remind yourself that there is this opening. There’s a possibility for you to become more and more skillful. And it doesn’t have to depend on anybody else. You don’t have to go around …
- Warm Your Heart… After all, acts of merit—generosity, virtue, developing universal goodwill—are the first answer to the question that the Buddha says lies at the beginning of discernment, wisdom: “What when I do it will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness?” Think about the wisdom there: One, you see that happiness is going to depend on your actions. Two, long-term is possible …
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