A Talk on Ethics - Part Three of Three

A talk given at Gampo Abbey in June 2007 (parts one and two posted below).

4/ Abstention from False Speech / With truthful communication I purify my speech

Speech occupies and intermediate position between mind and body. It is a subtle form of action, almost as subtle as thought itself. In a way, it is simply thought made public.


Because speech is so close in nature to thought, it is very difficult to control, our thoughts can just “slip out”. Once in the public domain our thoughts have ramifications for both ourselves and others. Once made public our thoughts cannot be retracted, no matter how much we might like them to be!

Speech is about communication. It is about the coming together of minds and hearts. Untruthful speech cannot by definition be a vehicle for communication. It does not seek to communicate but rather, seeks to frustrate or prevent real communication.

Society at large require most people to be telling the truth most of the time. Society would break down if this were not the case. If the bus companies deliberately lied about their timetable commuting would become very difficult. If bankers routinely lied about the performance of investments the whole financial system would collapse. If we look at societies where corruption, bribery and perjury are the norm, we can see that these are not societies we would like to live in. These are not societies that care about the rights and needs of the individuals within it.

What is true of society at large is even more so in a spiritual community. Community is an interesting word. To live in community is to Commune or enter into Communion with others. The dictionary defines Communion as “to hold intimate intercourse” and as a state of heightened awareness, such as “to commune with nature”. So within a spiritual community such as Gampo Abbey, communication should be both intimate (warm and meaningful rather than cold and superficial) and imbued with awareness (of self and other).

One important aspect of our speech is factual accuracy, in reporting what has been said or done. We must be careful about exaggerating and embellishing, twist and omitting. We need to communicate both the spirit and the letter of a situation or else we risk misrepresenting each other which can lead to misunderstanding and upset.

I am very interested in the state of the “Stream Entrant”. This is a stage on the path belonging to the Theravada tradition. It is roughly equivalent to the Bodhisattva of the first Bumi, both are irreversible. One becomes a Stream Enterer by breaking the first “Three Fetters” of Doubt (in the Dharma), Self View (as a fixed separate entity) and Rights and Ritual as Ends in Themselves (superficiality).

The Stream Entrant is not entirely free from the Kleshas and is still subject to greed, hatred and delusion to some degree. What is really interesting about them though, is that they are completely transparent about themselves. They do not attempt to hide their shortcomings or pretend to be something their not. They are simply incapable of deception. This strikes me as a very beautiful stage on the spiritual journey, a down to earth, flawed human being, but one that has gone beyond all superficiality and through fearlessness and lack of pride only wish to be seen as what they truly are.

5/ Abstention from Intoxicants / With mindfulness clear and radiant I purify my mind

In the letter, this precept consists of abstaining from intoxicating liquor and drugs that cloud the mind.


We might ask why? What’s wrong with a drink, it’s just fun after all? Intoxicants that cloud the mind are like adding an extra veil of delusion. As if we need another one! They take us even further away from how things actually are.

Intoxicants can weaken and undermine our ethical intentions. Normally reasonable, apparently sane people can find themselves giving into sexual misconduct, violence and drink driving through the use of intoxicants.

Intoxicants make us forget our connections with others. This in turn leads to a loss of responsibility. Other people become reduced in our mind to objects of utility rather than as individuals in their own right.

The spirit of the precept is to cultivate mindful living at all times, to imbue our life with mindful abiding. Mindfulness is a translation of Satti-Sampajanna, a compound term.

Satti means bare attention, raw awareness. This is awareness in the moment. The seen in the seen, the heard in the heard, the cognized in the cognized and so on. It means to be really present.

Sampajanna is clear comprehension, awareness through time. This includes an awareness of our aims and our sense of purpose. It includes a sensitivity of the suitability of our actions to the spiritual path. Aspects of this include memory and recollection, including a recollection of “the nature of things”, such as impermanence and insubstantiality. It performs a steering function within our lives.

Mindfulness enriches our lives. It gives us greater awareness and clarity. It gives us the possibility of being creative in our responses, rather than being stuck in our same old reactive patterns. It gives us the opportunity to step out of the mold of our conditioning and to develop a truer individuality, one with greater choice and freedom.


Having now looked at the five training precepts in some detail I’d like to conclude with some more general points.

A Mandala of Practices


We can think of the five precepts as a mandala of practices. The mandala has two entrances, the first and the fifth precepts (like book-ends at the beginning and end).

The first precept is the principle of love or maitri. This is why we practice the precepts. It’s our motivation, what inspires us to practice. It’s the emotive aspect of our spiritual lives.

The fifth precept is the principle of mindful awareness. This is how we practice the precepts. This is the method. Through awareness of the needs of self and other. Through a consciousness of our own actions of body, speech and mind. It is impossible to practice ethics without awareness.

