Search results for: virtue
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- Safety in an Uncertain World… He does this with his standards in terms of virtue, concentration, and discernment. He helps to protect us against our doing unskillful things, thinking unskillful things, saying unskillful things, because the uncertainties of the world are nothing compared to a mind that’s uncertain, that can’t trust itself, so we have to learn how to make ourselves trustworthy. This is why the precepts …
- Insight Is a Judgment Call… The same with virtue: There are lots of things you could gain by breaking the precepts, but there comes a point when you realize they’re not worth it. It’s better to have the precept than to have the money that could come, say, from lying, stealing, or cheating. You begin to see things in terms of cause and effect, actions and the …
- Attachment to Views… Remember the four noble dhammas? Noble virtue, noble concentration, noble discernment, and noble release. The first three are for the sake of the last. The release is the essence of the teaching. It’s the core, the heartwood of the teaching. That’s where this is all aimed. Everything else is right or wrong as it helps in that direction. This is why when …
- Delighting the Mind… The Buddha talks many times, when he’s describing the steps of the practice, about how you gladden the mind through the practice of virtue and through abandoning the hindrances. Then, when the mind is glad, it finds it easy to settle down. So what can you do right now to gladden the mind? In some cases, the Buddha talks about a fever in …
The Buddha’s Teachings
The Buddha’s Teachings
… However, even the goodness of this sort of generosity is a small thing compared to the goodness of virtue. Virtue Virtue is the voluntary intention to behave harmlessly. Training in virtue starts by taking on and following the five precepts. This means that you resolve not to intentionally engage in: 1) killing any human being, or any animal large enough to be seen with …- Appropriate Attention Plus Admirable Friendship… Conviction in the principle of action, in other words, belief that what you do really does matter, really will make a difference, generosity, virtue, and discernment. The Buddha said that one of the advantages of living with a person like that is that you get a good example and, two, you get to hear the Dhamma. But sometimes the examples shout louder than the …
- Making Progress… You have the treasure of your virtue, you have the treasure of having conducted yourself well with other people in areas outside of the precepts. You have your livelihood: Is your livelihood a good livelihood? And then finally there are your views: Are your views right? If your views are wrong, they can send you off in all sorts of directions. So you want …
- The Wear & Tear of Life… generosity, virtue, and meditation. These are ways of looking for happiness that cause no harm to anybody and actually spread well-being around. If your happiness depends on material gain, status, praise, sensual pleasures, then it creates boundaries, because when you gain something, somebody else has to lose it. But the happiness that comes from being generous, the happiness that comes from being virtuous …
- The Buddha’s Defense Policy… In fact, they’re happy that you are a person of virtue and are a person who’s generous. So this kind of wealth is safe and harmless. The two go together. When you’re harmless, you’re safe. When you’re harmful to other people, you’re not safe at all. So you want to be very clear about, when you’re doing …
- Determining Merit… This is why we practice generosity, why we practice virtue, why we meditate: to learn how to be consistently good. Then the power of that goodness will come back to us, and it helps people around us as well. The ajaans talk a lot about making a determination when you do goodness, so that you don’t just fritter your merit away. For instance …
- What Are You Doing Right Now?… This is why the teaching starts with teachings on virtue. Learn how to abstain from acting on unskillful intentions, and you’ll learn a lot about your intentions, both those that go in line with the precepts and those that go against them. Even prior to virtue, the Buddha talks about generosity: giving rise to good actions, being helpful. Generosity doesn’t mean giving …
- How to Listen… He talked about the goodness of generosity; virtue, the goodness of acting in harmless ways—basically affirming what people already knew about goodness. He went on to say that generosity and virtue gave good results in this lifetime, good results in the next lifetime, even up to the sensual levels of heaven. Then he turned the tables. He said, “But even those sensual pleasures …
- Developing Discernment… Because with discernment, we can’t wait until the very end of the path and say, “Now that my virtue is perfect, now that my concentration is perfect, I’ll start thinking about discernment.” It doesn’t work that way. Everything you do in the path, even beginning with generosity—your ability to talk yourself into being generous, talk yourself out of holding on …
- Appreciating Dispassion… Someone once asked the Buddha, “What is virtue for?” “Virtue,” he says, “is for the sake of concentration.” “What’s concentration for?” “Concentration is for the sake of discernment.” “What’s discernment for?” “For the sake of release.” “What’s release for?” “For the sake of nibbāna.” “What is nibbāna for?” That’s when the Buddha said, “You can’t keep going with these …
- One Thing Clear Through… There’s the practice of virtue, the practice of concentration, the development of discernment. In every case, there are things we have to give up in order to get something of greater value. With virtue, there are times when you would like to break the precepts—it would be easier, it would be convenient—but the long-term results would not be good. Or …
- There’s Still Goodness in the World… When Sariputta left, did he take virtue with him? No. Concentration? No. Discernment? No. Release from suffering? No. These are all the good things in life. They’re still there. So we do these good things. This is why we make merit on the occasion of a death like this: one, so that we can send the merit to the person who’s passed …
- The Buddha’s Safe Space… The factors having to do with virtue—right speech, right action, and right resolve—those are simply an expression of your right resolve that you don’t want to harm anybody, and they provide the foundation for building your safe space of concentration inside. So the different aspects of the path—virtue, concentration, and discernment—all help one another along. And they all provide …
- Approaching the four noble truths… The same with the principle of virtue, which is the second topic: By abstaining from harm, there are good results. Whether he actually explained the principle of karma while he discussed these topics, we don’t know. But the way he discussed them definitely shows that your actions are things you choose, and they do make a difference. So, pay careful attention to what …
- Choose Your Friends… conviction, virtue, generosity, discernment. These are the qualities that you want to develop in yourself. So if you want to have a good friendship with this person, you want to develop those qualities as well—and ask that person how to do it. The first thing they’ll tell you in terms of conviction is that the good things in life are the things …
- Determined to Make a Difference… Generosity, virtue—these things are necessary. As the Buddha said, a stingy person can’t get into the stages of right concentration. As for virtue, it is possible for unvirtuous persons to get their minds concentrated, but there’s an element of dishonesty in that concentration, which means it can’t be trusted. If, however, you’re used to recognizing your own unskillful intentions …
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