Bhikkhu Cintita

Category: buddhism

From Thought to Destiny: Action (Karma)
Uposatha Teaching: First Quarter Moon, August 18, 2010.
Index to Current Series
“Thought – Act – Habit – Character – Destiny”
To avoid evil,
To do good,
To purify the mind.
This is the advice of all Buddhas. Dhammapada, 183
In Buddhism it is in our deeds that the rubber meets the road. And deeds unfold from thoughts as their forerunner, from our intentions and impulses to the very way we conceptualize reality. To what end? So that we become masters of Doing the Right Thing.
I should note that to many who first approach Buddhism are not so much interested in become a Saint as they are in being personally happy, or at least less miserable. In Buddhism these two aspirations are actually identical. People used to say, in an innocent age, What’s Good for General Motors is Good for the U.S.A. In Buddhism, What’s Good for General Beings is good for U.M.E. To the extent that we consider the two aspirations to be at cross purposes, we will achieve neither.
Let’s get clearer about what actions are. Actions are commonly listed as coming in three colors in Buddhism:
- Actions of Body. These are perhaps the most typical, driving a car, eating, browsing the Internet.
- Actions of Speech. I presume the Buddha included Speech as a separate category in order to underscore how much power the word has in human affairs. Otherwise there is sometimes a tendency to discount speech: Sticks and Stones can Break my Bones but Names can never Hurt me, and Actions Speak louder than Words. But not always: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.
- Actions of Mind. I presume the Buddha included the category of Mind to underscore the need to watch the mind even when it is not spinning off physical actions, particularly because thoughts by themselves can help shape habit patterns, character and destiny. For instance, simply entertaining angry thoughts can turn into angry habit patterns, and into an angry character.
For the Buddha actions (karma) are always harvested from thoughts, that is, characterized by volition (cetena). An act of speech is set in motion by an intentional thought, perhaps a by desire to serve with good advice, or by a malicious desire to spread gossip. And act of body is triggered similarly, perhaps by anger, by a desire to acquire or by a desire to give. Now, an act of mind is pure volition that does not translate into visible action, for instance, plotting a revenge that will never happen or daydreaming about ice cream.
An action that is not volitional at all falls outside the scope of karma altogether. Things that are not karma would include involuntary responses, things done while unconscious or asleep, or things done otherwise without volition. In short, in karma one must first sow a thought before reaping an act.
The verse at the beginning of this post enumerates the three practices of Buddhist ethics. Ethics or Right Conduct permeates Buddhism and it is conducted and developed on many levels, physical, affective and cognitive. “To avoid evil” refers to the practice of following Precepts. “To do good” refers to the practice of seeking Benefit. And “to purify the mind” refers to the practice of developing Virtue. These provide the guidelines for sowing acts, and in the order given are progressively more sophisticated and challenging.
To Avoid Evil (Precepts)
This practice essentially follows codes of conduct. Traditionally lay people throughout the Buddhist world take five Precepts, as follows:
1. Not to kill living things,
2. Not to take what is not given,
3. Not to commit sexual misconduct (generally adultery),
4. Not to tell a falsehood, and
5. Not to consume an intoxicant.
There are alternative sets for different circumstances or levels of practice commitment. Monastics follow an extensive set of precepts.
Precepts are almost invariably stated as abstentions, for instance, “do not kill,” rather than “protect life,” etc., which is why they are summarized with the phrase “to avoid evil.” They also almost always regulate actions of Body and Speech but not of Mind.
In Buddhism precepts are a matter of Vow, that is, they are undertaken voluntarily as an individual decision, rather than imposed by a God or a Pope or other authority. Although their appearance may be similar, practicing with precepts thereby involves a gentle sense of personal responsibility that differs from following the commandments of other religions.
Weaknesses of precepts as a guide to ethical conduct are that they generally allow loopholes and they don’t permit appropriate exceptions, that is, they are porous and rigid. Advantages are that they are sharply defined and that, as such, are easy to learn and remember for the young or beginning Buddhist, that they clearly highlight some problem areas in human conduct, that they don’t require detailed understanding of the circumstances in which one proposes to act, and that they do not demand regulating the mind in any refined way, which would be a much more challenging task than regulating body or speech.
