Shinkyo's Blog

Precepts

The second of the six perfections can seem strange coming after the first. Generosity is about living to be a benefit for others. Observing the precepts, at least in the earlier teachings of the Buddha, was about self-control. Now that we are on the Bodhisattva path, what is so important about being focused on ourselves? Is there a way we can now understand how keeping the precepts is being actively beneficial to others?

When the Buddha laid the precepts out for his followers he didn’t include a threat of punishment if people did not follow them. They are not commandments. Instead he presented them as principles, the way we modern people think of natural laws like gravity. The precepts are not something he created. They are his description of the way things work. This is the idea of karma: things happen for a reason. If we do something beneficial it brings a good result. If we do something harmful it brings a bad result.

One way of thinking about the precepts is imagining the inflatable bumpers that bowling alleys put in the gutters of lanes where kids are learning to bowl. When the ball goes too far to one side or the other, the bumper steers it back into the lane, towards its intended destination. In the same way, when we bump up against an action mentioned in the precepts, we know we’re not moving towards enlightenment. We aren’t seeing things for what they are.

All of the precepts have to do with our own actions This is not about changing others’ actions. And it’s not about using them to judge others’ actions. We may think that our actions are caused by what others do, but this is delusion. To understand what really makes us do things, we need to consider three kinds of actions. What we do with our mind, our speech, and our body. These are linked causally in one order, but the way to work with them is in reverse order.

What comes first is what is in the mind: beliefs. Based on these beliefs we get either things we say out loud, or we get thoughts, which are simply subvocal speech. Then based on what we say, we do things with our bodies. It can be hard to see these as three parts because they can happen very quickly. We may not notice that we are thinking or saying anything, especially when we act habitually. But if we slow down this process, and put some space between its parts we can see where our actions really come from.

We start by controlling our actions, by not doing things. This alone creates a lot of resistance within us. We become aware of thoughts like, “Go ahead”, “You deserve it”, or worse, “What difference does it make?” At first we may just be delaying an action, pausing at the cookie jar before we fill our hand again. But at least we’re starting to create that gap, becoming aware of what we’re doing rather than acting thoughtlessly. Then when we are aware of the speech, we start to consider what belief lies behind that speech and question it. “Will this cookie really make me happy?” Then when we change our beliefs, we consequently change our actions.

What actions should we consider not doing? For us ordinary people, the Buddha had five main precepts:

Not Lying

Not Stealing

Not Killing

Not Taking Intoxicants

Not Misbehaving Sexually

The first may look to be about just speech. But false speech can be as harmful as any physical action. There are many ways of saying things that are not true. We call them gossip, slander, flattery, coercion, deception, even exaggeration. None of these is a description of things as they are, and none of them is used to benefit those who hear the speech. All of them create another reality. When we choose that reality rather than the one we live in, the result is fear. As my Grandfather told me, when you tell the truth you don’t need to have a good memory. In its extreme, the result of lying could also be a dissociative mental illness, where one becomes so enmeshed in lies that the truth is no longer real for them.

But like all the precepts, this one is nearly impossible to keep.  We are all deluded. How can we say what things are when we can’t see things for what they are? The least we can do is not add to that delusion by consciously lying. Otherwise it becomes nearly impossible to get at the truth.

The second precept of not stealing moves us into our actions. We can look at it in contrast to the first perfection of generosity. Taking things that are not given is based on the belief that I am more important than other beings. This in turn is based on the belief that my happiness is separate from that of other people, that someone else can be deprived of something and it will not affect me. Or worse, on the belief that the only way for me to benefit is at someone else’s expense. Generosity on the other hand recognizes that when others benefit I benefit. And when I truly benefit, not in a separate, selfish way, others benefit also.

The difficulty with this precept is knowing what is freely given. Is my breathing depriving someone else of air? If I take an apple from a tree, am I depriving someone of food? There is no one answer, good for every situation. But just asking the question, putting some space between what we want and what we are doing, gives a chance to make better choices.

The third precept has to do with stealing the one thing most valuable to any being: their life. In some views of the world, only humans are considered to be sentient beings, so only taking life from a human is considered killing. The Buddha taught that animals are also sentient, so taking life from them is also killing. He also taught that there are many other kinds of beings with life.

