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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An outline of Damascius' seven degrees of virtue:

http://www.platonic-philosophy.org/plat ... reesVirtue
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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I could not tell you of any particular course to develop the inner faculties, and permit me to say that if I knew of such I would be very reluctant to tell it, because it is full of danger. It is necessary first to understand philosophy, to understand yourself so far as it can be understood on this plane; to discipline one’s self; to develop virtue, attention, fortitude; then one is prepared to go further.
The best advice I can give you is to continue studying, but at the same time to add to it actual practice in the way of doing as much work as you can for other people.

To make our will strong we must have fewer desires. Let those be high, pure, and altruistic; they will give us strong will.
William Q Judge (d.1896)
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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231. Let a man guard himself against irritability
in bodily action; let him be controlled in deed.
Abandoning bodily misconduct, let him practice
good conduct in deed.
232. Let a man guard himself against irritability
in speech; let him be controlled in speech.
Abandoning verbal misconduct, let him practice
good conduct in speech.
233. Let a man guard himself against irritability
in thought; let him be controlled in mind.
Abandoning mental misconduct, let him practice
good conduct in thought.
234. The wise are controlled in bodily action,
controlled in speech and controlled in thought.
They are truly well-controlled.
Dhammapada
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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For to say “Look to God” is not helpful without some instruction as to what this looking imports: it might very well be said that one can “look” and still sacrifice no pleasure, still be the slave of impulse, repeating the word God but held in the grip of every passion and making no effort to master any. Virtue, advancing towards the Term and, linked with thought, occupying a Soul makes God manifest: God on the lips, without a good conduct of life, is a word.
Plotinus Enneads 2.9.15
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 would advise all in general, that they would take into serious consideration the true and genuine ends of knowledge; that they seek it not either for pleasure, or contention, or contempt of others, or for profit, or fame, or for honour and promotion, or such-like adulterate or inferior ends; but for merit and emolument of life, that they may regulate and perfect the same in charity.
Francis Bacon
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.
SteRo
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=38735
https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.p ... 51#p595151


If there is a person that engages in advocating his/her view of virtue it might be a good idea to get to know the other topics that person identifies with.
Cleared. αδόξαστος.
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Lord, make clear to us our guiding Soul, for we take courage knowing our Divine Source.
Golden Verses of Pythagoras
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 welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.
Albert Camus
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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Nagarjuna Bodhisattva in his Treatise on the Ten Bodhisattva Grounds reminds us to cool our censorious tendencies:
If one assesses inward qualities on the basis of externals
and hence develops an attitude of slighting condescension,
one brings ruin on oneself as well as on one’s own roots of goodness
so that, at the end of one’s life, one falls into the wretched destinies.

As for the places to which someone else’s mind proceeds,
one may be mistaken about them, for they are hard to know.
Therefore one must not make false assessments
with regard to any being.

It is only someone possessed of all-knowledge
who can fully know their minds’ states
and the subtle, secret places to which they may proceed.
Hence, with regard to judging other beings,

the Buddha said, “It is only those who are my equals
who can pass judgment on other beings.”
If the Buddha himself spoke in this manner,
who then could have the ability to pass judgment on others?
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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We are members of one great body, planted by nature in a mutual love, and fitted for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.
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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By the operation of the same cosmic law [of karma], to judge others cruelly
is to attract malicious criticism upon oneself. If one peddles the weaknesses
of others, the divine law will mysteriously bring about the publicity
of his own private faults. One who is tempted to cast aspersion
on anyone else should first ask himself: "Am I without error?" Judge
ye not others; judge and change yourself first.

Cruel speech and behavior have their origin in cruel thoughts. If
one is constantly unkind, it means his mind is a harbor for unkind
thoughts. According to the psychological law of habit, the more one
gives mental space to mean thoughts the more he will accustom himself
to being mean-spirited, exciting and angering others by his unconscionable
behavior, and thereby attracting unkindness to himself.
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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Slander, that worst of poisons, ever finds
An easy entrance to ignoble minds.