Following precepts however requires discipline. Precepts generally do not refer directly to the thoughts behind one’s actions. However, the main challenge in following Precepts comes from the demands of one’s unskillful thoughts, which must often be brought under control in one way or another in order to act in accordance with the precept, for instance, in order not to steal a cookie while struggling with an enormous sweet tooth. Also, violations of Precepts occur only with intention, that is, as karma. Accidently sitting on Puff, the family cat, cannot violate the Precept against killing living beings.
To Do Good (Benefit)
“What do you think, Rahula: What is a mirror for?”
“For reflection, sir.”
“In the same way, Rahula, bodily actions, verbal actions, & mental actions are to be done with repeated reflection.
“… if on reflection you know that it would not cause affliction… it would be a skillful bodily action with pleasant consequences, pleasant results, then any bodily action of that sort is fit for you to do. MN 61
The practice of doing good is to assess the overall benefit for self and others of potential actions and to choose to act accordingly. One might see a turtle in the road while driving, stop and move it to the side if it is not too dangerous to do so; one might cook a meal for one’s family; one might rescue a flood victim from rising waters.
Doing Good generally results from some skillful thoughts, rooted in compassion, good-will and renunciation. It also often requires moderation of unskillful thoughts, rooted in greed and hatred and delusion, that might overwhelm one’s plans with self-centered motives. Finally, it works best with a skillful clear assessment of the circumstances and likely benefits and costs of the proposed action. More generally this can be seen as manifesting concern for the well-being of every being, that is, of showing loving-kindness and compassion in all one’s actions, without bias to self or other, family or friend or stranger.
Characteristic of Doing Good is the absence of a clear level of obligation. Some people use all of their available energy feeding the homeless, adopting rescue dogs, campaigning for Universal Health Care, while others, for no apparent lack of good-will, sit at home, read the news and fret. Sometimes people are lazy or just lack imagination or self-confidence. Others are clever in reasoning that it is not their problem, but someone else’s responsibility. The point is whereas Precepts alone tend to produce a uniformity in behavior, Doing Good does the opposite.
To Purify the Mind (Virtue)
Whatever I do, for good or evil, to that I will fall heir. AN 5.57
Precepts and Benefit are practices found in most religions. Purifying the Mind has some aspects that are uniquely Buddhist. Purifying the Mind is forward looking; it’s task is to develop Virtue, a character fine-tuned physically, affectively and cognitively to live harmlessly and for the benefit of all. The focus in Virtue turns from external acts and looks inward, to purifying thoughts in order to end personal suffering, to let go of the delusions of the self with its demands for personal advantage and to set the conditions for acting harmlessly and beneficially in the world in the future.
Purifying the Mind is the perfection of the human character, and it employs every practice and technology available in the Noble Eightfold Path. In particular, it takes Avoiding Evil and Doing Good as foundations. The latter are included in Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood, that is, the training in Right Conduct. In addition it works closely with the mind so that skillful thoughts dominate more and more, and Eventually (with a big ‘E’) unskillful, unwholesome thoughts are absent. This is done through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, that is, the training in Cultivation of Mind or Meditation. Finally the enormous human capacity for delusion, misperception, rationalization and distortion are met with Right View and Right Intention, that is, the trainings in Wisdom.
Briefly, Developing Virtue involves Doing Virtue, that is Avoiding Evil and Doing Good, as much as anything else, just as becoming a master potter involves throwing pots more than anything else. But attention is given all the while to the overall shape of the character, and further training in Meditation and Wisdom takes place out of the shop, just as a potter might attend classes in color and design to round out her skills.
The development of Virtue adds another significant element to practice of Right Conduct. When I choose an action it is not enough to ask, Does it respect the Precepts? and Is it Beneficial? Now I must also ask, What are the consequences for my character? For whatever I do, for good or evil, to that I will fall heir. To assess this I must closely track my own intentions. These along with what I actually do are Karma, and to that I will fall heir. For instance, if I do something out of spite, that will leave a trace in my personality: If I do this often I will slowly acquire a Habit of spitefulness. If I continue to exercise this habit spitefulness will eventually begin to color my Character, even my appearance and I will gain a reputation as a spiteful person. Beyond that my Destiny will be shaped and Nirvana will become quite distant. So I try to avoid doing anything that involves spite, or any unskillful thought.
