Greetings,

This month we will be exploring the second Parami, Sila, translated as morality, ethical conduct or virtue. This Parami can bring up a lot of unnecessary mental chatter, mostly because of our opinions and views about the words morality, ethical conduct and virtue. The difficulty lies in the fact that we all have different views and opinions about what is moral, ethical and virtuous. These views and opinions usually come from how we were raised. We assume our opinions are the correct view and therefore, everyone should follow in that view. Where we get tripped up in this area lies in our judgement about behavior or the way people act. We decide whether we think that action is good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral, based upon our own individual judgement. As I read the Suttas that is not the way Buddha looked at conduct. He did not judge it based on a series of rules, expectations or demands for what should or should not happen. This month we will practice with one of the reasons why Buddha's teachings have withstood the test of time. It involves two understandings, utilizing conduct as a training prompt and the simplicity of recognizing harm.

The Five Precepts

I undertake the training to refrain from killing living beings.

I undertake the training to refrain from taking what is not offered.

I undertake the training to refrain from sexual misconduct.

I undertake the training to refrain from harmful speech.

I undertake the training to refrain from abusing intoxicants that cause heedlessness.

We usually say these Five Precepts at the beginning of every retreat. At their core, they are simple promises or vows we make to each other. Basically, we're not going to kill, steal, sexually abuse, lie, or become intoxicated while on retreat. When we all agree to this, you can sit and move about freely for hours without a care in the world of someone intruding in your space. This is what's needed when you're on retreat. It doesn't mean there's no contact from one of the other retreatants, it just means there is a degree of safety that allows you to turn away from the world and towards your practice.

This works fine on retreat, but this month we want to explore this a little deeper. Many of us say the precepts every day and try to live by them through our actions, words and thoughts. As lay practitioners, we exist in a very complicated and intrusive world. We are bombarded by many acts that fall outside the precepts. We are not in the cocoon of a retreat. How to live within the framing of the precepts as a householder is the focus of this month's exploration. It begins with utilizing the precepts as training prompts to help us see our habits, tendencies, inclinations and impulses. They are not showing us what's right or wrong. They are showing us the "suchness" of the moment. So long as we keep our view within the framing of a training, then nothing we see should bring up shame, but rather understanding. We can understand what conditions lead to behavior outside of the precepts and what conditions lead to behavior within the precepts. This is the first aspect of Buddha's ethical training that allows anyone and everyone to practice. There are no rules that decide who's in and who's out of the practice. There is just the practice. I've met people in prison who practice the Five Precepts and I would trust them as a practitioner the same as I would trust somebody on a retreat. To practice this aspect, one need only consider their actions, words and thoughts within the framing of the Five Precept training prompts.

To fully explore the second aspect, we need to remember the Sutta around "not pushing forward and not staying in place (SN 1.1)." I think the Buddha's main focus around Sila was pointed at harm - the knowing of harm, the feeling of harm, the recognition of harm. This is something we have to learn to feel into and it isn't always easy to do. If you look at the precepts from the perspective of harm, then killing living beings would be taking away, interrupting, preventing a person's true expression of themselves. Parents could be killing their teenagers by squashing their dreams or co-workers could be killing each other by engaging in gossip or rumors. Lovers could be killing each other by acts of control and too many expectations. You could look at each of the precepts in this expanded way. The second precept would point to using pressure, intimidation or force to get your way. The third precept would be withholding sex, being promiscuous, or being unfaithful. The fourth precept would be pointing to speaking out of greed, hatred and delusion, or put another way, lust, anger, and closed-mindedness. And the fifth precept would point beyond abusing drugs and alcohol to include abuse of computers, food, entertainment or anything that keeps us from being present. To know and recognize the presence of harm in these circumstances, one must be willing to learn to feel the presence of harm.

It might seem like a downer learning to walk around feeling harm all the time. It so goes against everything human beings believe. Harm is considered unpleasant, wrong, negative, and something needing to be fixed. And herein lies the problem. Rarely do we take the time to see the conditions that give rise to harm. And without knowing the conditions, we are forever trapped in repeatedly feeling that harm. When we are willing to feel the harm and steady our resolve to see what's happening, we begin to understand just where that harm is coming from and can prevent its arising in the future. In effect, the willingness to practice with Sila through the felt sense of harm enables us to diminish the impact of harm in our lives. This is what we want to practice with this month. We want to begin to feel how much harm we are bringing to the world through our words, thoughts and actions.

Lastly, I picked this picture because when you practice with Sila through these two aspects of utilizing conduct as training and the simplicity of harm, you are basically sharing the whole of the world with another being. You are enabling and giving permission for the rest of the world to be themselves. This is an act of giving that arises out of our practice with Generosity and lays the groundwork for our practice with the third Parami, renunciation..

With a deep bow,
Tuere