Greco-Buddhist King Milnda (Meander) asks questions.
From: The Debate of King Milinda
Nāgasena to King Milinda. "Virtue (Pali: sīla) is the basis of all good qualities: the five controlling faculties and the five moral powers (confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom), the seven factors of enlightenment (mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity), the eight factors of the noble path (right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration), the four foundations of mindfulness (mindfulness of the body, feelings, thoughts, and mind-objects), the four right efforts (effort to prevent and remove unwholesome states and to develop and maintain wholesome states), the four bases of success (eagerness, energy, tenacity, wisdom), the four absorptions (four stages of one-pointedness or jhāna), the eight freedoms (eight stages of release of the mind by intense concentration), the four modes of concentration (meditations on love, compassion, sympathetic-joy, and equanimity), and the eight great attainments (four formless jhānas and four form jhānas)."
"Each of these has virtue as its support and one who builds on it as the foundation all these good conditions will not decrease.”
“Just as all forms of animal and plant life flourish with the earth as their support, so does the recluse, with virtue as support, develop the five controlling faculties and the five moral powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, the eight factors of the noble path, the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of success, the four absorptions, the eight freedoms, the four modes of concentration, and the eight great attainments."
"Mindfulness (Pali: sati) is noting and keeping in mind [virtue]. As mindfulness springs up in the mind of the recluse, one repeatedly notes the wholesome and unwholesome, blameless and blameworthy, insignificant and important, dark and light qualities and those that resemble them thinking, ‘These are the four foundations of mindfulness, these the four right efforts, these the four bases of success, these the five controlling faculties, these the five moral powers, these the seven factors of enlightenment, these are the eight factors of the noble path, this is serenity, this insight, this vision and this freedom.’ Thus does he cultivate those qualities that are desirable and shun those that should be avoided.”
