Search results for: virtue

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  2. Steering the Raft
     … What it’s good for is as a tool to develop skillful qualities in the mind—as we practice generosity, as we practice virtue, as we meditate. So you’re using this tool. You’re using this raft. Be very clear about the fact that the raft is something just slapped together out of inconstant things, but if you steer it properly, it’ll … 
  3. Happiness Without Conflict
     … This is why even though the practice of generosity and virtue and meditation are relatively harmless, you’re still not totally free from harm. You’re not totally free from having to compete with others until you reach the deathless. So we don’t stop with the sense of well-being that comes from focusing on the breath. We try to figure out what … 
  4. Death Is Normal
     … There’s the pleasure and the happiness, the well-being that come from generosity, the well-being that comes from virtue, and the steadiness of mind that comes from developing the mind in concentration and goodwill. We try to develop these qualities so that when we think of Dang, the current that goes her direction is a good current. It’s a nourishing current … 
  5. We’re All Learning the Ropes
     … By changing your mind, by changing your actions, you can change the world—not by going around and straightening everybody else out, but as you straighten out your own mind, you start doing better things, creating a better world, through your generosity, through your virtue, through your goodwill. And goodwill has to be paired with patience. We want all beings to be happy, but … 
  6. The Dangers of Sensuality
     … Over the long term, it’s the reliable people that really do get the strongest appreciation and who also develop the strongest virtue. In the same way, once you get into concentration, you find that it’s a fairly steady pleasure there. Learn to enjoy that. Learn to appreciate that. It’s a floor below which you don’t want to fall. Now, someday … 
  7. The Power of Human Effort
    Every evening, we have chants in honor of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, recollecting their virtues before we meditate. This is a good way of uplifting the mind—or as the texts say, gladdening the mind. These recollections put you in the right mood to meditate. You think about the kind of person the Buddha was, the person who found this path … 
  8. Evident Inequality
     … As the Buddha was giving the talk, he realized that the old man had some potential, so the talk went on and on and on about the virtue of giving, the perfection of giving. The man was thinking to himself, “This is why we’re poor. My wife and I have never given anything.” So he thought to himself, “What do I have? I … 
  9. Fear
     … learning how not to waste your strength, to devote it to things that really are worthwhile—developing mindfulness, developing virtue, developing concentration and discernment—so that you don’t have to hold onto things that can be taken away from you, things that will turn on you. In the course of that, you find yourself letting go also of whatever potential there was in … 
  10. Overcoming Obstacles
     … So there is that possibility, but to get there requires training—heightening your virtue, heightening your concentration, heightening your discernment. So try to be very clear on who your internal friends are, who you want to be spending time with inside. Because it really does make a difference. Just because a feeling comes into the mind doesn’t mean that it has to be … 
  11. Peace of Mind
     … You know when you’ve improved the mind in terms of its virtue, in terms of its kindness, in terms of equanimity when equanimity is needed, discernment when that’s needed, powers of endurance, patience, peace. These are things we can develop within. And doing this is not a selfish project. We’re not just sitting here gazing at our navels. When you develop … 
  12. Focus on Your Intention
     … This is what we’re doing as we practice the practice of virtue. We’re going to be involved in perceptions and feelings, and fabrications around our actions: telling our body to do this, telling the body to do that, telling it not to do this, not to do that, as a way of gaining some sense of our power here. By changing our … 
  13. Path & Goal
     … The ones that give energy are the things like recollection of your virtue, recollection of your generosity, recollection of the devas, realizing that the qualities that make a person into a deva are qualities that you have in yourself, so you’re headed in the right direction. That can lift you up. Things that steady you are contemplation of the body in terms of … 
  14. Brahmaviharas & Noble Truths
     … generosity, virtue, meditation. The generosity is an expression of compassion. All the brahmavihāras are there, embodied in your practice, but we go beyond the brahmavihāras. There’s a passage where the Buddha talks about how, in a previous lifetime, he happened to be a king. The tradition within that line of kings was that as soon as you had your first white hair, you … 
  15. Recovering Your Balance
     … Think about the goodness of your generosity, the goodness of your virtue. You can think about the Buddha, the Dhamma, or the Sangha. One of the really fine things about Buddhism is that it was founded by someone who knows what it’s like to make a mistake. Even in his last lifetime, the Buddha made a huge mistake—six years of tormenting himself … 
  16. Customs of the Noble Ones
     … culture. We can learn that by going outside of our culture. We begin to realize that we can realize that potential. The ariya dhammas, the noble dhammas, come down to four: virtue, concentration, discernment, release. The release is what makes the other three noble. Just as being discontent with your skillful qualities until you get to the level where your skillful qualities get you … 
  17. On Human Nature
     … After all, those three qualities—discernment, purity, and compassion—are the three virtues traditionally attributed to him. This is how the desire for happiness can be turned into something noble. You benefit; the people around you benefit as well. Don’t think that happiness has to be a selfish goal. If you can uproot your greed, other people around you won’t have to … 
  18. Time to Heal
     … As the Buddha said, one of the ideal topics of conversation is unentanglement, the virtue of seclusion. So as we’re working with one another, of course there has to be some discussion of the work we have to do. But try to keep the thought in the back of your mind that each of us is here for seclusion. And even though you … 
  19. Large-hearted
     … This is what the virtue of compunction is: the opposite of apathy. Compunction is one of those strange words we don’t use very much in everyday language. But the Buddha describes it as an unwillingness to do something you know is going to cause harm or pain down the line. You care. It’s all too easy to say, “Well, I don’t … 
  20. Factors for Stream Entry
     … conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment. Those are the qualities you should look for in someone you want to study from. If they don’t have conviction in the Buddha’s awakening, you don’t know what they have conviction in: something, someplace else. If they’re not virtuous, you can’t trust that you’re safe around them. If they’re not generous, you … 
  21. Respect as a Sign of Intelligence
     … good in your generosity, good in your virtue, good in your meditation. That’s the kind of happiness that feels good deep down inside. It’s a happiness that’s worthy of respect. So have a strong sense that your happiness is something very worthwhile. Take it seriously, not in the sense of being grim but in the sense of really wanting to do … 
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