Development of the Practice

It’s really important not to simply settle down with our current level of practice. We need to continue developing and refining our level of ethical sensitivity. At the same time we need to broaden our awareness of the areas that we can include within our ethical scope.

How do we do this?

We can develop Hrih. This is a positive mental event in the Abhidharma system. It is often translated as a positive sense of shame in the shortcoming of one’s actions. This is certainly not a comfortable experience, but it is not unhealthy. It is not about beating yourself up and should include a healthy dose of self maitri. There is no room for irrational guilt here. It is simply about recognizing that we could have done better, that our actions didn’t quite measure up to our own ideals. There is room for improvement.

We can also develop Apatrapiya. Another positive mental event, often translated as “fear of criticism from the wise” or more simply “what would my teacher think?” If you are about to do something and it doesn’t seem quite right, you can ask yourself “what would my teacher or preceptor think about this?” This can often help to clarify grey areas for us.

Confession is a traditional Buddhist practice that helps to support ethical development. It encourages intimacy and trust within the sangha and helps us to recognize our shortcomings within the context of our community. We can receive feedback and advice from our sangha and also just feel a lightening in ourselves by sharing the things that we don’t feel so proud of.

Applying the Brakes Gently

Sangharakshita uses the image of trying to slow down a train. The train is our unskillful tendencies. If we slam the brakes on in a reckless manner we may de-rail the train and fly off the tracks completely. We need to know ourselves and know how to apply the brakes gently.

I love this poem by Kabir. He was an unorthodox teacher, a wise man, who was raised in both Islamic and Hindu traditions. It’s called “Difficulties”:-

Friend, please tell me what I can do about this mud world
I keep spinning out of myself!

I gave up expensive clothes, and bought a robe
But I noticed one day the cloth was well-woven.

So I bought some burlap, but I still
Throw it elegantly over my left shoulder.

I stopped being a sexual elephant,
And now I discover that I’m angry a lot.

I finally gave up anger, and now I notice
That I am greedy all day.

I worked hard at dissolving my greed,
And now I am proud of myself.

When the mind wants to break its link with the world
It still holds onto one thing.

Kabir says: Listen, my friend,
There are very few that find the path!

(from: The Soul is here for it’s own Joy, edit. Robert Bly, Ecco Press)

I think this poem justifies inclusion just for the line about the “sexual elephant” - what a wonderful image! But, I think we can all relate to the experience of the student in the poem. We pay attention to one area of our life and our energies find their way into another while we are not looking. It’s like we are chasing our own tails.

On the face of it Kabir’s answer isn’t very satisfactory “there are very few who find the path”. It doesn’t sound very helpful. He must have been a tough teacher!

But what is the path that Kabir is pointing to? He is pointing to the middle way. Not being so lax that we make no effort, and not being so strict that we de-rail our train or loose track of our elephant!

We need to channel our energies skillfully and kindly. Re-directing these energies with an awareness of where we are currently at and what we are realistically capable of. This is a lifetime’s work of constantly looking for our cutting edge and looking to maintain a sensible and maintainable tension in our ethical practice.

Leaving the last words to Shunryu Suzuki:-

“When you observe the precepts without trying to observe the precepts, that is true observation of the precepts”

A Talk on Ethics - Part One of Three

Ethics - A Talk Given at Gampo Abbey June 2007

There is a Zen Koan “Why has Bodhidharma left for the East?” I don’t know the answer to this. But I do know what happened when he got there. When Bodhidharma took the Dharma from India to China he introduced the Dharma into an already highly developed culture. Buddhism has often had a refining effect on the arts, philosophy and culture of societies that it has encountered. In China it met an ancient culture rich with poetry and painting, rich with the philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism.

Much of what I have to say in this talk is collected from the writings and talks of my teacher Sangharakshita, the founder of the Western Buddhist Order. I thoroughly recommend his small book “The Ten Pillars of Buddhism” of which there are two copies available in the Abbey library.

I also borrow here from Dharmachari Abhaya and his excellent little booklet on the 5 precepts.

Introduction

You might think that the subject of ethics is not a very glamorous one. If you were to ask yourself what flavor ethics would be if it was an ice cream, you might say vanilla, the standard, basic flavor, we’ve all had it a million times, it’s a bit boring. It’s certainly not strawberry and pecan or something interesting like that.

You might think that ethics is not very “sexy”. It’s not exciting and esoteric like Tantra. You might say that ethics is just “Bog Standard” Buddhism. The aim of this talk is prove otherwise.

