Search results for: virtue

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  2. Self Determination
     … You practice generosity, you practice virtue, and especially you practice meditation, developing qualities of the mind where you take charge of your own mind for the sake of your long-term welfare and happiness. It’s one of those rare cases where you really do get to practice self-determination. Or in the Buddha’s terms, you direct yourself rightly. You choose your direction … 
  3. Planting a Tree
     … Practice virtue. Practice meditation. Squeeze as much goodness as you can out of it before you have to discard the rind. And that connects with the last of the guardian meditations, which is recollection of death. The purpose of death recollection, of course, is heedfulness. We don’t know how much time we have, but we do have right now. When the Buddha talks … 
  4. Totally Secure
     … It’s one of those virtues that has a lot of facets to it. Not only do you want to admit the truth about what’s going on inside and about the things you’ve been doing outside, but you also want to create an environment where the truth becomes clear, where you’re true. When you make up your mind to do something … 
  5. The Dhamma Without Price
     … The practice of merit is the first answer to the Buddha’s question that lies at the beginning of discernment: “What, when I do it, will lead to my long-term welfare and happiness? What is skillful? What is blameless?” Looking for happiness in generosity, looking for happiness in virtue and universal goodwill: These are blameless ways of looking for happiness. And the Sangha … 
  6. An Admirable Friend — In Memory of Luang Loong
     … And it’s a virtue in us that we recognize that goodness. We try to repay the people who have gone before, and also emulate them in our actions. So tonight at the end of meditation, dedicate the merit to Luang Loong, because without people like him, where would we be? The best way to carry on their influence is to embody it in … 
  7. To Sustain Your Practice
     … The second quality is virtue. When people are really serious about their intentions, they want to make sure that they act in a way that doesn’t harm anybody. This is expressed in the five precepts: no killing, no stealing, no illicit sex, no lying, no taking of intoxicants. The third quality is generosity. This means being generous with material things, but also being … 
  8. Book search result icon In the Elephant’s Footprint 1 : The Wisdom of Goodness
     … For instance, part of the path is virtue, and as the Buddha said, sometimes we’re afraid to follow the precepts because we feel that our health would be at stake, or our wealth or our relatives. And the Buddha says we have to realize that these things don’t last. You don’t go to hell from lack of wealth or health or … 
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  9. The World of the Body
     … As for the perfections, starting with generosity and going down the list—generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, good will, and equanimity—whatever we can do to develop these qualities, they give meaning to life, because they’re the things that will be left when we have to leave the body. So this world we have inside: We put it to use … 
  10. How the Tree Leans
     … Whereas if you develop the treasures of the mind—virtue, conviction, a healthy sense of shame, a healthy sense of compunction, learning, generosity, discernment: These things lean the mind in the right direction. Even more so, there’s the noble eightfold path. Why do you want the mind to lean? Well, think of a tree. There are trees that are leaning over all the … 
  11. Alone Together
     … Consistency is a virtue that you benefit from. After all, when we meditate, we’re trying to make the mind consistent. As Ajaan Lee points out, we’re taking something that’s stressful—the way we breathe, the way we experience the body—and making it easeful; we’re taking something inconstant—the way the mind moves around—and we learn how to give … 
  12. Undefeated Goodwill
     … causes and be willing and able to act on them.” When you think about it, the ways of looking for happiness that would be safe and effective come down to generosity, virtue, and meditation. This is where we look for happiness—if we have goodwill for ourselves, goodwill for others. The second quality that goes into determination is truth. Once we have thoughts of … 
  13. A Clear, Calm Lake
     … But losing your right view, losing your virtue: Those things are not inevitable. You would have to choose to lose them. But when you’re confident that you wouldn’t, then you’re really safe. That confidence can give you a good foundation so that, at the very least, that much of your mind can be like a clear, calm lake that doesn’t … 
  14. A Post-goodness World?
     … generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill. As the Buddha said, the term “act of merit” is another word for happiness. It’s a type of happiness that’s blameless. It doesn’t harm anybody at all. When the Buddha taught giving, he didn’t teach that it had to be only to monks and nuns. As he said one time, even if you … 
  15. In Accordance with the Dhamma
     … practicing generosity, practicing virtue, developing concentration, developing your discernment. He gives very clear instructions on how to do these things. So you want to clear away all the encumbrances that get in the way of really focusing where the problem is: your own clinging, your own feeding, things you hold very dear. If you can’t let the things you hold very dear be … 
  16. A Post for the Heart
     … This is what we try to develop as we develop the mind in concentration and also with the practice of virtue and generosity—a good solid post in the mind. If the mind isn’t firmly planted like this, it’s like a post that’s just lying there on the beach. The water rises, and the post gets washed up with the water … 
  17. Responsible Conviction
     … In the same way, as we practice virtue, we practice concentration, even the psychic powers that come with concentration: Those count as footprints and scratch marks. They’re promising, but they don’t prove things yet. But when we gain our first glimpse of awakening, that’s when we know for sure that the Buddha really did know what he was talking about. That … 
  18. A Load Off the Mind
     … So even though we have the path laid out to some extent—we know that virtue, concentration, and discernment are important and we know the breath is a good place to stay—still, there’s a lot that we’ve got to learn about how we breathe and how we approach the meditation. Sometimes you find that as soon as you sit down to … 
  19. Fence Me In
    One of the Thai ajahans has spoken of virtue as a fence for your actions and concentration practice as a fence for the mind, something that keeps you within bounds. And of course, here in America, we don’t like fences. The old song, “Don’t Fence Me In,” seems to typify most of our attitudes. But the purpose of having that fence is … 
  20. Put the Other Person’s Heart in Yours
     … No. No, the Buddha never said life is sacred.” That idea came from wanting to understand the precepts without ever having to think about kamma. Kamma underlies everything the Buddha taught. Virtue, concentration, discernment: These things are all kamma. The path is a kind of kamma. And you have to understand it that way. As for the rationale behind the precepts, as the Buddha … 
  21. Sensitivity Through Generosity
     … And that quality of sensitivity is best developed through generosity, through virtue – all the standard parts of the path. Then read up on Dhamma and Vinaya. The Vinaya’s not there just for the monks. As Ajaan Suwat once said, it’s there for everybody. When lay people come and deal with the monks, they’ve got to learn about the monks’ Vinaya to … 
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