The theme of the present Uposatha Day series, From Thought to Destiny, will build for the most part on the practice of developing Virtue, or Purifying the Mind. But next week let me discuss Precepts and Benefit a bit more, since in these three practices together the rubber meets the road. Subsequently I will go on to reconsider Virtue, then Habit, Character and Destiny, which tell us where the road is taking us.
August 18, 2010
From Thought to Destiny: Thought
Uposatha Teaching: New Moon Day, August 10, 2010
All that we are is the result of thought,
Thought is its master, it is produced by thought.
If one speaks or acts,
With corrupted thought,
Then pain follows,
As the wheel follows the foot of the ox.
All that we are is the result of thought,
Thought is its master, it is produced by thought.
If one speaks or acts,
With pure thought,
Then happiness follows,
Like a shadow that never leaves.
— Dhammapada, the Buddha, first two verses.
Like most of us you probably have a lot of activity rattling and buzzing around between your ears, much of which is pretty useless, some of which delights and some of which gets you into trouble or keeps you endlessly confused, but some of which are the products of clarity, good will or creativity: “Hubba hubba.” “That jerk!” “Out of my way!” “It’s his own fault.” “Mmmm, chips.” “Aha!” “There there now, let me get you a paper towel.” “If I slide my sunglasses up my forehead I’ll look really cool!” All of these thoughts will seem to drive your behavior in one way and then in another. They also will seem to have to do with who you are, at least, you will seem to have a different mix of thoughts than most people you know. But how do you sort through this? How do you know what is a pure thought and what is a corrupted thought? And can you actually get rid of one and keep the other so happiness will follow instead of pain?
The Buddha wondered about these things too:
Bhikkhus, before my enlightenment, while I was still only an unenlightened Bodhisatta, it occurred to me, ‘Suppose that I divide my thoughts into two classes’. Then I set on one side thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of ill will, and thoughts of cruelty, and I set on the other side thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non-ill will and thoughts of non-cruelty. MN 19
The first set he deemed wholesome or skillful (kusala) and the second unwholesome or unskillful (akusala). Most people will report that they in fact like some of the unwholesome thoughts, such as thoughts of revenge, and certainly they entertain many sensual desires with glee, and that they dislike some of the wholesome thoughts, like those of renunciation and not getting revenge. In fact, people must find the whole range of thoughts compelling at some level or else they would not spend so much time and energy on them. Nevertheless, when examined deeply, the Buddha noticed that what he was about to deem unwholesome had a set of properties missing in the wholesome. An unskillful thought
… leads to my own affliction, to others’ affliction and to the affliction of both; it obstructs wisdom, causes difficulties, and leads away from Nibbana. MN 19
This doen’t sound so great. He furthermore associated the unwholesome with three underlying unwholesome roots of Greed, Hatred and Delusion.
Greed, hatred and delusion, friend, make one blind, unseeing and ignorant; they destroy wisdom, are bound up with distress, and do not lead to Nibbana. AN 3.71
Greed (lobha) is the desire, longing, attachment or lust for sensual pleasures, for reputation or fame, for wealth, for power, for comfort, for security and so on. Greed is the cause of anxiety and restlessness, a feeling of unease that we call suffering. Initially this comes from not having what we desire. If we acquire what we desire it comes from knowing we will lose it, and from simply wanting more.
There is no satisfying lusts, even by a shower of gold pieces; he who knows that lusts have a short taste and cause pain, he is wise; Even in heavenly pleasures he finds no satisfaction, the disciple who is fully awakened delights only in the destruction of all desires. Dhammapada, 186-7.
If a man is tossed about by doubts, full of strong passions, and yearning only for what is delightful, his thirst will grow more and more, and he will indeed make his fetters strong. Dhammapada
Hatred (dosa) is the aversion, dislike, dread or fear of pain, of discomfort, of enemies and so on. It includes thoughts of anger, revenge, envy or jealousy (which also involve greed), resentment, guilt and self-hatred, disdain, judgmental attitudes. Hatred immediately manifests as anxiety and restlessness, in short, suffering, because the world is not as we want it. Often it arises when our desires are thwarted or threatened.
