… 6) A woman may become ordained as a bhikkhunī only after, as a female trainee (sikkhamānā), she has observed the first six of the ten precepts without lapse for two full years. (Apparently she did this as a ten-precept female novice, although this point is controversial.)
7) A bhikkhunī is not to insult or revile a bhikkhu in any way. According to the …
… In this way, it plays a major role in right view.
As for feeling and perception, in Chapter 1 we have already noted the role of feeling in the pursuit of the middle way; in the section below—Final Right View—we will discuss the role of perception in performing the tasks appropriate to both the transcendent and the final levels of right view …
… Touched by contact in various ways,
he shouldn’t keep theorizing about self.
Stilled right within,
a monk shouldn’t seek peace from another,
from anything else.
For one stilled right within,
there’s nothing embraced,
so how rejected?
As in the middle of the sea
it is still,
with no waves upwelling,
so the monk—unperturbed, still—
should not swell himself
anywhere.” — Sn …
… Don’t act like a log, simply going through the motions of walking, sitting, meditating, sitting like a stump in the middle of a field without any sense of circumspection in the heart. This sort of going through the motions isn’t any different from the way people in general normally act.
To be a disciple of the Tathāgata, whose fame has spread throughout …
… That gratified the king.
“In the same way, monks, the wanderers of other sects are blind & eyeless. They don’t know what is beneficial and what is harmful. They don’t know what is the Dhamma and what is non-Dhamma. Not knowing what is beneficial and what is harmful, not knowing what is Dhamma and what is non-Dhamma, they keep on arguing …
… As for the exception—a constricted mind and a scattered mind—both members of the pair are unskillful; they’re paired because they represent two extremes between which you have to find a middle way to bring the mind to concentration.
There are eight pairs in all:
a mind with passion / a mind without passion
a mind with aversion / a mind without aversion
a …
… The Commentary notes, by way of reminder, that these offices were not created by the Buddha to encourage greed or lack of contentment among the officials, but as a way of helping the Community ensure that cloth is shared out fairly and properly to all.
Receiving & storing
The Commentary states that a robe-cloth receiver should ideally be endowed with good practices in terms …
Summary
A Refuge in Skillful Action
Is human action real or illusory? If real, is it effective? If it is effective, does one have a choice in what one does? If one has a choice, can one choose to act in a way that will lead to genuine happiness? If so, what is that way? These are questions that lie at the heart of …
… The middle way, the truth of the path, was declared absolute winner, while the truth of the origin of stress was knocked out and carried off on a stretcher, with no way of reviving ever again.
I was utterly astounded and exclaimed, ‘Isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it amazing? Where has this Dhamma been hiding? How is it that the genuine Dhamma, this …
… Attend to things in this way, don’t attend to them in that. Let go of this, enter and remain in that.’ This, Kevaṭṭa, is called the marvel of instruction.
“Then there is the case where a Tathāgata appears in the world, worthy and rightly self-awakened. He teaches the Dhamma admirable in its beginning, admirable in its middle, admirable in its end. He …
… middle of a field. If you look up at the sky without reference to anything on the ground, you can’t tell how fast the clouds are moving, or in which direction. But if you have a still point of reference—the top of a roof or a tall pole—you can clearly sense the clouds’ direction and speed. In the same way, when …
… At the same time, his unpublished philosophical essays show that he worked out the religious implications of his worldview in many original ways, foreshadowing the thought of later thinkers, such as Carl Jung, who adopted and transmitted Romantic ideas on religion.
Hölderlin’s philosophical essays were not published until the middle of the 20th century, so it can’t be said that they were …
… at the way consciousness interacted with the input of the senses, showing that the basic raw material of knowledge is composed not of sense data, but of judgments about sense data. In other words, what we perceive directly is not things-in-themselves in the world outside or the self inside, but the workings of reason in shaping experience in the middle ground. We …
… They have encountered young hooligans on the way to or from a crime. They have been propositioned by women. Once I went for alms in the pitch black of night. A woman washing a pot saw me by a lightning flash and, on seeing me, screamed out: “I’m done for! A demon is after me!”
“‘When this was said, I said to her …
… It’s not easy to keep your practice on the Middle Way. If you don’t use your powers of observation, it’s especially hard. The mind will keep falling for things, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, because it doesn’t observe what’s going on. This isn’t the path to letting go. It’s a path that’s stuck, caught up on things …
… What this means is that compassion is not only for people who are currently suffering, but also for those who are acting in ways that will lead to their future suffering. And in the same way, empathetic joy is not only for those who are already happy, but also for those who are acting in ways that will lead to future happiness.
The Canon …
… Lady Vedehikā is violent.’
“In the same way, monks, a monk may be ever so gentle, ever so even-tempered, ever so calm, as long as he is not touched by disagreeable aspects of speech. But it is only when disagreeable aspects of speech touch him that he can truly be known as gentle, even-tempered, & calm. I don’t call a monk easy …
… The practice of moderation is so central to the path that the Buddha introduced the path to his first listeners as the “middle way.” In particular, the practice of right concentration requires balance in many areas: in your use of the physical requisites, in your ability to avoid excesses and deficiencies in the desire and effort you bring to your practice, and in emphasizing …
… His listeners had long assumed that the answer was a categorical Yes, so before teaching them the middle way the Buddha had to reframe the question by giving the analytical response that his own self cross-examination had shown to be most productive in leading to freedom.
As we will see in Chapter Four, many variations on the issue of how different livelihoods should …
… Others may address you in a timely way or an untimely way. They may address you with what is true or what is false. They may address you in an affectionate way or a harsh way. They may address you in a beneficial way or an unbeneficial way. They may address you with a mind of goodwill or with inner hate. In any event …
Pācittiya Three: The Exhortation Chapter | The Buddhist Monastic Code, Volumes I & II
… 6) A woman may become ordained as a bhikkhunī only after, as a female trainee (sikkhamānā), she has observed the first six of the ten precepts without lapse for two full years. (Apparently she did this as a ten-precept female novice, although this point is controversial.) 7) A bhikkhunī is not to insult or revile a bhikkhu in any way. According to the …
