Search results for: virtue
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Noble & True
The Buddha’s Last Word
… The Buddha himself was consummate in these fifteen types of conduct and in the three cognitive skills they engender, which is why “consummate in knowledge and conduct” (vijjā-caraṇa-sampanno) is included in the standard list of his virtues chanted daily in Buddhist communities throughout the world. By concluding his teachings with “reach consummation,” he was encouraging his followers to develop these same virtues …Show 2 additional results in this book- Boundless Happiness… The same with virtue: You abstain from harming others, but with the state of mind that develops when you’re virtuous, you look back on your actions and you realize, “I haven’t harmed anybody.” There’s a sense of pride, a sense of self-worth that comes with that. Similarly with the meditation: You’re working on your own mind. You’re not …
- Three More Recollections… conviction, virtue, generosity, learning, and discernment. Conviction is in the Buddha’s awakening. Generosity and virtue we already know. Learning is learning the Dhamma, having a fund of Dhamma within you. Think of the things that go sloshing around in most people’s minds, especially now with the mass media: all kinds of stupid songs and jingles, issues that the media raises as important …
- Start by Giving… There are people in his time who denied that giving had any virtue. Either you gave because outside forces forced you to—in which case there wasn’t any virtue on your part—or because whoever might receive your gifts was going to be annihilated anyhow at death, so nothing really much was accomplished. But right view for him starts out with: “There is …
- The Economy of Goodness… And the way you act on it to begin with is to practice virtue. That’s the second form of noble wealth, in which you abstain from doing harm. No killing. No stealing. No illicit sex. No lying. No taking of intoxicants. You avoid harming yourself. You avoid harming others. In that way, you get to live in a harmless world. Backing up that …
- A Quality of the Character… That’s a virtue. It’s not a technique; it’s a virtue. Then he had Rahula reflect on his actions before, during, and after the actions were done in a way that embodied being responsible, being compassionate, and having integrity. Those are the qualities that form the context of the Dhamma, and it’s within those qualities that you then learn about specific …
- The Lightened Mind… training in heightened virtue, in the heightened mind—i.e., concentration—and training in heightened discernment. Each aspect of the training deals with all three principles mentioned in the earlier verse. For example, with virtue, you start out by avoiding anything that’s going to be harmful. Then you develop the good qualities that go along with those virtues. Instead of just not telling …
- Worthy of Trust… What does that mean? We take the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha on one level as examples to follow; on another level, we internalize their virtues. We make the virtues of the Buddha our virtues, we build them into the mind. The virtues of the Dhamma become our virtues, we build them into the mind. The virtues of the noble Sangha: We become …
- Concentration that Bears Great Fruit… As the Buddha said, concentration fostered with virtue has great fruit, great reward. Now, he doesn’t say you can’t get into concentration without virtue. There are many people who can get into concentration without virtue, but then things go awry. Their observation of what they’re doing, their understanding of what they’re doing, gets skewed. So our concentration is based not …
- A Good Line to Watch… We have the merit of generosity, the merit of virtue. Now it’s time to develop the merit of meditation, developing good qualities in the mind. After all, that’s what generosity and virtue are all about, preparing the mind to focus directly on its own well-being. It’s also why, in the old days, when the Buddha received gifts, he would give …
- Unchanged by Loss… The serious loss is when you lose your virtue or your right view. The things of the world, the people of the world, are all subject to aging, illness, and death. These losses will happen no matter what you do. But you can keep yourself from losing your virtue or right view. There’s that passage where King Pasenadi has come to see the …Show 13 additional results in this book
- The Buddha’s Currency… From generosity you’d go to virtue, from virtue you’d go to the rewards of generosity and virtue, and then realizing that you can make the mind even higher than that. Because the whole purpose of the teaching is to take what we have here—the things we have around us, the things we have in our mind—and develop them in such …
- Meaning in a Meaningless Universe… Someone once asked Ajaan Mun if virtue was somehow separate from your mind. He replied, “How could it be? Your virtue is in your intentions, and your intentions are definitely part of your own mind. And if your virtue could be separated from your mind, people would do just that. They’d come and steal your virtues. But because they can’t be separated …
- Investing in Noble Wealth… You’re not going to harm yourself, you’re not going to harm other people in anything you do or say or in terms of the virtues of the mind: the virtue of avoiding excessive greed, of avoiding ill will, and of developing right view. Shame and compunction go along with this. Shame here is the healthy sense of shame that focuses on realizing …
- Generosity & Virtue as Skills… So when you approach the issue of virtue as a skill or as a series of skills, it helps to develop the right attitudes, the right inner voices—the ones that learn how to say No in an effective way, the ones that can encourage you and give you a sense of gladness over the fact that you have virtue. In other words, virtue …
- Overcoming Fear… This relates to virtue and right view. It also relates to the quality the Buddha calls *ottappa—*compunction: the fear that comes when you think about the fact that you could behave in unskillful ways and, as long as you haven’t had your first taste of awakening, it’s always possible that you could lose your virtue, lose your right view. We live …
- A Slave to Craving… But inside, the results of the effort stay with you, especially if you take the practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment to its total end. The passage a preceptor teaches a young monk says, “Concentration, when fostered by virtue, or infused with virtue, is of great fruit, great benefit.” And concentration really does lead to a sense of well-being. You focus here on …
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Still, Flowing Water
Becoming a Samaṇa
… So just as he took those people and trained them to practice so as to attain the noble paths and fruitions, we today take the same sort of people to practice—to develop virtue, develop concentration, develop discernment. Virtue, concentration, and discernment are the names of our practices. When we practice virtue, practice concentration, and practice discernment, we practice right at ourselves. We practice …Show 3 additional results in this book
- Working at Home… These are some of the virtues developed as you learn how to live wisely with other meditators, live wisely in a group. Psychologists call these virtues healthy ego-functioning, and even though the Buddha never talked in terms of ego-functioning, he definitely did teach these virtues as part of the path. So you try to use your concentration as a tool in developing …Show 7 additional results in this book
- An Inside Job… After all, part of the training is in generosity and in virtue, and these things directly impact the people around us. But your generosity and your virtue need some support from inside. Otherwise, if you’re producing goodness but nothing seems to come up inside as a resource for your goodness, it gets dry pretty quickly. But when you get the pleasure of meditation …
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