Search results for: virtue
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- Refuge… all the elements of the path are here; everything you need is here. It’s just a matter of your making the choice that this is what you want to do. Virtue hasn’t been close off. Concentration hasn’t been closed off. Discernment hasn’t been closed off. They’re all here; they’re all open. It’s just a question of your …
- Secluded from Sensuality… The first two have to do with discernment, the next three have to do with virtue, and the last three have to do with concentration. Those last three are far longer than the others, and are explained in a lot more detail. They really are the heart of the path. They’re what makes the middle way the middle way, because they provide a …
- A Valuable Gift… the merit that comes from generosity, the merit that comes from virtue, the merit that comes from meditating. He was talking to a lot of people who tended to be happy to give gifts but weren’t so interested in following the precepts or practicing meditation. So he told them that if you just give gifts but don’t follow the precepts or meditate …
- A Sense of Space Inside… So try to use the Buddha’s teachings on generosity, virtue, concentration, and discernment to create some space around the processes of the mind. This gives you room to back up and watch. When you’ve got that room, you’re that much closer to being freed from all these old habits. You see that there are other ways you can relate to the …
- The Mind When Trained Brings Happiness… You’re going to be less of a burden on them and you’ll be developing good qualities that you can share with them, qualities like generosity, virtue, and the discernment that you develop from training the mind. True happiness is something that is within our capabilities. So we have to look carefully at where we’re looking for our happiness because there are …
- Meaningful Choices… What is virtue for? It’s for the sake of concentration. What is concentration for? It’s for the sake of discernment. What is discernment for? For the sake of release. What is release for? For the sake of nibbāna. What is nibbāna for? It’s not for the sake of anything. You’ve arrived. You’ve found something that doesn’t have to …
- Tenacity… He still used his discernment and his virtue. But it was all for the good of the world. He’d done all the work he needed to do for his own sake. Then, for the rest of his life, he used those tools for the sake of the world at large. So whatever amount of effort, ingenuity, or difficulties are involved in following the …
- Look after Yourself Happily… So these are our motivations for practicing generosity, virtue and meditation: our sense that we’ll benefit from them and that we have the ability to do them. You want to maintain those all the way to the last steps of the path. Then, once you’ve reached the end of the path and you’ve found the ultimate happiness, there’s nothing you …
- Grief & Regret… Ananda takes the news to the Buddha, and as he’s telling the Buddha that Sariputta’s passed away, he says, “It’s as if all the directions got dark, I lost my bearings, hearing of Sariputta’s death.” And the Buddha asked him, "Well, when Sariputta died, did he take virtue with him? Did he take concentration? Did he take discernment? Did he …
- Not-self for the Sake of Happiness… This is one of the reasons why he gives the graduated discourse, to point out that even the best forms of happiness that can be found as you practice generosity, virtue, thinking of long-term happiness, and being in a position where you can gain long-term happiness for yourself, will have their drawbacks, their “degradation,” as he says. When your reflective self agrees …
- You Should Heed These Shoulds… When he’s saying, “Go do jhāna,” he’s not saying, “Go reflect on your minds that are not in jhāna.” Actually, he wants you to do virtue and jhāna and do them well. They’re activities to be done—skills to be mastered. After all, the mind is an active entity. It’s constantly shaping the present moment. And it needs instructions on …
- A Refuge from the Winds of the World… They’re people of generosity, virtue, discernment; you try to develop those qualities as well, because you pick up the qualities of the people that you’re near. There’s an image in the Canon of a leaf. If you use the leaf to wrap up fine-smelling spices, the leaf will smell fine as well. If you use it to wrap rotten fish …
Sublime Determinations
Friday — Compassion & Empathetic Joy
… You train it in virtue, discernment, and the brahmavihāras. You also train the mind so that it’s not easily overcome by pleasure or pain. This last ability comes from practice in concentration. You train yourself to master the skills of breathing so that when there are pains in the body, you can use the breath either to dissolve the pains or to give …Show one additional result in this book- Dhamma Intelligence… The Buddha recommends topics like recollection of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, recollection of your generosity, recollection of your virtue. Those are to give you encouragement. Then there’s recollection of death, which is to remind you that you don’t know how much time you have, so there’s definitely work to be done right now. You can ask yourself, “Are you …
- A Promise to Yourself… Why are you not making use of them? The texts talk about people who have virtues that are pleasing to the noble ones. Well, the whole path is pleasing to the noble ones. You think about their standards, and how it would be good to live up to their standards. We live in this world where so often we’re motivated by what other …
- A Home of Your Own… So what kind of actions do you want to take with you to make a long-lasting fixture in your home? You want them to be acts of generosity, acts of virtue, acts of discernment. Those are the best things for decorating your house inside. With them, it becomes easier to become more and more at ease being here, having a strong sense this …
- Five Strengths… You develop qualities of virtue, concentration, and discernment to give yourself something better to hold onto. As long as the mind is going to hold on, hold onto something good, something that will eventually develop its strengths to the point where it doesn’t need to hold on to anything anymore. When you see that these are the big issues in life, and that …
- Bases for Success… This is easy enough to understand when we’re talking about the practice of virtue and the practice of concentration, but discernment is a type of action as well. It’s a means to an end. It’s tactical. And it’s good to keep that point in mind. Sometimes we think that the whole purpose of the path is to arrive at some …
- A Good Mood to Meditate… Remind yourself also that you’re following a good path, the path of the Buddha’s teachings—virtue, concentration, discernment—which harms no one. It helps foster good qualities in the mind. It’s a path that was found by people without defilements and taught by people without defilements who, when they taught it, had no ulterior motives are all. They had found what …
- Curious About the Process… So a good first stage is to think about the other practices we have in terms of generosity and virtue. When you’re preparing something to give to other people, or you’re in the process of trying to observe the precepts and you come up against a problem, and you can handle it well, that’s when it’s pleasant to look at …
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