Does this mean we should all become vegetarian? Some may choose to, but that is not necessary to practice what Buddha taught. In Japan many people think vegetarians are hypocrites because even vegetables have to die for them to eat. It is impossible for us to live without other beings dying. The point is to be aware of this, and grateful to the beings who die for our benefit. This includes everything from the bacteria in our stomachs to the animals whose meat we eat (should we choose to eat it). The harm comes from taking pleasure in killing for its own sake.

Not taking intoxicants is usually thought of in relation to the powerful substances that can alter how we think. These include alcohol and the so called “recreational” drugs. The power of how these interact with our bodies is that we can find ourselves using them even though we do not want them, and even though we feel worse after having used them than before we used them. In these cases it is usually necessary for us to stop using them entirely before we can understand why we are using them.

But there are many other things we can use to intoxicate ourselves. Food, what we should use to keep our bodies strong and healthy, can be used as an intoxicant. This is obvious in people with allergies who for whatever reason continue to eat things that harm them. But it also happens when we let the pleasure we have in eating obscure the effect food has on us. Our modern epidemic of obesity is an example of this.

Drama can be an intoxicant. The idea that we need exciting lives, full of conflict, tension and uncertainty to be happy. This blinds us to the calm abiding that the Buddha described as true happiness. Attention and prestige can be intoxicants. The belief that I am special, that I deserve to be treated better than other people, and certainly better than I treat other people, this can lead to nothing but misery.

Conceit and arrogance are intoxicants. When we look at them closely, they are just the other side of self-pity and self-loathing, which are also intoxicants. When we have developed a true sense of who we are and what our value is, we no longer have to see ourselves as perfect and beat ourselves up for being imperfect.

The last precept, not misbehaving sexually, is the most difficult to think about, much less talk about. The sexual drive within us can be overwhelmingly strong. Without this part of our humanity, none of us would be alive. It is the foundation of our physical existence. It is also something that is constantly exploited in our culture, in advertising and other ways of influencing our behavior, often without our being aware of it.

Not misbehaving sexually could mean abstaining from sex completely. When life gets to a point where this is something we keep doing without knowing why, and not getting any joy from it, setting it aside for awhile can be helpful. What this precept is really about is not using sex to harm others. This includes both those we are sharing sex with, and those who could be hurt by our sharing sex with someone else. Misbehaving sexually involves seeing others as existing for our pleasure alone. We do not see them as sentient beings. Only as pleasing shapes, or as implements for our own satisfaction. We are not seeing them for what they are.

Getting back to our original question: What do the precepts mean in the context of the Bodhisattva practice? Yes these are all about working on ourselves, on our beliefs, on our thoughts and on our actions. But there is nothing else for us to work on. We cannot hope to benefit anyone if we have no control over ourselves. And truly we cannot force anyone to do anything or think anything or believe anything. Not even the Buddha can do that. Otherwise we would all be enlightened right now.

There are a few ways to see how keeping the precepts helps us benefit others. First of all, it makes us credible. If we want to show people another way of living in the world, a way that can lead them to true happiness, and the way we behave shows them nothing but greed, anger and ignorance, how can we expect them to believe us? Another way is that by working with our own delusions we learn to recognize those same delusions in others. This not only helps us become more compassionate towards them. It lets us reach them in ways we could not otherwise. Those who have struggled with addiction are in a better position to help addicts. Those who have struggled with disease are in a better position to help others who are diseased.

Perhaps the most important reason to emphasize the precepts in the Bodhisattva path is to remind us that no matter how far along the path we think we are,  upholding them is still important. History is littered with great religious figures, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist, who believed because of their spiritual achievements they no longer had to worry about the consequences of their behavior.

The precepts are simply the law of Karma applied to our beliefs, thoughts and deeds. They tell us that anything we think, say and do has consequences, whether we are aware of those consequences or not. By using the precepts to become aware of our habits, we can decide whether to keep those habits or develop new and more beneficial habits. Thinking of our actions in terms of how they benefit others rather than just ourselves, we advance the process of learning to see things for what they are.

Next: Patience

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