There is no fire like passion; there is no losing throw like hatred; there is no pain like this body; there is no happiness higher than rest. Dhammapada 202
From greed comes grief, from greed comes fear; he who is free from greed knows neither grief nor fear. Dhammapada 216
Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and form, and who calls nothing his own. Dhammapada 221

“Greed” and “hatred” are perhaps too strong as words for many instances of lobha and dosa, but it is a rather standard translation, just as “suffering” is often a bit strong as a translation of “dukkha.”
Delusion is found in the erroneous opinions or justifications, misperceptions, ignorance and denial. It is an often pervasive distortion of reality, manifesting particularly in the sense that certain things are unchanging, fixed or reliable, that there is fun, happiness and beauty where in fact there is decay and suffering. The greatest delusion is that there is an abiding self, a “me,” that in some way remains fixed in spite of all the changes that happen all around it, as the owner and controller of this body and mind. For the Buddha, Delusion is the most dangerous of the Three Unwholesome Roots.
But there is a taint worse than all taints,–ignorance is the greatest taint. O mendicants! throw off that taint, and become taintless! Dhammapada 243
Greed is a lesser fault and fades away slowly, hatred is a great fault and fades away quickly, delusion is a great fault and fades away slowly. AN3.68
The root of delusion is also the basis of the other two roots, in fact the delusional sense of self is the source of it all. In the absence of the capacity to take them personally greed and hatred do not arise. But greed and hatred also distort reality as soon as they do arise.
For instance, if we can simply abide in the way things really are, before these things arise, we we find we are embedded in a network of cause and effect, in which all things are simply dependencies on other things, magnificent in its complexity, delicate in its balance and in the ongoing flux rippling through the network. Now, if we desire something, then that becomes bigger than life, specifically its desirable features, as a caricature, become bigger than life, while the undesirable is no longer even noticed. The paths of causal relations that connect the object of desire to the (now bigger than life) self come alive as plans are considered for the acquisition of the object of desire. Whatever lies along those paths grows, specifically caricatures of their instrumental aspects grow, while all else shrinks and disappears. Even people become instruments and nothing more, or else obstructions, which then become immediate objects of irritation then hate, so caricatured as to appear demonic.
We now reside in a sparse and anxious world fabricated from our own self-centered manipulations. This capacity of greed and hatred to distort reality is most easily observed in the case of hatred or anger, the great fault that fades away quickly. You all will certainly have had the experience of encountering someone for the first time as an impediment to some otherwise perfect plan, and thereby as a demon, only to encounter her at some later time under different circumstances and to your bewilderment as a rather nice person.
We’ve been considering unwholesome thoughts. What about the wholesome? These are rooted in non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion, that is, in renunciation, good-will and wisdom. It includes generosity, loving-kindness, compassion, patience, intelligence, mindfulness, concentration, equanimity and so on.
One of our tasks as Buddhist practitioners moving from thought to destiny, is to cultivate skillful thoughts and to remove the unskillful thoughts. This task is like that of a gardener: one pulls out the unskillful weeds and waters the skillful flowers, shrubs, vegetables and herbs and thereby gives the desired shape to the garden. There are some standard mental techniques involved in Right Effort, but you will probably discover some of your own, from substituting another thought for the one you are entertaining, to deconstructing your present thought, from changing your perspective or conceptualization of the situation, to bringing the thought into the focus of attention until it dissipates of itself.
One of the things you will notice in Buddhist practice is that the bar is always set very high, in fact to a height that only the Buddha and the occasional arahant can vault over. This should not dismay you, rather it means that for many years, maybe for many lives, you will always be able to go deeper into the practice. It is like reading an epic novel that you cannot put down, but never seems to come to an end. It is particularly important not to think of yourself as a “sinner” or a” bad person” because of your probably relentless unskillful thoughts. Buddhism is gentler than that. If you have been reading carefully you will have noticed that guilt is listed among the unskillful thoughts to eradicate. In fact, you are most likely not convinced that the Buddha’s classes, wholesome and unwholesome, are accurate; you probably still enjoy many kinds of lustful thoughts, for instance. That is OK too. But keep observing and studying. You don’t need to give up anything until you are convinced that it should be given up. But become an astute student of samsara, of the suffering that permeates life, even tainting what should be fun.
