In Praise of Virtue

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The Good Religion is Innate Wisdom, reason; and the forms and virtues of Innate Wisdom…are begotten of the Good Mind and the Bounteous Spirit.
Denkart, 117 -- Ninth century encyclopedia of the Zoroastrian religion, but with extensive quotes from materials thousands of years older.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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As God is simple goodness, inner knowledge and light, he is at the same time also our will, love, righteousness and truth, the innermost of all virtues.
Theologia Germanica, 31 (14th century)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The Buddha’s wisdom and radiance are like the sun, because they shine upon the entire earth, lighting up even the remotest dark corners.
Master Hsuan Hua, Spring Sun, Lotus Flower.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Edmund Burke
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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There are those men who say to repay evil with kindness. But I say, how then are we to repay kindness? Repay kindness with kindness, but repay evil with justice.
Confucius
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The images of men's wits and knowledge remain in books. They generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages.
Francis Bacon (d. 1626)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.
Aristotle
The more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself, the happier he will be. . . .The highest, most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind.
Arthur Schopenhauer
They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.
Sir Philip Sidney
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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This way of life is best—to live and die practicing justice and all other virtues.
Plato, Gorgias
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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If one is to come through difficult experiences unembittered, unspoiled, still a real person, one needs deep resources. Not alone in such experiences as sorrow and failure does this need arise but in man's search for the indispensable spiritual requirements of a satisfying life—inner peace, for example, some serenity in the soul to come home to at night and go out from in the morning. But no one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it.

Peace is a margin of power around our daily need. Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. Peace is an awareness of reserves from beyond ourselves, so that our power is not so much in us as through us.
Harry Emerson Fosdick (d. 1969)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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That day which you fear as being the end of all things is the birthday of your eternity.

Seneca
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Today a man is no longer punished only for the crimes he has in fact committed. Now he may be compelled to confess to crimes that have been conjured up by his judges, who use his confession for political purposes. It is not enough for us to damn as evil those who sit in judgment. We must understand what impels the false admission of guilt; we must take another look at the human mind in all its frailty and vulnerability. If we are to survive as free men, we must face up to this problem of politically inspired mental coercion, with all its ramifications.
A.M. Meerloo, Rape of the Mind
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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First comes practice, then comes faith.

Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The man whom destiny positions in an epoch without a foreseeable end, the character of which wounds the deepest fibers of his being, cannot heedlessly sacrifice his repugnance to his boldness, nor his intelligence to his vanity. The spectacular, empty gesture earns public applause, but the disdain of those governed by reflection. In the shadowlands of history, man ought to resign himself to patiently undermining human presumption.
Nicolas Gomez-Davila (d. 1994)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The late Geshe Sopa warns us all against analysis devolving into censure, fault-finding and sectarianism:
It is dangerous to act negatively toward anyone. Because you do not know
what type of field you are planting a karmic seed in, you cannot predict what
kind of crop it will bring. You do not know what magnitude of negative karma
you are creating. It is like walking on the edge of a huge ditch filled with hot
fire covered by dry ashes. You should be very careful because if you are not
watchful you may fall into the fire. Similarly, you should be very careful about
how you think about and act toward others. You cannot assess someone’s
depths by judging what shows on the surface. Therefore the best policy is to
simply watch your own body, speech, and mind. You can assess your mind and
actions most of the time, but in regard to others you just do not know.

We have a similar tendency to think, “My religion is better. I will honor my
sect, but not that one.” Then you go on to find fault with the other group; you
may even despise and abuse them. This is another area you should see as a fire-pit
covered with ashes. It is very important to always avoid dividing groups
into “ours” and “yours”; this will keep you from viewing those who are not in
“our group” as enemies. There is no benefit in saying nasty things to others
merely because they are in a different group. That creates many negative
propensities and future problems—not for those other people but for you.
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Just as it is the bounden moral and natural duty of a human being always and in every set of
circumstances impersonally and unselfishly to aid others for their good, equally so is it his moral
and natural duty to refrain at all times and in all circumstances from acting selfishly and for
personal gain upon the lives of others. The former case arises in motives which in their essence
are divine; the latter case arises in motives which in their essence we may qualify as being devilish or diabolic.
G. de Purucker (d. 1942)
Good and evil have no fixed form. It's as easy to turn from doing bad to doing good as it is to flip over the hand from the back to the palm. It's simply up to us to do it. Master Hsuan Hua.
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