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The Skill of Living
The Buddha's Path for Developing Skillful Qualities The Skill of Living explicates the Buddha’s path for developing the skillful qualities of generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, truthfulness, effort, determination, discernment, lovingkindness, patience, and equanimity. These qualities are considered “skillful” because, when cultivated, they lead us to greater happiness. We build these qualities, Peter Doobinin emphasizes, by practicing skills. The Buddha taught skills. He didn’t say “practice generosity” and leave it at that. In The Skill of Living Peter shows us how to cultivate skills. Teaching the dharma, the Buddha’s path, in New York City for many years, Peter has learned how to help people cultivate these skills while living as householders, with jobs, families, and myriad responsibilities, amidst the speed and complexity of the modern world. The Skill of Living exemplifies Peter’s clear, thorough, wholehearted, down-to-earth approach to dharma practice. The joy he finds in teaching the dharma shines through on every page. Whether you’re a long-term student or somebody who simply wants to have a better life, The Skill of Living offers a way to develop profound, life-changing skills. It is an invitation to explore a precious teaching, to know a greater happiness in your life. |
From The Skill of Living
“Following the Buddha’s map, we develop the skills we need to make the journey toward a greater happiness in our lives. We cultivate joy, self-confidence, inner strength. We put ourselves in position to build concentration, gain insight. When we’re suffering, struggling, there may be the tendency to think we’ll be able to lessen our pain by practicing meditation, by putting more effort into meditation, but in order to meditate, in order to establish that kind of face-to-face encounter with ourselves, we need certain skills, we need to be developed in certain skillful qualities. Our capacity to meditate depends on the degree to which we’ve developed these skillful qualities.”
Read a section from The Skill of Living: "A Greater Happiness"
“Following the Buddha’s map, we develop the skills we need to make the journey toward a greater happiness in our lives. We cultivate joy, self-confidence, inner strength. We put ourselves in position to build concentration, gain insight. When we’re suffering, struggling, there may be the tendency to think we’ll be able to lessen our pain by practicing meditation, by putting more effort into meditation, but in order to meditate, in order to establish that kind of face-to-face encounter with ourselves, we need certain skills, we need to be developed in certain skillful qualities. Our capacity to meditate depends on the degree to which we’ve developed these skillful qualities.”
Read a section from The Skill of Living: "A Greater Happiness"
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