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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Swami Vivekananda talks to Americans:

https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info ... ddhism.htm
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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Yes indeed, the path less followed, but a worthy goal!

https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info ... nyasin.htm
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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Carlyle defined the Protestant Religion as:
“For the most part a wise, prudential feeling, grounded on mere calculation; a matter, as all others now are, of expediency and utility; whereby some smaller quantum of earthly enjoyment may be exchanged for a far larger quantum of celestial enjoyment. Thus religion, too, is profit, a working for wages; not reverence, but vulgar hope or fear.’’
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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Man left to his own devices and speculations must be out of tune with absolute truth, while even picking up some of its crumbs. For man is but a fallen Angel, a god within, but having an animal brain in his head, more subject to cold and wine fumes while in company with other men on Earth, than to the faultless reception of divine revelations.
Blavatsky
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 someone beset by delusion, desire, hatefulness, or fear
Is nonetheless able to avoid ruining [his practice of] Dharma,
One should realize he possesses faith
And may be considered a vessel of auspicious happiness.

Once one has become able to be skillfully selective
In the three karmic actions of body, mouth, and mind
While also constantly benefiting self and others,
He becomes fit to be known as one who is wise.
Nagarjuna, Ratnavali 1:6-7
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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discrimination needs moral courage

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The man who is afraid to think searchingly upon his opinions, and to reason critically upon his position, will have to develop moral courage before he can acquire discrimination. A man must be true to himself, fearless with himself, before he can perceive the pure principles of Truth, before he can receive the all-revealing Light of Truth. The more Truth is inquired of, the brighter it shines ; it cannot suffer under examination and analysis. The more error is questioned, the darker it grows ; it cannot survive the entrance of pure and searching thought. To "prove all things" is to find the good and to throw away the evil. He who reasons and meditates learns to discriminate ; he who discriminates discovers the eternally True.
James Allen
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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Although this Power is Universal and All-pervading, It is personified in man for human relationships. It is Spirit, the living and moving Power in man. Our New Messianic Message declares in order to meet the scientific mind of the new age, that It is the Power with which man affirms or denies God. At the same time it supports an ancient belief that man comes into this world with two distinct aspects, one Divine and the other human.

The Infinite Non-differentiated Spirit out of whose womb the entire creation has issued forth with billions of suns and constellations has also brought forth man through various stages of evolution. They were all in the same Cosmic Creative Principle. Even the Personified Divine Aspect of the Infinite was also in the Cosmic Creative Plan to establish personal relationship with Its human manifestations. This Personified Aspect is not separate, but together with the Infinite. In fact It is the Infinite in expression. It is not only the speaking God in man, but also the Directing Force.

Man being a free moral agent according to the Cosmic Creative Plan, can act either in harmony with all creation, or choose the opposite course. If it were not so, he could not act as he does.

The more definite man is as to the Existence of God, the quicker he contacts and realizes Him. What can be more definite than the Power that animates his mind and body and enables him to function as a conscious individual entity? This Power is not man-made, but a Self-existing Principle. It ever remains free and unaffected in the midst of various changes that man goes through in his thinking and acting.
The Open Door To Heaven by AK Mozumdar
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 lyre of true philosophy is no less tuneful in the desert than in the city; and he who knows how to call forth its latent harmony in solitude, will not want the testimony of the multitude to convince him that its melody is ecstatic and divine

Thomas Taylor, from his History of the Restoration of Platonic Theology
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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“No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.”
Demophilus the Pythagorean
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 nurse, all-bounteous, blessed and divine,
Who joy'st in peace; to nourish corn is thine.
Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair,
Harvest and threshing are thy constant care.
Lovely delightful queen, by all desir'd,
Who dwell'st in Eleusina's holy vales retir'd.
Only-begotten, much-producing queen,
All flowers are thine, and fruits of lovely green.
Bright Goddess, come, with summer's rich increase
Swelling and pregnant, leading smiling Peace;
Come with fair Concord and imperial Health,
And join with these a needful store of wealth.

-Orphic Hymn to Demeter
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 if we are temperate, we shall still continue to be so, though these calamities may befall us, and if we are contemplators of true beings, neither shall we be plundered of this habit; but all these dreadful events taking place, we shall still persevere in celebrating the rulers of all things, and in investigating the causes of effects.

Proclus, On Providence, Fate, and that which is in our Power
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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3. Once a man is integrated, once his inner life becomes simplified, all of a piece, he begins to attain a richer and deeper knowledge—quite effortlessly, because the intellectual light he receives comes from above. Freedom of heart is his, and simplicity of intention, and fixity of resolve, and he finds that he is no longer distracted by a variety of occupations; he acts, now, only for God’s glory, and does his best to get rid of all self-seeking. There is no worse enemy to your freedom and your peace of mind than the undisciplined affections of your own heart. Really good and holy people plan out beforehand in their minds how they are to behave in given circumstances; the course of their lives does not sweep them away into following their lower instincts, they shape it for themselves, according to the dictates of right reason. To be sure, the conquest of self demands the hardest struggle of all; but this has got to be our real business in life, the conquest of self—no day passed without beating our own record, without gaining fresh ground.
Imitation of Christ, Knox version
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 becoming man he ceases to be the universe; but when he ceases to be man as Plato says, he raises himself on high, and governs the world. For being made of the whole, he also makes the whole.

Plotinus, Enneads V, viii, 7)
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 Platonic tradition may be likened to an underground river that from time to time sends up a spring; wherever its waters flow, the soul is reborn, and with it the conception of intellectual form, the beautiful, and true art.”

Kathleen Raine
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 good are heaven's peculiar care.
Ovid
Last edited by Nicholas Weeks on Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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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