Search results for: virtue
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- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- Developed in Body & Mind… We make merit through generosity, we make merit through virtue. What we’re doing is developing good qualities in the mind. And as we’re meditating, we’re focusing more and more directly on the mind. With generosity, you’re thinking about this person, that person, what object you want to give. With virtue, you’ve got to think about your dealings with other …
- Merit & Skill… The path has eight factors, or can be divided into three types of training—training in virtue, training in concentration, training in discernment. Meritorious activity has three kinds—generosity, virtue, and meditation. The Buddha was famous for making lists of all the different qualities that were required in the practice. There’s never a list of ones, which means that as you practice you …
- Wisdom, Compassion, Purity… There’s virtue: the holding to the precepts. Concentration: getting the mind to be still; having it centered with a sense of well-being. And then discernment: being able to use that concentration to see what’s going on in the mind—where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering; what you’re doing that’s getting in the way of finding the happiness whose …
- Three Levels of Refuge… When you find a good friend like that, the whole point is to emulate that person’s wisdom, generosity, virtue, conviction—what human beings can do. That’s one level of refuge, the external level. Then the next level is that you try to develop the qualities of that person or of those people within yourself. Take the example of the Buddha. His main …
- The Desire for Things to Be Different… This is why we practice generosity; this is why we practice virtue. That kind of change outside is also useful. But there are times you find yourself presented with raw materials from your past karma—and this can be anything from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, to other people, situations outside that are beyond your control—and if you go butting your head …
MvI: mahākhandhako
… attanā na asekhena sīlakkhandhena samannāgato hoti na paraṁ asekhe sīlakkhandhe samādapetā “He himself is not endowed with the aggregate of virtue of one beyond training, nor does he get others to undertake the aggregate of virtue of one beyond training. attanā na asekhena samādhikkhandhena samannāgato hoti na paraṁ asekhe samādhikkhandhe samādapetā “He himself is not endowed with the aggregate of concentration of one beyond …- Rooted in Desire… Gladden it with generosity; gladden it with virtue. Then you can get it glad with concentration and discernment. The path creates a sense of well-being. It doesn’t lead only to nibbāna. That’s not the only pleasure it provides. It provides pleasure all along the way: When you’re generous, there’s a sense of self-worth, that you’re not a …
- Your Primary Duties… This is why we practice generosity, why we practice virtue, why we develop the mind, especially in meditation, because it’s time for the mind to spread out a bit and assume its own shape, and look after the duties that are really in its own true interest. As I said, nobody’s forcing these duties on you, but there is the fact of …
- Trust in the Power of the Mind… Practice virtue. Develop the qualities of goodwill in the mind. He teaches the precepts for the areas of virtue that can be taught. But then there are a lot of areas are not covered by the precepts, not covered by those three answers. That’s where he’s saying: Here’s how you go about answering those questions yourself. You start by asking them …
- Skills to Make a Difference… When the Buddha talks about how you reflect on yourself as you meditate, he says you reflect on your conviction, you reflect on your generosity, your virtue, your discernment, your learning about the Dhamma, and your ingenuity. To be ingenious, you have to think outside the box a bit. It’s the craftsmen who think outside the box who move their craft forward. In …
- Monotasking… The Buddha has you think about your generosity and your virtue. I remember reading once about a woman who was studying meditation in Asia, and her meditation was beginning to get very dry. Her teacher told her to reflect on her virtue. But all she could reflect on was how she had broken precepts in the past and all the other horrible things she …
- The Freedom to Give… If you’ve been making a practice of being generous, if you’re clear about the principles and precepts that your want to follow in your behavior of not harming other people, not harming yourself, then that right there creates a sense of well-being as you reflect back on your generosity, reflect back on your virtue, think of the times when you went …
- Desire… When you live a life of generosity and virtue, you find it really does make a big difference letting go of those unskillful desires. Then you start applying the same principle to the mind. This is why we meditate. Right effort is the first factor of the path that deals with meditation. It’s a factor of desire: It’s about generating desire to …
- The Wheel of Dhamma… developing virtue, developing concentration, developing discernment. You have to want to do these things. You have to use all your ingenuity in doing these things, because they’re going to take you to where you want to go. So learn to develop a desire for them. And keep in mind that third noble truth, too: There is a possibility for the end of suffering …
- Teachings to Rahula… The fact is, the Buddha said, the two things that are most conducive to the practice of right mindfulness are right view and virtues pleasing to the noble ones—in other words, virtues that are really in line with the precepts. And notice that the principles that the Buddha stated here have to do not only with your words and your deeds, but also …
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