What does it mean to be admirable?
To be an admirable person, according to the teachings of the Buddha, means to master virtue, endurance, purity and understanding.
At Active Dharma, we strive to be admirable, noble, and heroic. We do this because we aim to improve our condition, become permanently harmless, and become a portal for others so they become admirable, noble, and heroic.
In brief, for us, being admirable entails mastering virtue, endurance, purity, and understanding. Our base for this definition comes from the Ṭhāna Sutta, which you can read here.
Although the Buddha uses many more traits to describe what being admirable is, we choose to stick to this brief guide for simplicity.
What is admirable virtue?
To have admirable virtue is to be impeccable. It is to excel through pristine conduct not for one or two days but every day. People can rely on you because they trust your actions. They trust what you say you will do. They trust your discipline. If people can predict your behavior favorably, then you are admirable.
They can do so because you’re always on time, always deliver, always do what you say you’ll do, and never forget your commitments. Your wholesome behavior is as reliable as the hardness of a rock, the sun's heat, and the impermanence of time.
Of course, many times, due to external causes and conditions, we cannot be on time, always deliver, or always do what we say we’ll do.
This doesn’t mean our virtue isn’t impeccable. On the contrary, if we stick to our principles, even if bad weather interferes with our actions, our integrity remains impeccable because we never deviate from our precepts or intentions. Then, as soon as we’re able to, we act again.
The Buddha said this about admirable virtue:
“There is the case where one individual, through living with another, knows this: ‘For a long time this person has been untorn, unbroken, unspotted, unsplattered in his actions. He has been consistent in his actions. He has practiced consistently with regard to the precepts. He is a virtuous, principled person, not an unprincipled one.”
Having pure intentions
You are also admirable when you don’t take advantage of others at every opportunity. This applies to dealings of any type, not just money-related. For example, if you agree to do something with your partner, only to change plans at the slightest unfair pressure from other family members or friends, or when something better for you comes along, you cannot call yourself admirable.
Your word must be pure; your commitments or agreements with others must be unbreakable and selfless.
Speaking of self, self-seekers are never admirable.
“There is the case where one individual, through dealing with another, knows this: ‘This person deals one way when one-on-one, another way when with two, another way when with three, another way when with many. His earlier dealings do not jibe with his later dealings. He is impure in his dealings, not pure.”
From the same section:
“There is the case where one individual, through dealing with another, knows this: ‘The way this person deals when one-on-one, is the same way he deals when with two, when with three, when with many. His earlier dealings jibe with his later dealings. He is pure in his dealings, not impure.”
Most of us don’t see ourselves as opportunists of this sort. But we are like this sometimes, especially if we’re still unawakened, untrained in the Dharma. Revise how you unconsciously try to take advantage of loved ones when arguing with them. We lie, deny facts, distract, raise our voices, or even coerce others to win and establish we are not wrong.
For all of us who accept this, our goal is to attain admirable purity. That is, abandon the practice of taking advantage of others.
Facing adversity
To endure the harshness of the world is admirable. However, it is an inevitable fact that living in this world implies good times and bad times. Fairness or unfairness has nothing to do with how the world operates.
We lose loved ones, and they fail us. If we are born, we will surely die.
On the other hand, when we cling to an identity, we are bound to always yearn for gain, status, praise, and pleasure and always fear loss, disgrace, censure, and pain.
It is admirable to accept that this is how the world operates; this acceptance is the condition for endurance.
The Buddha says:
“And then there is the case where a person, suffering loss of relatives, loss of wealth, or loss through disease, reflects: ‘That’s how it is when living together in the world. That’s how it is when gaining a personal identity. When there is living in the world, when there is the gaining of a personal identity, these eight worldly conditions spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions: gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure, & pain.’ Suffering loss of relatives, loss of wealth, or loss through disease, he doesn’t sorrow, grieve, or lament, doesn’t beat his breast or become distraught.”
It is absurd to think admirable endurance has to do with mundane courage. It is not just manning up and taking it as it is. Instead, admirable endurance comes from a thorough understanding of conditioned existence.
Clinging conditions pain.
Being born conditions death.
When you know how things are, sorrow, grief, and lament begin to cease because you realize we have no power over how things are. Our impermanence is inevitable, and that is simply ok.
Admirable understanding
To have discernment, clarity, deep understanding, and sublime wisdom is admirable. It is to know how suffering arises, why it rises, how it ceases, and why it ends. It means understanding what is delusion and reality, what is false and what is not wrong, and explaining that with patience, providing space for others to reflect, err, ask, and learn from their mistakes. Admirable understanding is respecting other people’s learning process and elucidating difficult concepts with simple and complex examples.
The Buddha calls it having discernment:
“And then there is the case where one individual, through discussion with another, knows this: ‘From the way this person rises to an issue, from the way he applies (his reasoning), from the way he addresses a question, he is discerning, not dull. Why is that? He makes statements that are deep, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. He can declare the meaning, teach it, describe it, set it forth, reveal it, explain it, & make it plain. He is discerning, not dull.’
Lacking admirable understanding makes us err in our perception; it makes us lose it and be controlled by our emotions. Moreover, such lack of knowledge forces us to communicate and interact ignorantly: desperate, impatient, angry, and pedantic.
It has nothing to do with how much knowledge you possess, how many years you have studied, or how many books you have read. Instead, this understanding has to do with directly knowing how things are.
To know how things are, one trains in discernment.
Putting it all together
Admirable means mastering virtue, endurance, purity, and understanding. Unfortunately, achieving that sort of mastery is challenging, for we all tend to be undisciplined, to avoid accepting how things are, to be sneaky, and to reject understanding how reality works out of laziness, fear, or just mere ignorance.
However, each aspect of being admirable complements each other. For example, if you have understanding, your actions tend to become virtuous. Endurance appears because the proper understanding helps you bear unpleasant sensations when striving to be disciplined.
May we all change our ways and strive to become admirable.