Search results for: virtue
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- Refuge for All Beings… He says, if you have an unlimited mind, if you train yourself in virtue, train yourself in discernment, train yourself not to be overcome by pleasure or pain—which are issues of concentration and discernment—then when results come from past bad karma, they’re going to be a lot less. He gives the example of the lump of salt. If you put the …
- Friends with the Breath… in terms of developing happiness within the world, but also in taking us beyond the world. This path comes down to three things: virtue, concentration, discernment. At the moment we’re focusing on the concentration. But all three are involved. Virtue is a quality of normalcy in our intentions, harmlessness in our intentions. As we’re sitting here meditating, we’re not harming anybody …
- A Good Place to Stay… You also find that it helps your virtue. A lot of times, we do unskillful things because there’s a thirst for pleasure “of any kind, right now.” That’s what the mind says, and then we end up doing unskillful things to please it. Well, here the breath is giving you a sense of ease you can tap into. Whenever you feel tempted …
Safety in a Duality
… Their precepts are “untorn, unbroken, unspotted, unsplattered, liberating, praised by the observant, ungrasped at, leading to concentration.” The fact that they’re untorn, etc., means that they’re observed consistently. “Ungrasped at” means that even though such people are virtuous, they don’t fashion themselves around their virtues (MN 78). In other words, they don’t build an identity around being virtuous. This means …- The Energy You Broadcast… thoughts of generosity, thoughts of gratitude, thoughts of virtue, thoughts of harmlessness. When you’re sending out that kind of energy, that’s a lot of what gets reflected back. It creates a better atmosphere, a better environment in which to allow the mind to settle down and really get still inside, so that you can send out even better energy. Of course, you …
- Admirable Friends & Amiable Company… The fifth quality is being equal in our virtue. For the monks this means that everybody adheres to all the precepts that the monks are supposed to adhere to. For the laypeople, it means the five and the eight precepts. We all hold that these are important qualities, and they form the basis of our interactions. In particular, this has to do with our …
- Wise About Pleasure… You have conviction in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, and you have virtues that are pleasing to the noble ones. After all, if you really have conviction, you have to act on it. It has to show up in your actions. That’s the first strength. The second strength is persistence. Once you determine that you’ve got to develop skillful qualities and …
- Right View Comes First… Then from there, when the Buddha would introduce transcendent right view, he’d give what is called the “graduated discourse” or the “gradual discourse.” He’d talk about how generosity and virtue do have meaning, again because of the principle of karma, and they get rewarded in heaven. It’s interesting that the Buddha talks a lot about generosity, a lot about virtue, but …
- The Dhamma Eye… Incense stands for virtue. Flowers stand for concentration, when the mind blossoms in concentration. And of course, the light of the candles is symbolic of the light of discernment. That’s all on the symbolic level. Now we’re going to do the actual practice, sitting here meditating, because concentration is one of the factors of the path, right concentration, which involves right effort …
- The Lightning Bolt… You can reflect on your virtue: the times in the past when you’ve done good things that you didn’t have to do. Reflect on your generosity: the times when you were generous when you didn’t have to be generous, either with material things, your time, your knowledge, or your forgiveness. These reflections help inspire a sense of confidence in yourself. Acts …
- Determined on Awakening… All the aspects of the path that we follow—virtue, concentration, discernment, all the qualities of mind we try to develop, the ways we live, trying to be modest, trying to be content, trying to find some seclusion, being unentangled: All of these are expressions of those four determinations. All of them advance those four determinations. So the Buddha is basically asking you to …
- The Right Piece in the Right Puzzle… For example, with the practice of virtue, when you realize that following the precepts might sometimes be bad for your health or your wealth, you have to make some sacrifices there to maintain your precepts. Or if your relatives come and ask you to lie for their sake, you have to say No. That’s when you have to realize the sense of self …
- How to Think about Death… There’s generosity, there’s virtue, there’s renunciation—the ability to step back from sensual pleasures and find a higher level of pleasure in a concentrated mind—discernment, persistence—your powers of endurance—truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity. These are things of lasting value. They might not be as hard as the hardwood of release, but at least they’re not just twigs and …
- Completing Your Merit… in your generosity, in your virtue, and in the good qualities you develop in your meditation. Learn how to spread goodwill to yourself and goodwill to others ,and then live in line with that goodwill by finding a happiness inside that doesn’t harm anybody: doesn’t harm yourself, doesn’t harm others. Because the happiness of the world, as we all know, often …
- Equanimity & Karma… one, the ability to develop unlimited goodwill and equanimity; two, working on your virtue so that you don’t have to criticize yourself over the unvirtuous things you’ve done or said; three, working on your discernment so that you can see these distinctions in karma; and then four, training your mind so that it’s not overcome by pleasure or overcome by pain …
- Blessing Yourself… through your generosity, through your virtue, through your meditation, your training the mind. It’s when the mind is well-trained that it’s more under its own control. Then whatever good things happen in life, you don’t turn them into something bad. When bad things happen, you can actually turn them into something good. So you want to work on training the …
Beyond Coping
Heedfulness
… This is called the treasure of discernment. “These, monks, are the seven treasures. “The treasure of conviction, the treasure of virtue, the treasure of shame & compunction, the treasure of listening, generosity, & discernment as the seventh treasure: Whoever, man or woman, has these treasures is said not to be poor, has not lived in vain. So conviction & virtue, faith & Dhamma-vision should be cultivated by …Show 2 additional results in this book- The Joy of Heedfulness… Meritorious actions, of course, are generosity, virtue, and developing goodwill. Skillful actions have to do with the ten guidelines: no killing, no stealing, no illicit sex, no lying, no divisive speech, no harsh speech, no idle speech. And then for the mind: no inordinate greed, no ill will, and developing right view. These are the things that you shouldn’t underestimate. They can do …
- Reflect on What You’re Doing… After all, the ultimate judgment in all these things is: “This activity I’m doing, is it worth it?” With virtue, concentration, and discernment, there are a lot of areas where holding on to the path really is worth it. But then as you get more and more refined in your perceptions, more refined in your sensitivity, your judgments get more refined as well …
- Desire Is Part of the Path… So the desire is important, which is why the Buddha talks in so many ways to remind you of the drawbacks of an untrained mind and to remind you of the virtues and the rewards of training your mind: being able to find some pleasure with the breath, to find a sense of refreshment with the breath that strengthens your mind, strengthens the ability …
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