Search results for: virtue
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- Put Some Heart into Your Practice… The same with virtue: Virtue is perfected at stream entry, which is a high level of attainment. Again, virtue is partly a quality of what we see in the mind—when you see that if you want your actions to be the type that allow you to settle down, you want to make sure they don’t harm anybody. But also just the happiness …
- Virtues & Values… It’s a matter of virtues and values as well. Virtues are the good qualities you develop not only when you sit here with your eyes closed but also when you’re being generous, when you’re observing the precepts, and when you’re developing thoughts of goodwill. Values lie in seeing that these are important things to do. We shape our lives through …
- Use Your Defilements… So what are the causes here? First you work on your virtue. It’s not the case that you can’t get the mind into concentration without virtue, but it is the case that if your concentration is not based on virtue, you can’t really trust it. That’s because virtue teaches you that you have to be clear about your intentions. So …
- A Frame for the Day… You don’t want to sacrifice your virtue for anything, because the things that we would ordinarily sacrifice our virtue for are going to go away anyhow, at one point or another. So hold on to your virtue, hold on to your right view as your possession, because it’s through virtue and right view that you can develop mindfulness, and through mindfulness, the …
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 …Show 4 additional results in this book- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …
- 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 …Show 12 additional results in this book
- 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 …
- Feed Everyone… We feed the mind through virtue. But the really good food is the food of the meditation. We can focus directly on the mind’s needs. It needs a place to settle down. It needs a place where it can gather its strength and be at peace. As the Buddha said, “There is no happiness other than peace.” Sometimes that’s translated, “There’s …
- 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 …
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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 …Show 9 additional results in this book
- When Ill Will Is in Fashion… goodwill as a virtue, a part of mundane right view in the virtues of the mind; and goodwill as a practice of concentration, as a dwelling for the mind. They help each other along. They’re both performance arts. As a virtue, you perform well in the world. You don’t create any bad kamma. As a dwelling, it becomes a good place to …
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 …- 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 …Show 17 additional results in this book
- 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 …
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The Wings to Awakening
II.A. The Treasures of the Teaching
… 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 …Show 11 additional results in this book
- The Real World… It’s one of the virtues of finding happiness in this life. And in showing initiative in things like generosity, virtue, and meditation, you guarantee happiness in future lives. That goodness can even take you beyond lives—present, past, and future. That’s when it gets really good. We had the question today about putting an end to craving, meaning that you have to …
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