August 10, 2010
The Goal of Buddhist Practice
Quarter Moon Teaching
This particular Uposatha Day is also the Day of the Full Moon. This particular Day of the Full Moon is also Dhamma Day, commemorating the Buddha’s first discourse, in which he first expounded The Noble Eightfold Path. Dhamma Day also marks the beginning of Vassa, the Rains Retreat. During Vassa for three months monks and nuns traditionally do not wander but devote their time to practice and study, because in India and today most of the Theravada world, including Burma, it’s raining this time of year.. Vassa shows up in Zen tradition as the three month ango, which however has lost its relationship to the rainy season in India. I will spend Vassa here in Minnesota, do not intend to travel, but will schedule a more intensive meditation practice, try to be pristine in discipline and devote more time to Sutta study (thereby covering the Three Trainings that subdivide the Noble Eightfold Path, namely meditation, ethical conduct and wisdom. For the first few days of Vassa I am joined by a group of new temporary monks, who ordained the day before Dhamma Day, but only intending to remain monks for a week. I think Ashin Nayaka is trying to get back from Asia to spend the Vassa here.
The topic of today’s posting has come out of the blue, inspired by an email exchange with a dedicated Buddhist student in Austin. Buddhist practice, the Noble Eightfold Path, is generally assumed to have a goal, and in fact that goal is defined in lofty terms as Nirvana, Full Awakening or Liberation from Samsaric Existence, or what I equally vaguely called the Perfection of the Human Character in earlier postings. And often it is also assumed that reaching that goal involves a series of attainments, much like reaching the top of a mountain involves reaching each of a series of landmarks or becoming a scholar involves receiving a series of academic degrees. In fact goals of all kinds easily enmesh us in the Triple Poison of Greed, Hatred and Delusion as our desires flair, our competitive instincts set in and soon we live in a world of Me, What I Want, How I’m Going to Get it, and What is In My Way. Such a precious goal as the Perfection of the Human Character, ironically but nevertheless, is no exception. This goal, if so enmeshed, represents the exact antithesis of itself! We have to be careful.
We have to be careful, especially in our acquisitive goal-oriented instant-gratification Western culture. In the West many people want to be on the fast track to Enlightenment, as if there were someone there to receive it when it comes and as if that someone would like it when it was reached. I suspect that this has a precedent in Buddhism Tang China, which enjoyed much social mobility, and in which Buddhists began talking about Sudden Enlightenment as if one did not need endless lifetimes of practice as one seemed to in India, which generally fixed one’s social status at birth. The danger of grasping after Sudden Enlightenment seems to have been offset by a further cultural adaptation, the idea that Enlightenment though at hand nonetheless should not be sought after. A very well-known Zen koan from this period begins:
Chao-chou aked Nan-chuan, “What is the Way?”
Nan-chuan said, “Ordinary mind is the Way.”
Chao-chou asked, “Then may I direct myself towards it or not?”
Nan-chuan said, “To turn toward it is to turn away from it.”
At the end of this discourse Chao-chou attains Enlightenment. (I’ve posted an essay on this koan which further explores the theme of this posting here. ) In short, we as Westerners have what is certainly an even greater imperative to avoid the seduction of enlightenment than our predecessors before us.
Even our friend the potter has to be careful. (I am as surprised as anyone that I have been able to get such milage out of his analogy to the Buddhist practitioner.) Recall that the potter, like the Buddhist practitioner, is on a path toward an ultimate goal, but in his case he moves toward mastery of his specific craft. However, if you ask him in his studio, What is it you are doing? He will generally answer, I am making a pot. If he answered, I am making a master potter, his answer, though true, would be worrisome. You would almost expect him to spend more time buying the right smock or adjusting his baret in the mirror than actually working with clay. We do the same in Buddhism. But the focus is all wrong. It seems that the most direct path to the distant goal of becoming a master potter is simply to focus on the immediate goal of making a masterly pot, over and over. But wait, it is not quite that simple: Occasionally the potter should recognize that his skills fall short. For instance, while he understands clay in his hands, he might not be so successful in design or in selecting glaze colors. If he recognizes this, or perhaps a more adept teacher does, then he might undertake an art class in design or color. This is not on behalf of the next pot, but in improving the skill set of the potter for the long run. The goal of making a master potter is therefore not to be entirely neglected but mostly the ultimate goal attains itself as long as the potter focuses on the immediate goal of making each pot as if a master potter had made it.
