Greetings,

This month we're moving into the fourth path factor of the eightfold path, right action. This is the second factor of the ethical conduct training aspect of the eightfold path. This factor is all about sila and sila is about living within the five precepts. Over the last couple of years, I have written a couple of blogs on this topic. First, I wrote about sila as a pillar of practice. Second, I wrote about sila as a parami. I invite you to re-read these blog posts over the course of the month to get a general sense of the importance of learning to practice sila. Practicing sila is not just about doing the right thing, being a good person, or some other idealistic view of a human being.

Practicing sila is about coming into right relationship with the reality of the inherent capacity for humans to harm themselves, others, and both. This inherent capacity co-exists with this realm, so the possibility of it arises in pretty much any and every situation. It's important to recognize because this inherent capacity is habitual. It arises in subconscious and unconscious states. This means that most of our harm is occurring without our conscious knowing. In other words, most harm from practitioners (people who are dedicating their lives to non-harm) is what I call "unintended harm." Unintended harm is not what you think. It's not unintended action. We often intend the act, but don't intend the harmful impact of our actions. Unfortunately, we are responsible for and the heirs of the impact of our intentional acts, regardless of how long it takes for that impact to dissipate. Cultivating sila is the process of learning to have the dhamma impact our unconscious and subconscious thoughts.

I may have said this before, and if so it bears repeating, the practice of sila is fluid, active and in motion. The precepts are not just edicts, nouns or rules that we have to follow to be a good practitioner. The precepts are fundamentally a willingness to enter a training to refrain from certain conduct. A training implies a lack of mastery. It implies that we are working at it constantly. This is why I used the picture above. Our actions in life are like the rings of a tree. They demonstrate the life of that tree and you can tell how the environment contributed to the life of the tree. Geologists point this out when explaining the life of an area, like a mountain. They can tell you all the various environmental impacts the area has gone through. If we could take a cross section of ourselves, we could see energetically all that we've gone through in life - the impact of the harmful acts and the impact of the wholesome, skillful acts. I believe this is what cultivating sila is all about. We need to see the impact of our actions. It can often be painful, true enough, but unless we see for ourselves with dharmic wisdom - meaning right view and right intention - the resulting truth of our actions, we will forever walk around in delusion.

The cultivation of sila is what enables us to want to see. There are four conditions that give rise to sila. Those conditions are chastity, calmness, quiet and extinguishment. I'll explain them one at a time. Chastity isn't about abstaining from sex. It's about refraining from any kind of sexual misconduct. Sexual energy is a potent energy in our human lives and it can create all kinds of unwholesome energies within us, including everything from rage/manipulation and abuse/loneliness all the way to romance/intimacy and the gift of childbirth. We practice chastity along with the precepts to refrain from having this energy cause harm to ourselves or another.

Next is calmness. We need calmness to practice sila. Full stop. Any kind of activation will tip us into this personalization of what we see. Our natural inclination towards self-promotion will kick into high gear causing us to justify everything we've done. We then spend a fair amount of time reforming our belief that we are good yogis who would never do any harm. But, in truth, to practice sila requires that we see both our skillful conduct and our unskillful conduct. It's important to see both so we know what conditions lead to one and what conditions lead to another. This requires a degree of calmness .

The third condition is quiet. This is a lot like noble silence on a retreat. We need to quiet this negative mind. It is not telling us the truth and it is not helpful. It is convinced that if it sees anything that puts us in a bad light, is dangerous and it will avoid it at all costs. But we never grow in our practice if we're not willing to see the painful impact of our behavior. This condition grows in seclusion. Seclusion isn't often talked about in practice, but it's very important. We need our practice to be protected and cared for which seclusion allows.

Lastly, the fourth condition is extinguishment. This is a strange word but I think it means that sila needs a willingness for restraint. Restraint is a big part of dhamma wisdom. We see more if we're willing to pause our habitual flow. And by pausing our habitual flow, we can begin to feel the kind of freedom that's possible. Extinguishment is that felt sense of letting go. I call it the felt sense of cessation. I've come to believe that my faith in the practice has become stronger because I am willing to feel liberation and freedom. I do feel a lot of dukkha and pain but I don't just stay with that. I feel also the gift of the realization of the path.

These are the four conditions that give rise to sila. We cultivate the conditions and pay attention for the arising of sila. I suspect we'll have a rich conversation this month.

With a deep bow,
Tuere