Search results for: virtue
- Page 31
- True Protection for the World… How can you not sit here and train your mind given all the bad examples out there in the world, all the dangers out there in the world? Where else are you going to find the strength to maintain your virtue, to keep your goodness alive? The nourishment that keeps your goodness alive has to come from within. Your goodness is something that has …
- Why Now… These three qualities that go into the practice of meditation are based on the practice of generosity and virtue. With generosity, you’re mindful of the needs of others. You’re alert to an opportunity to help. And you make the effort. With virtue, you’ve got to keep the precept in mind. You’re alert to whether your behavior is in line with …
Head & Heart Together
No Strings Attached
… Several of the samaṇa, or contemplative, movements of the Buddha’s time countered the brahmans’ claims by asserting that there was no virtue in giving at all. Their arguments fell into two camps. One camp claimed that giving carried no virtue because there was no afterlife. A person was nothing more than physical elements that, at death, returned to their respective spheres. That was …Show 5 additional results in this book- The Buddha’s Dream… But the real difficulty is in learning how not to be soiled by the rewards of generosity and virtue. That’s why we meditate and get the mind under control, so that whenever bad things come our way, we can turn them into something good. Whatever good things may come our way, we can prevent them from turning into something bad. That’s the …
- Forest Bathing… Those instructions come down basically to virtue, concentration, discernment, all based on a principle of generosity. So, stop for a while and think about what that means. Happiness is found through generosity and then perfected through virtue, concentration, and discernment. This is why we meditate. This is how we escape danger. A forest is a good place to do this because as you let …
- Values of the Noble Ones… generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity. Those are all good things to develop. You simply have to figure out which ones are appropriate right here and now. If the list of ten is too long, just think, “How about goodwill?” Goodwill is not just a pink-cotton-candy attitude you spread out with cloud machines. It’s basically thinking, “What …
- The Focus on Suffering… One is virtue, you actually observe the precepts. Look at the way you act; look at the way you speak. Try to be more and more skillful at those things. That fosters right view. Listen and learn, read. That’s another factor. Discuss what you’ve learned to make sure your understanding’s right. And then there are the two factors of tranquility and …
- Anger… Think about their virtues, think about their generosity, think about their good side so that your response isn’t one-sided. That’s the problem with anger: It looks at things from one side. It’s like a one-eyed beast. It has no perspective. When you bring in two eyes, you can look at the good side and the bad side of the …
- 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 …
- Look After Yourself with Ease… All the skills of the path—generosity, virtue, meditation—are there for you to learn how to become more independent in looking after yourself, more capable of looking after yourself even in difficulties, so that you don’t have to be a burden on others. And your happiness doesn’t have to depend on conditions being just so. There’s a passage in the …
- 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 …
- Noble Wealth… Based on conviction, there’s virtue, a sense of shame. In other words, you’d be ashamed to do things that are harmful. A sense of compunction: You just don’t want to do things that are harmful. This leads to discernment. As you understand the mind more and more, you get more control over the mind. So you actually do create happiness instead …
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 …
- 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 …
- Load next page...