Juvenal
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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Kusala
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Matrceta's Hymn to the Buddha
An English Rendering of the Satapañcasatka
by Ven. S. Dhammika


In Praise of Arduous Deeds

Fatigue, loss of the joy of solitude,
the company of fools, the press of the crowd
and the pairs of opposites: all these discomforts
you endure as if they were blessings.

With mind detached, you quietly work
for the welfare of the world.
How awesome is the Buddha-nature of the Buddha!

You ate poor food, sometimes you went hungry.
You walked rough paths and slept on the ground
trampled hard by the hooves of cattle.

Though you are the Master, in order to serve others
you endured insults and adapted your clothes and words,
out of love for those whom you taught.

You are the Lord, but you never lord it over others.
All may use you as a servant to obtain the help they need.

No matter who provoked you,
where or how, never did you transgress
your own path of fair conduct.

You help those who wish you ill
more than most men
help those who wish them well.

To an enemy intent on evil
you are a friend intent on good.
To one who gleefully seeks faults
you respond by seeking virtues.

Those who sought to give you poison and fire
you approached with compassion and nectar.

You conquered revilers with patience,
the malicious with blessings,
slanderers with truth and the cruel with kindness.

You reversed in an instant
the manifold natures and evil destinies
of those depraved from beginningless time.


https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/aut ... .html#ch11
"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Magnificent Praise by Matrceta - thanks Kusala. :bow:

Here is the PDF of BPS entire Hymn, also in book form too:

http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh360_Dhammik ... Buddha.pdf

It begins with this Invocation:
1. Invocation

1 No faults in any way are found in him;
All virtues in every way dwell in him.

2 To go to him for refuge, to sing his praise,
to do him honour and to abide in his Dharma
is proper for one with understanding.

3 The only Protector,
his faults are gone without residue.
The All-knowing One,
his virtues are present without fail.

4 Even the most spiteful man
cannot with justice find fault
in the thoughts, words or deeds of the Lord.

5 To be born human and encounter the great joy
of the good Dharma is a chance rarer than
a turtle thrusting its neck through a yoke
floating freely in the great ocean.

6 So how could I not put voice to good use now,
for it is impermanent and may soon be liable
to change.

7 Though I know that the Sage’s virtues
are beyond all human calculation,
still I will recount a portion of them,
if only for my own delight.

8 Homage to you, O Self-developed One
whose good works are many and wondrous,
whose virtues are too numerous and awesome
to define.

9 Their number? They are infinite.
Their nature? Words must fail.
But to speak of them bestows great good,
so I shall speak much.
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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There sometimes comes on us a mood of strange reverence for people and things which in less contemplative hours we hold to be unworthy; and in such moments we may set side by side the head of the Christ and the head of an outcast, and there is an equal radiance around each, which makes of the darker face a shadow and is itself a shadow around the head of light. We feel a fundamental unity of purpose in their presence here, and would as willingly pay homage to the one who has fallen as to him who has become a master of life. I know that immemorial order decrees that the laurel crown be given only to the victor, but in these moments I speak of a profound intuition changes the decree and sets the aureole on both alike.

We feel such deep pity for the fallen that there must needs be a justice in it, for these diviner feelings are wiser in themselves and do not vaguely arise. They are lights from the Father. A justice lies in uttermost pity and forgiveness, even when we seem to ourselves to be most deeply wronged, or why is it that the awakening of resentment or hate brings such swift contrition? We are ever self-condemned, and the dark thought which went forth in us brooding revenge, when suddenly smitten by the light, withdraws and hides within itself in awful penitence. In asking myself why is it that the meanest are safe from our condemnation when we sit on the true seat of judgment in the heart, it seemed to me that their shield was the sense we have of a nobility hidden in them under the cover of ignoble things; that their present darkness was the result of some too weighty heroic labor undertaken long ago by the human spirit, that it was the consecration of past purpose which played with such a tender light about their ruined lives, and it was more pathetic because this nobleness was all unknown to the fallen, and the heroic cause of so much pain was forgotten in life's prison-house.
G.W. Russell-AE, from his "The Hero in Man"
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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