Search results for: virtue
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- Long-Term Welfare… We develop generosity, we develop virtue, and we meditate as ways of bringing about long-term happiness. The happiness that comes from giving lasts a lot longer than the happiness that comes from taking. It goes deeper. The same holds true for the happiness the comes from holding to your principles. If you gain the kind of happiness the comes from breaking your principles …
- Training Your Selves… You don’t want to sacrifice your virtue for things that will change on you like this. After all, you’re going to lose your health at some point, you will lose your wealth at some point, and you’ll lose your relatives at some point. But you don’t have to lose your virtue and you don’t have to lose your right …
- Choosing Freedom… You can think about your own virtue. Maybe your virtue isn’t perfect, but there have been times when you’ve been good. You’ve done the honorable thing; you’ve acted on your principles. You could think thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. Extend those to everybody you can think of—whatever you find calms the mind, gives a sense of well …
- Dedicating Merit… generosity, virtue, developing thoughts of unlimited goodwill. As the Buddha said, genuine happiness comes from doing good. He says that the phrase, “acts of puñña,” is another word for happiness. And it’s a happiness that spreads around. It’s not like the happiness that comes, say, from wealth or status or praise or sensual pleasures. All too often that kind of happiness means …
- Good Heart, Good Mind… It also includes endurance, determination, truth, virtue, strengths of character. This is one of the reasons why we meditate: to develop some strength of character. We’re working on a skill that requires patience, it requires a lot of discernment, and it requires determination. Some people find it easy for the mind to settle down; other people find it a lot harder. But because …
- Noble Happiness… the practice of generosity and the practice of virtue. Because the practice of meditation is both virtuous and generous. So meditate with confidence. As you notice the mind slipping off the breath and you bring it back, have a sense that what you’re doing is something very important, something very noble. It may not seem like much right now, but as you develop …
- No Happiness without Restraint… Ajaan Maha Bua’s term for the normal state of the mind is “unruliness.” Virtue is a fence, he said, for the unruliness in your behavior in body and speech. Concentration is a fence for the unruliness of your mind, because without restraint you can’t focus on what is the big problem in life: the fact that we do everything we can for …
- Bow Down to Your Mouth… Tell yourself, “Okay, I’m going to make up my mind to learn how not to do that again.” Or you can think of some forms of goodness, like generosity, virtue, meditation, where you’re still weak. You might want to figure out some way to make them stronger. Because it’s the goodness that we do in our lives: That’s the monument …
- Doing the Right Thing… Boil it down to those three issues, and the training that the Buddha gives in virtue, concentration, and discernment helps right here. Virtue writes in very large terms: Okay, these are certain actions that you just don’t do, regardless. They’re never going to be skillful. Even though they may seem to be to your advantage in the short term, they’re really …
- Ingenuity… The four are conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. Conviction means conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, and that translates into conviction in the power of your actions. You want to pay careful attention to what you’re doing because your actions really do make a difference. You really do have choices in the present moment. The Buddha is very clear on this. You have …
- Balancing Tranquility & Insight… the sense of well-being that comes from developing virtue, developing generosity; the sense of confidence that arises from contemplating the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha; or recollecting on your own past virtues, your own past acts of generosity, and, as they say, the qualities of the devas that you’ve been developing, which include generosity and restraint. When you think about these …
- Immersed in the BodyIn the verses on respect that we chant often, the Buddha mentions respect for the triple training, which is training and heightened virtue, heightened mind or concentration, and heightened discernment. But he also mentions respect for concentration. It’s as if he wanted to make sure you know, that you’re doubly sure, that concentration is important. Maybe he foresaw that, in later centuries …
Suttas (Handheld Index) | dhammatalks.org
… SN 46:1Himavanta Sutta | The Himalayas (On the Factors for awakening) A monk attains to greatness by being established in virtue and developing the seven factors for awakening. SN 46:3Sīla Sutta | Virtue The rewards of reflecting properly on the Dhamma you have heard. SN 46:4Vattha Sutta | Clothes An arahant can observe the seven factors for awakening as they arise and cease within …- Homage Through the Practice… So we train it in virtue, concentration, and discernment. Virtue means normalcy. You bring the mind to a state of normalcy where it’s not wanting to harm itself, not wanting to harm anybody else. The desire to harm is abnormal. The desire to wish for your own happiness, to wish for the happiness of others: That’s normal. So keep your mind in …
- A Refuge from Death… So it’s in developing this refuge inside, through the practice of virtue, concentration and discernment: That’s what ultimately offers our truest protection. And it takes us beyond fear of death. Of those four reasons for fear of death, one of them deals with our outside behavior: the way we treat other people, other beings. This is what the precepts are for. You …
- Learning from What You Do… finding people who are exemplars, people whose virtue you admire, whose generosity you admire, whose conviction and discernment you admire. Try to learn from them, talking over these issues, emulating them in areas where they’re worthy of emulation. Because we do have our blind spots: That’s what ignorance is all about. It’s not an abstract thing. It’s being ignorant of …
- Sending Happiness… Who are the people who have admirable qualities in terms of their conviction, their virtue, their generosity, their discernment? Conviction, here, means conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, which translates into conviction in the principle of how important your actions are. Everything the Buddha awakened to comes down to the importance of your actions and what a big difference your actions can make. It …
- Looking at Your Life… One is conviction, generosity, virtue, and discernment. Another list is what he calls the seven noble treasures. It starts again with conviction, which means conviction in the fact that what you do is important, not necessarily important in the eyes of the world, but important in shaping your life, shaping your mind. So you want to be as skillful as possible in your intentions …
- Fighting Attitude… And although patience and equanimity are virtues, they’re virtues with a proper time and a proper place. If you’re in a situation where you simply cannot figure out what to do with an unskillful state that comes into the mind, then you watch patiently to see if you can detect something you haven’t detected before. But a lot of these hindrances …
All Winners, No Losers : The Buddha’s Teachings on Animosity & Forgiveness
… Losing, one lies down in pain. — Dhp 201 But if you define happiness in terms of the practice of merit—giving, virtue, and meditation—there’s no need to create losers. Everyone wins. When you give, other people naturally gain what you’ve shared with them; you gain a spacious sense of wealth within and the love and respect of others without. When you …- Load next page...
