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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Here is the playlist of all Memoir videos now available:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... buVWVofA68
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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Simone Weil (d.1943), in her “Reflections on Quantum Theory”:
It is as though we had returned to the age of Protagoras and the Sophists, the age when the art of persuasion—whose modern equivalent is advertising slogans, publicity, propaganda meetings, the press, the cinema, and radio—took the place of thought and controlled the fate of cities and accomplished coups d’état. So the ninth book of Plato’s Republic reads like a description of contemporary events. Only today it is not the fate of Greece but of the entire world that is at stake. And we have no Socrates or Plato or Eudoxus, no Pythagorean tradition, and no teaching of the Mysteries. We have the Christian tradition, but it can do nothing for us unless it comes alive in us again.
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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Life should be chiefly service. Without that ideal, the intelligence that God has given you is not reaching out toward its goal. When in service you forget the little self, you will feel the big Self of Spirit.

Rather than be always striving for personal happiness, try to make others happy. In being of spiritual, mental, and material service to others, you will find your own needs fulfilled. As you forget self in service to others, you will find that, without seeking it, your own cup of happiness will be full.
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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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Although a Bodhisattva abides in the realms of births and deaths,
his mind nonetheless remains free of defiling attachment.
He abides securely in the Dharma of all buddhas
and always delights in the Tathāgata’s practices.

Everything within the world,
including the aggregates, the sense realms, and other such dharmas
are such as he entirely abandons
in his exclusively focused quest to acquire the Buddha’s qualities.
Avatamsaka Sutra, chapter 39
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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I know morality, which is eternal, with all its mysteries. It is nothing else than that ancient morality which is known to all, and which consists of universal friendliness, and is fraught with beneficence to all creatures.
That mode of living which is founded upon a total harmlessness towards all creatures or (in case of actual necessity) upon a minimum of such harm, is the highest morality.
Mahabharata, Santiparva 262.5-6
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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A brand new video about Master Hua helping parents of his disciples:

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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Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.
Alfred North Whitehead
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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Incessant falls teach men to reform, and distress rouses their strength. Life springs from calamity, and death from ease.

Mencius
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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Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins.

Plains Indian prayer.
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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Whoever is kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind.
Midrash
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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This is the first in a series about Platonism by Mindy Mandell, a non-academic. The Four Virtues are described as states of 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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O Great spirits of Ancestors
I raise my pipe to you;
To you messengers in the four winds,
and to Mother Earth
who provides your children,
Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love,
To respect and to be kind to one another
So that we may grow with peace in mind.
Let us learn to share all good things
That you provide us on this Earth.
Indigenous Peoples
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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Some people have no concern for virtue or the Path. It could be said that they have forgotten what is most fundamental. The most fundamental thing is virtue in the Path. Without virtue, one cannot follow the Path to its end and realize Buddhahood . Buddhas are adorned with the myriad virtues. Having perfected and realized the myriad virtues, they were able to become Buddhas.

Virtue in the Path represents righteous energy. It can be compared to the sun and moon. It is equivalent to heaven and earth. Therefore, no one can afford to overlook virtue in the Path. Virtue in the Path also serves as our place of practice. Virtue in the Path requires cultivation. If you cultivate, you can be virtuous. Without cultivation, there is no virtue.

Therefore, if cultivators fail to consider virtue, they will not be able to cultivate. Virtue in the Path consists of renouncing oneself for the sake of others. Forgetting about ourselves, we should help others; we should do that without harboring even a single thought of selfishness and without ever thinking of our own benefit. A mind devoid of selfish and self-benefiting thoughts is a virtuous mind.

Thus, in everything they do, cultivators should pay attention to virtue. Do everything within your capacity to help others. Therefore, each of you should use your utmost ability to perfect your virtue. Then, you will have some accomplishment.

Don’t be so preoccupied with yourself that you cannot forget about yourself. To practice the Bodhisattva Path, you must forget yourself. While it is important to enlighten yourself, it is even more important to enlighten others. As students of the Buddhadharma, we ought to realize this and never forget about helping others.
Master Hua, Timely Teachings, page 293.
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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Good done in the hope that others will notice is not genuine good.
Evil done in the fear that others will find out is truly great evil.
Chinese saying
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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Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.
Goethe
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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