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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Moral courage is a virtue of higher cast and nobler origin than physical. It springs from a consciousness of virtue, and renders a man in the pursuit or defence of right, superior to the fear of reproach, opposition, or contempt.
S. G. Goodrich
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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If, however, fear or uncertainty should arise, we
know the refuge where it can be allayed: our good
deeds. By taking this refuge, confidence
and courage will grow within us — confidence
in the protecting power of our good deeds done in the
past; courage to perform more good deeds right now,
despite the discouraging hardships of our present life.
For we know that noble and selfless deeds provide the
best defence against the hard blows of destiny, that it is
never too late but always the right time for good actions.
Nyanaponika Thera
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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Those who have confidence in the Buddha have confidence in the foremost, and for those who have confidence in the foremost, the result is foremost.
AN 4:34
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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A person’s fate is flexible, not fixed. Everything is in his own hands.
Master Hsuan Hua
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 will turned away from the unchangeable and universal good, and turned to its own, or some outward or inferior good, sins. It turns to its own, when it would be in its own power; to an outward, when it strives to know what belongs to others, or not to itself; to an inferior, when it loves the pleasures of the body; and thus man, becoming proud, curious, fleshly, passes over into another life, which, in comparison of the former, is death.
St Augustine
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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Fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns.
Shakespeare
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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In a righteous material battle, one should fight nobly and fearlessly to defend his homeland from evil invading forces, safeguarding the well-being and interests of his countrymen and upholding the ideals of virtuous human existence.
Swami Yogananda
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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If the grave step of taking refuge [in the Triple Gem] by self-surrender has once been taken, a feeling of lightness, unconcernedness and fearlessness will enter the heart of the disciple. A self that has been renounced cannot and need not have any fear for a life that has been surrendered and that is now kept only on trust for the definite purpose of being used for the highest realization.
Nyanaponika Thera
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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All the virtues you preserve, but
That which cuts at their very roots,
This anger, you have not yet abandoned.
Who is a greater fool than you?

Done is an ignoble deed
By another—so you get angry.
Aren’t you just like him?
Who wants to copy the very same act?
Visuddhimagga
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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You cannot not live life.
Biker in Sturgis, SD rally.
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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Assume a virtue, if you have it not,...
For use can almost change the stamp of nature
Hamlet to his mother (1602)
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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It is one of the few consolations in this not
entirely disconsolate world, that not only Evil, but the Good also
may have a strong infectious power that will show itself
increasingly if only we have the courage to put it to the test.

"Thus it is our own mind that should be established in all the
Roots of the Good; it is our own mind that should be soaked
by the rain of truth; it is our own mind that should be purified
from all obstructive qualities; it is our own mind that should
be made vigorous by energy." Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra.
Nyanaponika Thera
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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Aloka
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The way of virtue is respecting the world — respecting our own bodies, respecting the rights of other beings, living in a way that is not cruel, not harmful, not divisive, not insensitive, not brutal.

~ Ajahn Sumedho

https://buddhismnow.com/2020/02/22/a-bu ... n-sumedho/

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rhinoceroshorn
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by rhinoceroshorn »

I bet someone already posted, but if not, here it's.

Virtue is the beginning, the establishing,
the mother of what is fine,
the foremost of all qualities:
Therefore virtue should be purified.
Virtue is also control, restraint,
the delight of the mind,
the ford of all Buddhas:
Therefore virtue should be purified.
Virtue: an incomparable strength.
Virtue: the ultimate weapon.
Virtue: the highest adornment.
Virtue: an astounding coat of mail.
Virtue: an imposing bridge.
Virtue: an unexcelled fragrance.
Virtue: the highest fragrant ointment
by which one wafts
this direction & that.
Virtue: the supreme provision.
Virtue: the ultimate food for the journey.
Virtue: the highest vehicle
by which one goes
this direction & that.
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/T ... g12_1.html


I find this quote so important that I put on my wall some time ago when I read this poem. :tongue:


Image
Eyes downcast, not footloose,
senses guarded, with protected mind,
not oozing — not burning — with lust,
wander alone
like a rhinoceros.
Sutta Nipāta 1.3 - Khaggavisana Sutta
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See, Ānanda! All those conditioned phenomena have passed, ceased, and perished. So impermanent are conditions, so unstable are conditions, so unreliable are conditions. This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.
Dīgha Nikāya 17
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Here is a warning about ignoring virtue and indulging constantly in vice:
All things are bound up in the gods and deeply rooted in them, and through this cause they are preserved in being; if anything fall away from the gods and become utterly isolated from them, it retreats into non-being and is obliterated, since it is wholly bereft of the principles which maintained its unity.
Proclus Elements, #144
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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