Search results for: virtue

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  2. Completion
     … He said bring about completion through heedfulness, but because the rules of Pali syntax are different from those in English, his actual last word was the verb: “bring about completion.” What did he mean? You can become complete in your virtue, complete in your views. Those are the things you really need to depend on. Being complete in your virtue means that you hold … 
  3. Book search result icon Ten Perfections II. Truth
     … When freedom of this sort arises within us, this is called the development of sīlānussati, the mindfulness of virtue. This is virtue that attains excellence—leading to the paths, their fruitions, and nibbāna—and thus can be called uparima-sīla, higher virtue. To summarize, there are three levels of virtue: external, intermediate, and internal. In ultimate terms, however, there are two— 1. Mundane virtue … 
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  4. A Safe Space Inside
     … Virtue helps both of them; both of them help virtue. You’re grounded in what’s called the Triple Training: training in heightened virtue, heightened mind or concentration, and heightened discernment. And even though it’s the path― it’s not the goal― it’s a safe path. The Buddha gives an image of a highway, with people going down the highway. Some people … 
  5. Staying Normal
     … So all these qualities—virtue, concentration, discernment, and release—revolve around this normalcy of mind. They work together. Ajaan Lee has a passage in one of his books where he analyzes virtue, and in the course of his analysis, virtue starts turning into concentration and discernment. He analyzes concentration, and it starts turning into virtue and discernment. He analyses discernment, and it turns into … 
  6. Entering the Rains
     … Whatever they’re lacking in terms of virtue, concentration, and discernment, they can make up the lack. At the same time, lay people often decide to take this as an opportunity for them to follow the example of the monks—to try on, for the next few months, something good that you know you haven’t been able to master yet, but you would … 
  7. The Graduated Discourse
     … You’re not afraid that somebody might rightly accuse you of a breach of virtue, because you don’t have any breaches of virtue. Then, when the Buddha saw that people were amenable to hearing about what was good about generosity, what was good about virtue, he would talk about how after death, generosity and virtue are rewarded with the pleasures of heaven. And … 
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  8. Protest Your Virtue & Right View
     … But if you lose your right view or lose your virtue, it’s hard to get them back. In the meantime, you’re going to suffer a lot, because loss of health, loss of wealth, or loss of relatives doesn’t necessarily send you down to a bad destination, but loss of virtue and loss of right view will, so you’ve got to … 
  9. Conceit Defanged
     … So if you have a virtue of any kind but then use that virtue as a means or the basis for looking down on other people, you’re using the medicine for the wrong purpose. You’ve spoiled the virtue. You’ve spoiled the integrity of the virtue. However, there are skillful uses of conceit. One is that if you see somebody who’s … 
  10. Book search result icon Inner Strength & Parting Gifts I. Inner Wealth
     … All five of these qualities can be gathered under the headings of virtue, concentration, and discernment. Conviction comes under virtue; persistence, mindfulness, and concentration come under concentration; and discernment is discernment. To have conviction is tantamount to having wealth. Virtue is like a white cloth that enwraps the body and makes it beautiful, just as the petals of a lotus enwrap the scent of … 
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  11. Page search result icon Contents
    Contents Title Page Table of Contents Cover Copyright Foreword Introduction Training in Virtue Precepts for Lay People The Service for the Lunar Sabbath Virtue: Questions & Answers Concentration: Questions & Answers The Craft of the Heart How to Practice Concentration On Taking Refuge in the Triple Gem On the Four Immeasurable Sublime Attitudes On Radiating the Sublime Attitudes On the Rewards of the Four Immeasurables On … 
  12. Spread Goodness Around
     … But the things you get through lying are not really worth anything, because you’ve traded your virtue for what? Things that are just going to slip through your fingers like water. But the fact that you lost your virtue: That’s not going to slip through your fingers anytime soon. That’s going to stay with you. Your virtue, too, is a good … 
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  13. A Foundation of Virtue
     … So what does the Dhamma teach us? It teaches us virtue, concentration, discernment. The virtue there is the basis of everything. If your virtue isn’t strong, and you try to build concentration on top of that, and discernment on top of that, it’s like building a building with a foundation that’s weak. No matter how pretty the stories may be above … 
  14. Book search result icon The Wings to Awakening II. The Seven Sets
     … Nevertheless, although the seven sets focus most specifically on the practice of concentration, the close interconnections among virtue, concentration, and discernment mean that the sets include the factors of virtue and discernment as well, thus encompassing the entire path of Buddhist practice. A virtuous and moral life is an absolute prerequisite for practicing the sets. This is a point that cannot be overstated, a … 
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  15. Interdependence
     … The effort here is the effort we put into our meditation, the effort we put into virtue, concentration, and discernment. We use the things we’ve got and we try to use them skillfully, which means that as we’re practicing, we’re still interdependent. We’re still in an unstable position—but, at least, it’s better than not practicing. I know a … 
  16. Book search result icon Sutta Nipāta Sn 2:9 With What Virtue?
    2:9  With What Virtue? This sutta mentions the metaphorical notion of “heartwood” (sāra) three times. Although sāra as a metaphor is often translated as “essence,” this misses some of the metaphor’s implications. When x is said to have y as its heartwood, that means that the proper development of x yields y, and that y is the most valuable part of x … 
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  17. Page search result icon The Graduated Discourse
     … You’re not afraid that somebody will accuse you of a breach of virtue, because you don’t have any breaches of virtue. Then, when the Buddha saw that people were amenable to hearing about what was good about generosity, what was good about virtue, he would talk about the pleasures of heaven. And here, it’s interesting: In the Canon there are a … 
  18. Technique & Attitude
     … the virtues they develop, the good qualities they develop. Then you realize that you’ve got those good qualities too. It’s the same with the recollection of generosity and the recollection of virtue. You think about your own generosity, your own virtue, the times when you’ve given up things that you would really like but you realized that it would be better … 
  19. The Graduated Discourse
     … what was called his “graduated discourse” or “step-by-step discourse.” There are stories about people coming to see the Buddha, and he would start with a talk on generosity, a talk on virtue, then a talk on the rewards of generosity and virtue in heaven, and then the drawbacks and, as he said, even the degradation involved in sensuality—in a sense, what … 
  20. May You Forever Be Well
     … So it’s important that you be able to express your goodwill not only with thoughts of goodwill or with blessings, but also through virtue. You resolve that you don’t want to harm anybody, and you follow the Buddha’s guidelines on the kinds of action you want to avoid regardless of what the situation is. But virtue’s not just a matter … 
  21. Book search result icon Keeping the Breath in Mind & Lessons in Samādhi Introduction
     … But once the mind is firmly in place, it can be very useful in developing virtue and discernment. Virtue is like placing pilings on the near shore of the river; discernment, like placing them on the far shore. But if the middle pilings—a centered mind—aren’t firmly in place, how will you ever be able to bridge the flood of suffering? There … 
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