Acting For Freedom

Okay, the Buddha’s code consists of four precepts. They are:

1. Abstain from killing and causing physical harm
2. Abstain from taking what is not given
3. Abstain from sexual misconduct
4. Abstain from abusing alcohol and other intoxicants

Your first reaction to these precepts is likely, “Duh!” And you’re right. These are no-brainers. They weren’t created by the Buddha. You can find these in many cultures throughout history. They are human universals. Every kid knows this without having to be told. They know it in their heart of hearts.

But look around. Look at the state of the world. We are still plagued by war, violence, and terrorism. We are gluttonous consumers, taking from the earth without mercy. How many of our fathers and brothers still sexually abuse our sisters and children? How many of our loved ones are drowning in alcohol, desperate for unconditional love and compassion?

We may all start with pure hearts as children. But kids grow, and the world corrupts us. Fear corrupts us. Anger and hatred corrupt us. Greed corrupts us. Suffering corrupts us.

As Galway Kinnell says, then, “sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness.” We need to address the fear, anger, greed, and suffering within each of us and work toward healing it. How? Well, it begins with mindfulness. We must first open to and accept all the pieces of ourselves. We must understand those hurt, fractured, and isolated pieces, so we can extend our compassion and forgiveness to them, so we can transform them back into love.

The bulk of this episode, then, will be plea to love yourself. Responding to a question about how we can treat ourselves less harshly, Ram Dass said:

“Part of it is observing oneself more impersonally… When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, “You’re too this, or I’m too this.” That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

For this part of our training, training our actions, observing ourselves more personally means opening awareness to our habits and routines, not with judgment, but with an understanding of our particular conditioning.

Then, because our old habits carry inertia, we’ll need to put in some effort to break that inertia, to rebuild our patterns. To do this, because the old habitual energy will often be very strong in the beginning, when we first start training, it can be skillful to stick strictly to the precepts. Otherwise, if we’re too loose, our clever ego will figure out all kinds of work-arounds. We will too easily be pulled into our old routines.

It’s kind of like how kids need strict rules, like ‘Don’t run into the street or touch the curling iron or take things from strangers.’ Kids need this strict structure because they haven’t cultivated an understanding of the potential harm. And their curiosity and impulses to act are just too strong. As kids get older, though, they realize their parents’ rules weren’t just dogmas. They existed to prevent them from harm. From this point on, then, the once-child-now-adult no longer needs to stick strictly to the rules. They have a skillful habitual foundation to keep them protected. So now, instead, they can live according to the rules’ underlying principle, which sometimes even means breaking the rule.

The same is true on our spiritual path. Some of our habits are strong and can lead us to a lot of suffering, like reaching for alcohol or, in my case, weed. And when we don’t have another strong structure in place, we can easily get captured by our unskillful patterns. Once we break our old patterns, though, and discover for ourselves if these precepts lead us to peace and freedom in the heart — or if in some situations or contexts, they don’t — we too, like the once-child-now-adult, can transcend the ‘rules’ and instead live by the principles the rules are meant foster.

Let me hover here for a moment. Because, right now, as a culture — and really all cultures; as a global society — we are quickly moving away from the moral and religious institutions that have stood before us for hundreds of years. We are outgrowing many of the religious outfits of our past. And for good reason.

But in times of great cultural change like now, when we start to question old rites and ethics, I think it’s important to try to articulate what purpose these religious rites and ethics were meant to serve and to what efficacy they are achieving that purpose before we simply toss them out. Often what I have found is that there is a kernel of truth and value to them. Their framing just needs to be updated and tweaked a bit to fit our modern world. And the dogma, authority, and superstition needs to be taken out of them.

I say this to open you not only to the Buddhist precepts but to all the world’s religions and wisdom traditions. I believe there is wisdom in all of them. So, I invite you to explore with fresh eyes the norms and ethics of your own cultural upbringing too.

Just remember to keep your eye on the ball — is this rite or ritual causing harm and suffering or is it leading onward to peace? Stay connected with your personal integrity and responsibility, so you don’t get lost in the seduction of your desires and impulses or in the confusion, pressure, and fearmongering of the world’s authorities.

Though the world’s religions offer much wisdom, but to be honest and holistic, they are also causing a tremendous amount of harm, abuse, and violence. Many atrocities are committed under the name of one god or another. Daughters are being stoned to death by their fathers. Gays are being hung publicly in the streets in the Middle East, they are prohibited from marrying in many parts of the world, and even here in the West, they are being kicked out of their homes, and denied unconditional love — the very essence of god or divinity. All around the world, women are forced into childbearing, forced into silence, forced to cover their faces and bodies, denied leadership positions, and denied the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. Arranged marriages are still forced on our children. And, behind all this, there is doctrine stemming from the world’s gods. Our religious books aren’t perfect. Address them honestly. And throw out and criticize what is harmful. Remember from our episode on speech, it is also harmful speech when you remain silent and don’t stand up for the injustices and harms being committed in the world.

Anyway, I hope my words help you connect to a moral code in your own unique and personal way.

Okay, well, today let’s just look at the first precept.