Bodhidharma


When the King of China heard about Bodhidharma and his new religion, he was fascinated and wanted to learn more about this new and exotic import. So, he summoned Bodhidharma and asked him for a summary of his great teachings. Bodhidharma could hardly refuse and so he gave the King a teaching:

“Cease to do Evil, Cultivate the Good, Purify the Mind. This is the word of the Buddha”

The King was a bit taken aback. Was this it? Was this the cream of higher Indian thought and philosophy? The King responded:

“Is that Buddhism? Even a small child could understand this without difficulty.”

“Ah yes” replied Bodhidharma, “but even the wisest of your ancient Sages will find great difficulty in putting it into practice.”

Good and Evil

So, it is clear that for Bodhidharma, ethics formed an important part of the whole spiritual path. In this translation he talks about good & evil. For many of us living in the West, this will have strong Christian overtones.

The terms in Sanskrit are Kusala and Akusala. This is often translated as Skilful and Unskillful, I like this translation. We can be skilful, like a trained craftsman or unskillful like the new trainee. It’s not loaded with notions of God or Devil. It also recognizes that like a craft, ethical action requires practice and deliberate thought or intention.

Buddhist ethics are very much an ethics of intention. It’s not so much that specific actions are in themselves inherently bad, after all a particular action may have very different ramifications in different situations. Also, different societies have different laws, rules and modes of behavior and these change over time. For Buddhism, it’s more that what we intend to achieve by a particular action may either be skilful or unskillful.

A skilful action is one that is based in positive mental states such as clarity, mindfulness and positive emotions. An unskillful action is one that is based in negative mental states such as ignorance, confusion, greed and negative emotions.

In short, skilful actions are those that are conducive to human enlightenment and unskillful actions are those that are un-conducive to human enlightenment.

Not a Basic Practice

Ethics is not a practice simply for beginners, it’s not something to be surpassed or made redundant, its’ not like a toy we put down when we get something new and more interesting.

A common description of the path is the three fold model, that of Sila (ethics), Samadhi (meditation) and Prajna (wisdom). I usually see this in my mind a pyramid. Ethics at the bottom, mediation in the middle and wisdom at the top, at the pinnacle.

Each successive layer of the pyramid builds upon the work of the last. Ethics feeds into meditation and meditation flowers into wisdom. If our meditation is not going very well, and we are not sure why, it is a good idea to take a closer look at our ethics, to see if something there may be bothering us.

There is also a feedback loop within the pyramid. Increasing wisdom and awareness will refine our ethical lives, which in turn feeds back into our meditation. It’s a complete system and all the parts are necessary.

Ethics is at the bottom of the pyramid because it comes first, because it is the foundation, not because it is least important. Ethics is not a basic practice it’s a fundamental practice.

Going for Refuge and the Precepts

Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha means to move our reliance away from the transitory and mundane, those things which cannot ultimately satisfy us and to instead place our reliance upon the “Transcendental”.

This is the search for meaning, it is the spiritual life. We take the Three Refuges formally, but that is not the end of it. Going for Refuge is an ongoing and deepening spiritual exploration.

Going for Refuge is common to all schools of Buddhism. Taking the Refuges is what formally defines us a being a “Buddhist”.

If Going for Refuge is the direction and movement of our lives, then ethical action is the expression of that aspiration in the practical everyday sense. The two cannot be separated. What would it really mean to say “I take refuge in the Buddha, but I do not intend do anything about the greed, hatred and delusion in my own life”? How can you say you are relying on something at the same time as ignoring it?

Aspirations need expression. “Coming Out” as a Buddhist is often a big deal for many of us. Letting our friends, family and colleagues know we are a Buddhist raises the stakes somehow. It makes our aspiration more real, takes it into the real world, rather than just being an idea looked up in the privacy of our own head.

The practice of the ethical precepts is the same as this. By chanting the precepts out load, accepting them, taking them on as training principles and really living them out, this takes our aspirations into the real world.

This is the action of a Bodhisattva, it is Kalyana, beautiful action, action that is grounded in Truth.

Plotinus

The Greek philosopher Plotinus gives us a wonderful image. He talks of the work of the sculptor. Starting with a rough block of stone, all sharp edges and slime. Taking his hammer and chisel, with patience and with well honed skills he slowly releases a marble sculpture of a beautiful human being.



Using the language of Ani Pema Chödrön, this is unveiling our basic goodness; this is revealing our Buddha nature, our Higher “self”.

Imitating the Buddha

We can think of our ethical lives in terms of play.

When we sit in meditation posture we can playfully think of ourselves as imitating the Buddha. Sitting in Buddha posture, without taking ourselves too seriously we act out the actions of the Buddha, upright, vital and totally engaged.

In our ethical lives we also are “playing at being Buddha”. The precepts we observe and the ethical choices we try to make in our lives are an attempt to behave as a Buddha would behave. Of course, a Buddha would act skillfully in a completely spontaneous way. For most of us it takes a little more practice.