In Praise of Virtue

Casual conversation between friends. Anything goes (almost).
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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The man down in Nature occupies himself in guarding, in feeding, in warming and multiplying his body, and, as long as he knows no more, we justify him; but presently a mystic change is wrought, a new perception opens, and he is made a citizen of the world of souls: he feels what is called duty; he is aware that he owes a higher allegiance to do and live as a good member of this universe. In the measure in which he has this sense he is a man, rises to the universal life. The high intellect is absolutely at one with moral nature.
From Emerson, "The Sovereignty Of Ethics"
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.
Philippians 4:8
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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8. The best (man) is like water.
Water is good; it benefits all things and does not
compete with them.
It dwells in (lowly) places that all disdain.
This is why it is so near to Tao.
[The best man] in his dwelling loves the earth.
In his heart, he loves what is profound.
In his associations, he loves humanity.
In his words, he loves faithfulness.
In government, he loves order.
In handling affairs, he loves competence.
In his activities, he loves timeliness.
It is because he does not compete that he is
without reproach.
Lao Tzu
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Under the auspices and direction of Divine Providence,
your forefathers removed to the wilds and wilderness of
America. By their industry they made it a fruitful, and by
their virtue a happy country. And we should still have enjoyed
the blessings of peace and plenty, if we had not forgotten
the source from which those blessings flowed; and
permitted our country to be contaminated by the many
shameful vices which have prevailed among us.
John Jay

Too many vices today, as in 1770s, flow from forgetting the Source of blessings!
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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A common affliction of those who signal their so-called virtue.
Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche
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dzogchungpa
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by dzogchungpa »

Nicholas Weeks wrote: Mon Oct 02, 2017 7:16 pm A common affliction of those who signal their so-called virtue.
Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche

Indeed.
There is not only nothingness because there is always, and always can manifest. - Thinley Norbu Rinpoche
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Self-centeredness is thus a necessity of life, but this necessity is also a sin. Self-centerednessis an intellectual error, because no living creature is in truth the center of the universe; and it is also a moral error, because no living creature has a right to act as if it were the center of the universe. It has no right to treat its fellow creatures, the universe and God or Reality as if they existed simply in order to minister to one self-centered living creature's demands.
Toynbee
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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And so in the days when natural instincts prevailed, men moved quietly and gazed steadily. At that time, there were no roads over mountains, nor boats, nor bridges over water. All things were produced, each for its own proper sphere. Birds and beasts multiplied; trees and shrubs grew up. The former might be led by the hand; you could climb up and peep into the raven’s nest. For then man dwelt with birds and beasts, and all creation was one. There were no distinctions of good and bad men. Being all equally without knowledge, their virtue could not go astray. Being all equally without evil desires, they were in a state of natural integrity, the perfection of human existence.
Chuang-tse (ch. IX)
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Nyedrag Yeshe
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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It is indeed worthy of great praise, when man treats man with kindness! Shall we advise stretching forth the hand to the shipwrecked sailor, or pointing out the way to the wanderer, or sharing a crust with the starving? … Nature produced us related to one another, since she created us from the same source and to the same end. She engendered in us mutual affection, and made us prone to friendships. She established fairness and justice; according to her ruling, it is more wretched to commit than to suffer injury. Through her orders, let our hands be ready for all that needs to be helped.
Seneca, Moral Epistles 95.51.
“Whatever has to happen, let it happen!”
“Whatever the situation is, it’s fine!”
“I really don’t need anything!
~Tsangpa Gyare Yeshe Dorje (1161-1211)
ओं पद्मोष्णीष विमले हूँ फट । ओं हनुफशभरहृदय स्वाहा॥
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔ ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོ།
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Humans themselves are makers of themselves - by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; for mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance.
James Allen
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Lucas Oliveira
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by Lucas Oliveira »

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!

http://biblehub.com/bsb/matthew/18.htm

:anjali:
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DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by DharmaJunior »

thank you kindly

No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin' falsely now
The hour's…
DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

:cheers:
DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by DharmaJunior »

Be grateful for challenges because Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then each woman and man would have been in his or her primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture.
Anandi Gopal Joshi
DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by DharmaJunior »

why didn't I read the quotes properly earlier? They are less amazing now!
DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by DharmaJunior »

Thank you Nicolas Weeks. Outstanding Input! :)
DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by DharmaJunior »

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed

Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear
But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear
Oh, oh.

in praise of poetry?
DharmaJunior
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

Post by DharmaJunior »

om
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Happiness cannot exist where Truth is absent. Erected upon the shifting sands of human fiction and hypotheses, happiness is merely a house of cards tumbling down at the first whiff; it cannot exist in reality as long as egotism reigns supreme in civilized societies. As long as intellectual progress will refuse to accept a subordinate position to ethical progress, and egotism will not give way to the Altruism preached by Gautama and the true historical Jesus (the Jesus of the pagan sanctuary, not the Christ of the Churches) happiness for all the members of humanity will remain a Utopia.
Blavatsky
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Nicholas Weeks
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Re: In Praise of Virtue

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Harmony is the inlet of God [Brahman] into the mind, so that the mind acts in obedience to a law above mind — and that law is unity. Unity is the Nature of God, and harmony is its expression in mind and in the works of mind.
Ernest E. Wood - The Bhagavad Gita Explained
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
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