In Praise of Virtue

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be, not a virtue, but the groundwork of a virtue.
Samuel Johnson (d. 1784)
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Perhaps alluding to the purpose of ancient Divine Mystery plays.
To wake the soul by tender strokes o£ art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart.
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:
For this the Tragic Muse first trod the stage.
Alexander Pope
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

To believe that if we could but have this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.
Eric Hoffer (d.1983)
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them, and with this as the foremost object ideas of freedom and self-reliance and service to the community were obscured to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business, possessed of great wealth, in which all citizens had a right to share... Athens had reached the point of rejecting independence, and the freedom she now wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be only one result...If men insisted on being free from the burden of a life that was self-dependent and also responsible for the common good, they would cease to be free at all. Responsibility was the price every man must pay for freedom. It was to be had on no other terms.
Edith Hamilton (d. 1963)
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Fear nothing, for every renewed effort raises
all former failures into lessons, all sins into experiences.
Understand me when I say that in the
light of renewed effort the Karma of all your past
alters; it no longer threatens; it passes from the
plane of penalty before the soul's eye, up to that
of tuition. It stands as a Monument, a reminder
of past weakness and a warning against future
failure. So fear nothing for yourself; you are
behind the shield of your reborn endeavor, though
you have failed a hundred times. Try slowly to
make it your motive for fidelity that others may
be faithful.
Katherine Tingley (d. 1929)
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Fool beckons fool, and dunce awakens dunce.
Charles Churchill
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

If we want to learn to have genuine wisdom, we must first cut off desire. How do we cut off desire? By not fighting, not being greedy, not seeking, not being selfish, not pursuing personal advantage, and not lying. These six great principles are the Dharma jewels for cutting off desire and obtaining genuine wisdom.
Master Hsuan Hua in 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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Virtue is an angel; but she is a blind one and must ask of knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal. Mere knowledge, on the other hand, is ready to combat either in the ranks of sin or under the banners of righteousness.
Horace Mann
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

In cultivation on Buddha's Path, we should apply effort naturally. We should not be greedy and ask whether there is any efficacy or whether there will be good results. We should not think about anything, but just keep applying effort and changing our faults everyday.
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

An early disciple of Master Hsuan Hua, Ron Epstein, recalls the virtuous qualities of Master 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.
User avatar
Dhammanando
Posts: 6490
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:44 pm
Location: Mae Wang Huai Rin, Li District, Lamphun

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Dhammanando »

Nicholas Weeks wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 2:45 pm An early disciple of Master Hsuan Hua, Ron Epstein, recalls the virtuous qualities of Master Hua:

:goodpost:

The next one in the list is also worth a listen....

Rūpehi bhikkhave arūpā santatarā.
Arūpehi nirodho santataro ti.


“Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realms.
Cessation is more peaceful than the formless realms.”
(Santatarasutta, Iti 73)
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Yes, Master Hua encouraged his disciples to be active in civic life. I was in a LA temple when he said HW Bush deserved re-election and would get it - IF.

The IF is described in the video, yet his Wife Barbara said ignore the advice of Master 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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Bowing for world peace over two years is one form of active virtue. Here is an except from the journals of pilgrimage done in the late 1970s:

http://urbandharma.org/udharma7/oneheart1.html

Here are the eight volumes written by the two disciples of Master Hua, one lay & one bhikshu:

https://www.buddhisttexts.org/collectio ... nd-memoirs

A short video of the two, recalling many years later, the beginning of their pilgrimage:

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.
User avatar
Nicholas Weeks
Posts: 4210
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:26 pm
Location: USA West Coast

Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Xtians are at the gate, demonstrating against demonic Buddhists, what to do? Disciples are unsure, preferring to avoid contact.

Master goes outside in the heat with a translator and uses patience kung fu. When Master offered to give them anything they wanted & then the punch line - "I have spirit of Jesus." The Jesus people became friendly. Xtians come back later and attended the interfaith conference.

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.
Post Reply