Search results for: virtue
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- Unlimited Mind, Limited Resources… The recollection of your generosity and your virtue serves two functions. One, when you’re meditating and you’re beginning to feel like you’ve got no ability at all, try to recollect the times when you were generous or you abstained from doing something harmful even though you could have gotten away with it. That gives you a sense of your worth. That …
- In the Driver’s Seat… He said the actions of the past give the same kind of result, which is something very, very different, because if you have a change of heart—which includes developing unlimited thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity; training the mind so it’s not easily overcome by pleasure, not easily overcome by pain; training it in virtue and discernment—then the results …
- The Three Perceptions as Tools… That’s an area where, for the time being, you don’t apply the perception of not-self to your virtue, concentration, or discernment. Particularly with concentration: Some people see their concentration come and go, and they decide that that’s insight—concentration is inconstant, stressful, not-self, out of your control. But that’s a misapplication of the perception. After all, we’re …
- The Buddha’s Program… So what are the Buddha’s feeding instructions? He has you feed on generosity; feed on virtue; feed on meditation; thoughts of goodwill; and then the meditation of getting the mind to settle down with the breath, to gain discernment. All these instructions are the assumptions that you use to feed well—and feed in a way that takes you to a point where …
- To Be an Adult… We have to use our opportunity to meditate, to practice the Dhamma in all ways—in terms of generosity, virtue, concentration, and discernment—as protection, both from dangers within ourselves and from dangers outside. As the Buddha says, the real dangers outside are not so much what people can do to us, they’re what other people can get us to do. They can …
- Keep Your Spirits Up… It could be the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha; your own virtue, your own generosity; the fact that you have the qualities that would make a person a deva. Those are things you could think about, too. Think about that inspiring theme until the mind settles down, happy to be with that theme, and then see if you can transfer that sense of calm …
- At Normalcy… The word for virtue or precept, sila, is often also translated as “normalcy” in Thai. You’re at normalcy when you’re not killing, not stealing, not engaging in illicit sex, not lying, not taking intoxicants. It’s a healthy normalcy. This is how the practice of the precepts connects to the meditation: You keep your mind in a balanced state so that it …
- Bowing & Chanting… The Dhamma teaches virtue, concentration, discernment, release. The Sangha represents your willingness to practice the Dhamma in accordance with the Dhamma—in other words, not just in accordance with your preferences, but in accordance with what the Dhamma really demands. It’s aimed at disenchantment, dispassion, and the freedom that comes from dispassion. These are all qualities that are good to develop within yourself …
- Shame Yes, Guilt No… You need to be mindful, alert, and really take your virtue seriously—but not in a grim sense. The more grim you are about the precepts, the less you’ll be likely to stick with them. You want to be serious in the sense that this is something you want to master. Think of it as a game you want to get really good …
- Dhamma Survivalism… But there’s no danger in having a stockpile of goodwill, a stockpile of compassion, a stockpile of virtue, concentration, and discernment. And those are the things you really need for the survival of the mind. That’s where insight comes in, reminding you that you’re not your body. You’re not limited to this life. When this life ends, that’s not …
- Respect for Concentration… It’s like being skeptical about virtue; skeptical about the path; the possibility of a true happiness. You even get some “Dhamma” teachers who say, “Well, you know, the Buddha wasn’t all that awakened after all. He still had his shadow side. He still had his doubts and emotional issues.” What does that leave? It leaves us nothing. Everything else in the world …
- The Door of the Cage… He starts talking about giving, the good things that come from being generous; virtue, the joy that comes from being virtuous; and then the rewards of these things. The rewards are sensual pleasures—sensual pleasures in the human realm, in the heavenly realms, where there are better pleasures than what we’ve got. And then when he has us interested, he points out the …
- The Intelligence of Restraint… precepts, you practice restraint of the senses, moderation in speech, looking for seclusion when you can, and developing right view. Out of those five principles, the first four deal with restraint. Virtue, of course, is restraint in your actions, your speech—in the sense that you’re not going to do anything harmful. Restraint of the senses is where you decide what you’re …
- Gladden, Steady, Release… This is why the Buddha has us think about our past generosity, our past virtue, whatever we can think of that gives us confidence that we are competent to settle in and find some peace of mind right here. Do what you can to steady the mind, to keep it really firmly here. Any attachment to anything that would pull you away, just learn …
- In Tune… The Buddha defines this as living in harmony together in terms of our virtue. The monks all adhere to the Vinaya. The lay people all adhere to the precepts. If we don’t, there’s going to be trouble, there’s going to be disharmony in the group, and it becomes an unpleasant place to practice. But if we have these bases for harmony …
- Clinging… basis for deciding what should and shouldn’t be done was leaving students unprotected, bewildered. So the Buddha’s laying out a path of action: This is what you should do. Virtue, concentration, discernment: You hold on to these activities. As for views, you want a view that tells you the importance of action. That’s what mundane right view is all about: that …
- Guarded… As Ajaan Maha Boowa says, virtue is a fence for your thoughts, words, and deeds. Concentration, in particular, is a fence for your mind. It’s through discernment that you learn how not to need those fences anymore. As long as your discernment is not yet all around, you need to keep those other fences up. Ajaan Chah mentions that the lesson he took …
- Trustworthy Judgment… He sets the example, but it’s up to us to be inspired by the example and do the work that’s needed to be done so we can have the same virtues in our mind that he had in his. Once we can learn to trust ourselves, we can find refuge in our own reliable mind. Because we’ve trained it, we’ve …
- Turtle Meditation… And particularly, you become sensitive to your own actions so that your virtue is not simply a matter of the precepts. It becomes a deeper quality of the mind so that even though the things you do may not be against the precepts, but if they’re harmful, you know. And that knowing helps refine your restraint. This is a point Ajaan Lee made …
- The Gift of Goodwill… One of the Buddha’s phrases is, “May all beings look after themselves with ease.” Another is, “May no beings despise anyone or mistreat anyone.” In other words, we’re hoping that people will understand the causes for true happiness—generosity, virtue, meditation—and act on them. Now, that may bear very little resemblance to the world as we see it, but we do …
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