Search results for: virtue

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  2. Endurance & Equanimity
    Endurance and equanimity are two virtues that are very similar but they’re not quite the same. With equanimity, the mind is not affected by things it likes or doesn’t like. It has an ability to stay on an even keel. With endurance, you’re dealing with things you don’t like. Whether the mind is on an even keel or not, you … 
  3. Looking Off to the Side
     … We’ve developed our powers of virtue, concentration, and discernment, which as we circle in on the present moment allow us to see more and more. One of the reasons we focus on the breath is because it’s very close to that element of intention which is so important to understand. The breath is a bodily fabrication, which means that there’s an … 
  4. Circumspection
     … Be circumspect in the way you develop your generosity, the way you develop your virtue, the way you develop an attitude of goodwill. We’re not here to connect with everybody. That’s an idea that has its roots back in European Romantism: the idea we’re suffering because we don’t connect with all our fellow humanity. Well, there are some people you … 
  5. Page search result icon Shoulds & Desires
     … Yet in the happiness that comes from generosity, virtue, meditation, everybody wins. ** So this is a pursuit of happiness that actually creates harmony in the world. We think about that phrase “the pursuit of happiness,” and it sounds kind of grubby, especially if you’re looking for happiness where people have to fight one another over what they’re getting. But if you pursue … 
  6. Correcting, Fostering, Cutting Away
     … There’s no virtue in just following your moods or in “being true to your moods.” Be true to something higher. Be true to the desire to accomplish something with your meditation. Then do whatever needs to be done, having a good sense of the different tasks you have to master and of the range of tools at your disposal for mastering them.
  7. Page search result icon The Buddha’s Rx : Attacking Suffering at Its Cause
     … Here you keep in mind the principles of virtue. At the same time, you have to be alert to what you’re doing, to make sure that your actions stay within the bounds of those principles. These two qualities, mindfulness and alertness, are basic to the practice of right concentration. Building on the joy developed by the path factors related to virtue, the next … 
  8. Faith in the Buddha
     … Again, there were people who said that because your parents were totally predetermined in their actions, there was no particular virtue in the fact that they gave birth to you, taught you, fed you, looked after you. It was simply a matter of natural conditions forcing them to do these things. So those teachers said there was no debt of gratitude. Here again, the … 
  9. The Light of the World
     … This is why the Buddha began the practice with generosity, virtue, and the development of goodwill, because these are harmless ways of finding happiness. They may not be totally able to bring you to the deathless, but they are conducive. At the very least, they’re a form of happiness that’s harmless. You harm no one when you’re generous; you harm no … 
  10. Delight in the Path
     … the mind.” We’ve traveled around sensuality becomings, form becomings, formless becomings, for who knows how long, looking for satisfaction, wandering off the path, and now he shows us the way: virtue, concentration, discernment. Another exclamation was, It’s as if the Buddha had taken a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms. In other words, if you realize … 
  11. When You’re Discouraged
     … Cling to the path.” You learn how to attack the old craving and clinging by developing qualities of virtue, concentration, discernment. So we all come here in that category of “you’re doing something wrong,” but that can be fixed. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, nothing to be ashamed about, the fact that you’re doing it wrong. Don’t let your … 
  12. Focus on the Precepts
    Training in virtue is an important part of the path. It teaches you to be honest, to be very clear about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it: to look directly at your intentions. When you take a precept, you can break it only intentionally, so that’s where your attention has to be focused. What is your intention in acting … 
  13. Weathering Karma Storms
     … Patience is a good lesson; determination is a good lesson; all those dull Capricorn virtues are good things to master.” Those are your real friends. They’re unassuming. They’re a little drab, but they stand by you. So learn how to nurture them. Learn how to see their value. Just don’t get tied up in thoughts of guilt or frustration or anger … 
  14. Potentials for Energy
     … For instance, with mindfulness, he says in another passage that the potential for mindfulness consists of virtue and views made straight. In other words, you have right view, and you have behavior that doesn’t put up walls inside. If you break the precepts, there will be times when you realize you’ve harmed this person or that person, or you’ve harmed yourself … 
  15. A Skillful Attitude
     … Whereas the path—virtue, concentration, discernment—is a skillful approach. So in looking at the meditation as a skill, looking at the whole issue of where there’s dissatisfaction, where there’s discomfort, where there’s dis-ease as something you can approach as a problem to be solved through mastering the skill: Those are the seeds of the four noble truths right there … 
  16. Glad to Be Here
     … You’re glad because of your virtue. You’re glad simply because you have the opportunity to do this: to have some quiet time by yourself where you don’t have any other responsibilities. In other words, you have to lift your spirits. In Thailand, they talk about lifting the mind to its object, and lifting your spirits is part of that, that you … 
  17. A Meditator’s Environment
     … The Buddha talks about how a good background in virtue is important for concentration, because it keeps your concentration honest. There’s so much that can happen in a quiet mind. Sometimes you get the idea that anything that arises in a quiet mind can be trusted, but that’s not the case. A lot of people go crazy through their concentration because they … 
  18. The Skill of Happiness
     … That’s what the chants on goodwill are for, along with the practice of generosity, the practice of virtue so that we’re not harming anybody. But the prospect that there could be something that doesn’t change and that is true happiness: That captures our imagination, makes us curious. Is this true? When the opportunity is there, you don’t want to let … 
  19. Circumspection
     … We’re practicing their teachings, so it’s good to reflect on the type of people they were so that we can inspire ourselves, to see whatever virtues they had that we can develop within us. When Ajaan Fuang talked about Ajaan Lee, two features stood out. One was what he called his large-heartedness. Ajaan Lee wanted to make the teachings available to … 
  20. Ven. Ananda’s Awakening
     … You come to the practice ideally with a sense of joy, which may be a mental joy based on generosity and virtue, but it also can translate into a sense of physical ease—and that’s what you can spread through the body. The Buddha talks about spreading a sense of rapture, a sense of ease through the body. It’s not just a … 
  21. Goodwill Is Respect
     … generosity, virtue, and meditation, learning how to turn within and finding the resources within our body and minds—our many minds—to see what we can develop that would lead to that happiness. Ajaan Lee talks about how human beings have so many good potentials within them that go undeveloped. So let’s see what we can develop out of the breath. You can … 
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