DEVELOPING THE BUDDHA'S QUALITIES OF A GOOD PERSON

Welcome back to the Sutta Meditation Series Podcast. Following on from the last session looking at "Why associating with good people (sappurisa) is so important on the Noble Eightfold Path", we take this one step further to examine "Developing the Buddha's qualities of a good person".    We are particularly interested in looking at how we may self-sabotage our progress on the Path, and to investigate qualities that we consciously or unconsciously continue to practice that may be unwholesome, rather than wholesome. This is a strong encouragement to deepen the practice and really put effort to progress on the Noble Eightfold Path.   This is part of our examination of the Avijjā Sutta (AN 10.61). Instead of ignorance, we want to cultivate and develop to fulfillment True Knowledge and Liberation (vijjāvimutti).  The intention is to look at a few different parts of this insight pathway (which has all the main teachings of the Buddha to develop the Noble Eightfold Path and realise Nibbana) before pulling it all together to explain how to meditate on the full  insight pathway.     In this session we:  - briefly refresh our minds about the Story of Sakka, King of the Devas and the Buddha's words  - examine the qualities of gratitude and thankfulness, whom to praise and not praise, matters of belief or suspicion, behaving rightly towards our parents, the Tathagata and his noble disciples, simile of the newly arrived bride and the four qualities when it comes to virtues & faults, and the things we should refrain from using to glorify ourselves and belittle others - look at how to reflect and contemplate to develop these wholesome qualities and abandon the unwholesome ones.   Most of the suttas that are directly or indirectly referred to in this session:  — Sakka Vatthu (Dhp 206-208)  — Samacittavagga (AN 2.32)  — Āyācanavagga (AN 2.134-137)  — Sappurisa Sutta (AN 4.73)  — Sappurisa Sutta (MN 113)  — Vatthūpama Sutta (MN 7)  — Karaniyametta Sutta (Sn1.8)   — Dasuttara Sutta (DN 34)   To read the Avijjā Sutta (AN 10.61) - https://suttacentral.net/an10.61/en/bodhi  A VIDEO of this segment has been published to the Sutta Meditation Series YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DILGEN1PsAY AND on Spotify as a video podcast Blessings of the Triple Gem. Theruwan saranai