Search results for: virtue
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- Right Next to Ignorance… Think about your virtue. In times like this, you want to think about how good it has been, the times when you actually were able to carry through with the precepts when it was difficult, or you were able to be generous when it was difficult, to give you a sense of well-being. But eventually you do want to get back to the …
- Be Bigger Than Your Pains… There’s no virtue in just sitting there and suffering. You want to try to understand the pain, so you need to develop a place where you can watch it. You see, “Oh, this is how the pain begins. And this is how it’s inconstant; it comes and goes and comes back again, goes again and moves around.” It’s the same with …
- The Mind’s Eating Disorders… Give it the good food of concentration, a sense of well-being that comes from generosity and virtue, and the mind gets stronger and stronger. Give it conviction in the practice. That strengthens you. Make it persistent, be mindful, develop concentration so that you can develop the discernment that sees these things clearly. This is how you strengthen the mind to the point where …
Buddhist Romanticism
An Ancient Path
… Other religious teachings may contain elements of the noble eightfold path, such as the practice of virtue or strong concentration, but because they lack right view—and thus fail to ask the right questions that would induce total dispassion for even the subtlest levels of fabrication in the highest states of concentration—they remain stuck in states of becoming. The Buddha’s claims for …Show 6 additional results in this book- The Allure of Self… the self that developed virtue, that developed concentration, that developed discernment. It got you to a dimension where there was no sense of self. You saw it, but then you returned to the experience of the senses, you returned to the aggregates, and you realized that there’s more work to be done. That lingering sense of self was still there to do the …
An Arrow in the Heart
… When Sāriputta passed away, did he take virtue along with him? No. Concentration? No. Discernment? No. Release? No. Knowledge and vision of release? No. In other words, the good work of the world—the best work of the world, the path to total release from suffering—is still there to be done. It’s when this work is accomplished that renunciation-based distress leads …- Friends with The Breath… This refers to the brahmaviharas, but also to training in virtue, training in discernment, training so that your mind isn’t overcome by pleasure or overcome by pain. These are all things we can do right now so that the salt of our past bad actions gets dissolved away. And the goodness of our current actions is like that broad river. So pay attention …
- In Training… erase their past actions. What it does, though, is that it gives you the right attitude so that you’re not going to create new bad karma yourself. That’s generosity. Virtue: How are your precepts? In particular, the precept against lying: The Buddha held that as having the most importance. As he said, if you have no shame at telling a deliberate lie …
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Karma Q & A
Readings
… He emulates consummate conviction in those who are consummate in conviction, consummate virtue in those who are consummate in virtue, consummate generosity in those who are consummate in generosity, and consummate discernment in those who are consummate in discernment. This is called admirable friendship. “And what is meant by maintaining one’s livelihood in tune? There is the case where a lay person, knowing …Show 2 additional results in this book
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MvV: cammakkhandhako
… talk on generosity, talk on virtue, talk on heaven, talk on the drawbacks, lowliness, and defilement of sensuality, and talk on the rewards of renunciation. yadā te bhagavā aññāsi kallacitte muducitte vinīvaraṇacitte udaggacitte pasannacitte atha yā buddhānaṁ sāmukkaṁsikā dhammadesanā taṁ pakāsesi dukkhaṁ samudayaṁ nirodhaṁ maggaṁ. When the Blessed One knew that their minds were ready—malleable, free from hindrances, uplifted, and bright—he proclaimed …
- Feeding on Right Resolve… And goodwill is expressed in what sorts of actions? It’s expressed through our generosity; it’s expressed through our virtue. In the Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta, the Buddha talks about all that goes into living a life that makes it possible for your goodwill to be honest and sincere. It requires being restrained. In fact, the Buddha calls goodwill a type of restraint. You …
- Mindful of the Buddha’s Shoulds… When the Buddha recommends generosity, recommends virtue—these are things that you choose to do because they’re worth doing. That’s a value judgment. Then you get the mind into meditation. Even a simple practice like goodwill is a mindfulness practice—you’ve got to keep reminding yourself to do it. Goodwill for all beings doesn’t come naturally. You focus on the …
- Prepare to Die… When you train your mind in virtue, concentration, and discernment, those qualities can lead to release. They don’t cause that dimension to exist. An image in one of the texts is that the path is like a road to a mountain. The road doesn’t cause the mountain, the fact that we’re following the road doesn’t cause the mountain to exist …
- Kamma & Rebirth—A Handful of Leaves… The first is that you’re developed in virtue and developed in discernment. In other words, you learn to see your own mind and understand what’s going on in your own mind. You can talk yourself into doing the things that you know are good but you may not like; and you talk yourself out of doing the things that you may dislike …
- Stern Kindness… fortress, they’ve got to do it through the gate.” In the same way, the Buddha’s knowledge of his awakening is that he knows that there is this one path: virtue, concentration, and discernment; or the noble eightfold path; or the different variations that we find in the Wings to Awakening. Anyone who’s going to gain awakening will have to do it …
- Clinging & Feeding… As the Buddha said, you want to be aware of your conviction, your virtue, your generosity, your discernment, your level of learning, your level of ingenuity. Have you developed these skills to a point where they really can lead to awakening? As for the self as consumer: If you ever feel tempted to leave the path, you remind yourself, “Hey, I got on this …
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A Tradition of Ingenuity
… How is your conviction? Is your conviction strong or is it weak right now? Are you convinced of the Buddha’s awakening, or are you convinced of other teachings that you’ve picked up here and there? Then there’s the question of virtue. How meticulous are you about your precepts? And how about your generosity? Are you truly generous with the things you …
- Determined to Stay with the Breath… This is where it’s good to have virtue as an aspect of the practice. It teaches you to make a promise to yourself that you’re not going to get involved in killing or stealing or illicit sex or lying or drugs or whatever. That forces you to learn the skills that are required to stick with that determination, to stay with it …
- The Will to Awaken… This is where the precepts or virtue as a perfection comes in. Once you’ve realized that you don’t want to harm anybody, you’ve got to follow through and really abstain from activities that are harmful, whether it’s easy to abstain or not. Discernment helps here, in its practical mode. When you find that a precept goes against your desires, you …
- Self-starting… How’s your virtue? How’s your concentration? How’s your discernment? What are the ways of developing these things? It’s okay to want these things. If you don’t want them, they’re not going to happen. Remember, an important part of right effort is generating desire. And how are you going to overcome your unskillful desires unless you’ve got some …
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