Even the dieter has to be careful. Suppose you find yourself among the ranks of the chubby, so you set out to lose weight. Most people frame the task in terms of the goal of achieving an optimal weight, say 180 lbs., suffer much suspense and frustration on the path to that goal interleaved with brief feelings of accomplishment, typically do not stand the stress of this and give up in an impulsive binge, and if they do manage to achieve the ultimate goal, immediately start to backslide. An alternative, however, is simply to take on the discipline of eating an appropriate daily diet for their height and body type, and getting an appropriate amount of daily exercise, an immediate goal reached day by day. That’s what the ranks of the non-chubby already do. The body weights of the chubby will begin to shift as their systems seek new equilibria, and they will gradually blend with the non-chubby, but when and how fast that happens need not be of any concern.
Buddhism is easy. It is the vow, *This* is how I will live my life from now on. Then you just do it. If you slip up you just renew your vow and continue. And if you look at how other people live their lives you have plenty of incentive to put in the effort to enact this vow. The immediate uplift of the harmless beneficial life is the greatest incentive. Then as long as you remain on the Noble Eightfold Path we will certainly experience stages of attainment, but it is best let Nirvana take care of itself.

July 26, 2010
Beyond the Noble Eightfold Path
Quarter Moon Teaching
The Suttas recount the following conversation:
As he was sitting there, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, “This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie.”
“Don’t say that, Ananda. Don’t say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life.
The question I want to raise is, What happened to the Noble Eightfold Path in this dialog? Isn’t it the whole of the holy life? The Buddha goes on to answer this, but let’s enjoy the suspense for a while.
The Noble Eightfold path is pragmatic, rational, integrated and rather self-contained. As you continue your studies you will find that most of the Buddhist teachings relate to one or more of the eight steps of the path: as you learn about Emptiness, about meditation techniques, about Karma and Rebirth, about the many mental factors, about the various systems of Precepts, and so on, things I have only begun to touch on in my brief overview. However, like everything, a path is embedded in a larger context: A physical path winds its way through a forest to the top of a hill, down the other side, over a bridge spanning a creek, past a hornet’s nest across a meadow and home. What keeps the traveler on the path when he or she might just as well go off swimming or rock climbing, or prospecting. And it is also so with the Noble Eightfold Path. It has to begin somewhere, what are the conditions for entering the path in the first place? What keeps one on the path? How does one find out that there is a path and where it leads?
We have seen that our friend the potter also follows a path, one that leads to the perfection of the skills of a master potter. Is there also some part of being a potter that lies outside the potter’s studio? Yes, the potter is embedded in a context that has material, social and motivational aspects:
The Potter’s Material context. The potter had to rent or purchase his studio and all of the equipment needed, and probably has required a source of income, possibly from selling the fruits of the potter’s skills. The potter had to make a commitment of money and time to the practice of the potter’s craft, to rearrange his or her life simply to make room for practicing his or her craft.
The Potter’s Social context. The potter has placed him- or herself into a tradition that has been transmitted through history to the present moment. The potter has probably spend innumerable hours studying the work of others, at craft shows, in craft shops and finally in museums. The potter found some source of training, perhaps as an apprentice to a master potter, or through college courses. The potter probably spends a lot of time talking with, and being encouraged and inspired by, other similar-minded craftspeople, and may belong to a guild or professional society. And the potter may also have become a resource for others who aspire to learn the potter’s craft perhaps.
The Potter’s Motivational context. Probably the potter has learned a lot about art, and has been inspired by certain artists and certain trends. The potter has, if he or she is not too poor, purchased a lot of ceramics, other crafts and general art to bring home and live with as a constant source of inspiration. Almost certainly the potter subscribes to some potterly publications and reads potterly books. And the potter’s stained clothes and fingers are a constant reminder to him- or herself and to others that, “Here Stands a Potter.” All of these help keep pottering at the center of the potter’s life, ensures the unquestioned devotion of the potter to his or her craft, even when there are so many other interesting this to do in life.
Buddhism is not much different:
The Buddhist Material Context. The practitioner may share a practice space with a community, or may have invested some time and effort in fixing one up at home. The practitioner probably helps sustain a temple. The dedicated practitioner will have made a deep commitment to making room in his or her life, often with a complete reorientation of priorities, abandonment of livelihood and so on.
The Buddhist Social Context.The practitioner has begun training, through reading, through lectures, through individual instruction from an admirable teacher, maybe joined a Buddhist center or a monastery. In fact, the practioner has placed him- or herself into a tradition that has been preserved and transmitted from ancient times through the centuries to the present moment. He or she probably belongs to a Buddhist community and has frequent contact with like-minded people, and it is here he or she discovers admirable people, those who have most benefited from and best embody Buddhist practice. The practitioner with time will become a resource for others drawn to practice perhaps even a deep inspiration for those taking their first steps on the path.
The Buddhist Motivational Context. Similarly, the Buddhist practitioner has had the opportunity of contact with admirable Buddhist practitioners, which has often been the point at which entering the path is first considered, has read the Life of the Buddha and gained a deeply respectful attitude toward the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, the admirable teacher, his admirable teachings and those admirable ones who transmit his teachings to new generations, thereby opening one’s mind to the three sources of influence. The practitioner has viewed Buddhist art, depictions of the Buddha and other aspects of what is admirable Buddhism. He or she will be inclined to undertake ritual symbolic activities such as chanting, bowing and offering incense, around an altar or a pagoda to reinforce a sense of devotion and respect for that which is admirable. All of these help keep Buddhist practice at the center of the practitioner’s life, even while there are so many other interesting things to do in life, to keep the practitioner on the path.
The surprising thing about the material, social and motivational context in which one practices the Noble Eightfold Path is that it gives Buddhism its religiosity. It is organized, communal and devotional, very much like other religions. Many Westerners who are giving Buddhism the eye like to think that Buddhism is not a religion, but a philosophy or a way of life, but in any case something entirely rational. What gives?
First of all, these elements are not uniquely religious, as we have seen in the case of the potter. Similarly a marriage has a material, social and motivational context, as does a hobby, probably anything one wants to be doing as a profession, scholarship, sports, both spectator and participatory. The relevant aspects of the respective contexts differ in form, the elements of the context manifest according to subject domain. For instance motivational aspects of marriage include a solemn ceremony, the wearing of rings as a constant reminder of one’s vows, a lot of daily ritual expressions of affection; motivational aspects of sports includes cheer leaders, pep talks, wearing certain symbols of the home team as well as attire of the appropriate color, ritual chanting, worship of prominent athletes, often even displaying their pictures, and so on. Naturally the broad domain of religion has certain characteristics that carry over to Buddhism as well.
Second, the context of the Noble Eightfold Path not only provides conditions for embarking and remaining on the path, but the context by itself seems to support many of the aims of the Noble Eightfold Path by itself, albeit in a very unsophisticated way. In particular devotional practices, bodily expressions of respect, involvement in a mutually supporting community tend to give rise to skillful states of mind. They dethrone the ego and encourage humility, gratitude, compassion and generosity. I think developing these qualities is the common project of most religions, which might explain why they seem to have a common “religiosity.” The Buddhist project takes this to another level by adding the Noble Eightfold Path, a technology that capable of bringing these admirable human characteristics progressively toward perfection. Buddhism at the same time makes living breathing people, not gods, as objects of devotion and respect, those admirable people that best embody the Noble Eightfold Path in their lives. The Buddha finishes the quote above as follows:
Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life. When a monk [read practitioner] has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, he can be expected to develop & pursue the noble eightfold path.
On this Uposatha Day of the first quarter moon, take some time and reflect, what are the factors that inspire me to take the Buddhist Path or that sustain me on the Path. Of course many of the people involved will have reached you through books, on-line lectures, etc. Then consider, how do I show my appreciation for this, and how do I open my heart and mind to better accept this influence.

July 19, 2010
Noble Eightfold Path: Right Concentration
Uposatha Day Teaching
The Eighth and final Fold of the Eightfold Path is Right Concentration. Concentration in Pali or Sanskrit is samadhi, a familiar word in Buddhist vocabulary. A potter or other skilled craftsman also requires a degree of concentration and does his or her best work with concentration, in which the mind of the potter is collected in one place, concerned with one task, still, focused. Concentration contrasts with the more typical scattered state of the human mind. However the average human mind seems to be naturally concentrated when there is danger, when the cost of making a mistake is high, or when something is just darn interesting. Concentration when present typically brings euphoria, a blissful feeling, which might be why some people engage in dangerous activities like bungee jumping or driving fast for recreation. Buddhism provides the training that makes very deep levels of concentration available on demand.
The functions of the concentrated mind in Buddhist practice are in support of the other folds of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the mind’s typical state thoughts come at us like a rushing river, like a fire hose or like a sand storm. Alternatively we can say that the mind jumps around from place to place like a monkey, like a basket ball or buzzes around like a swarm of gnats. Under such conditions we have little opportunity either to observe our thoughts to get to know them, and almost all opportunity to observe and get to know what is happening in the world around us gets lost in the deluge of thought. Likewise under such conditions we have little opportunity to respond appropriately to thoughts as required by many of the steps in the Path.
Thoughts are also like choppy water, stirred up by paddlers and power boats, that obscures both external phenomena and the mind itself.. On the other hand, the concentrated mind is serene and sharp like a still forest pool, without a ripple, such that you can see every detail of the bottom of the pond. The serenity of concentration gives Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort and Right Mindfulness each a boost. Each of these involves making decisions with consideration of intentions and other mental factors. Serenity is like seeing these mental factors with a magnifying glass. For instance, part of Right Speech is not to speak in anger. For many people this is nearly impossible because the gap between anger and speech is slight. With a serene mind this gap is large. In fact one is likely to catch the series of thoughts leading to anger at an early stage with a softening effect. The sharpness or clarity of concentration gives a great boost to Right View, Right Resolve and Right Livelihood because it supports penetrating insight into the way things really are. For instance, one cannot avoid a continuous awareness of the flux and contingency of all things, and the tendency of the mind toward fabrication.
So concentration or samadhi is a very useful tool, for the potter as well as for the Buddhist on the Path. How do we get there? The short answer is, Through all of the other folds of the Noble Eightfold Path. If your life is less dispersed, if you do not spend your time struggling, your mind will be more concentrated. All the folds from Right Resolve through the three factors of Ethical Conduct and up to Right Effort establish a non-self-seeking relationship to the world, reducing our stress and anxiety. We will see next week how Right View brings this to an even deeper level. All this reduces the scattering of our mental resources, brings the mind to the here and now. Cultivating physical serenity in our lives is an additional aid to concentration: walks in the woods, avoiding idle chatter and mindless entertainment, reducing clutter in your surroundings, living an orderly, which often means highly conventional, life.
But the most direct instruments for establishing concentration are Right Effort and Right Mindfulness. Bhikkhu Bodhi in his treatise on the Noble Eightfold Path describes a metaphor used in an ancient commentary for the relationship of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration: Three boys see flowers blooming high in a tree, but even the tallest of them, boy C, cannot reach them. Therefore another boy, A, leans over to let the tallest boy climb up on his back. This gives the needed height but boy C has trouble keeping his balance and is afraid to stand as high as he can. So the remaining boy, B, takes hold to steady C. Boy A is Effort, boy B is Mindfulness and boy C is Concentration. Through Effort, which works with the earlier folds, we gain a degree of purity and stability of mind. Concentration takes this to an even higher level, but cannot do this without Mindfulness.
Right Concentration is most effectively practiced in seated meditation, but tends to carry over from there into everyday life in a less rarefied form. The most common form of seated meditation involves selecting an object of concentration, such as the physical sensation of breath felt in the rising and falling of the abdomen, or simply a candle. Your task is to keep your mind focused on the object. Mindfulness reminds you of this task as distractions arise. It is the guard that protects concentration from all of the fascinating things the mind would like to do instead. Right Effort is primary in working with the unskillful mental factors that are likely to otherwise be distractions. These factors working together often feel like a struggle as the mind is repeatedly distracted from its object of concentration, sometimes for minutes at a time. But with practice, and especially as one sits for long periods, the mind settles and the concentration narrows increasingly in on the object. The struggle stills, or even disappears, leaving serenity and clarity.
Most meditation traditions take as their primary aim to develop intense levels of concentration. Concentration can be very intense indeed. The aim of meditation in Buddhism is somewhat different. Recall that in the years immediately preceding his enlightenment the future Buddha engaged in developing extraordinary state of concentration but in the end recognized the inadequacy of concentration. Intense states of concentration develop serenity with the advantages described above, but past a certain point this is at the expense of the clarity or sharpness necessary for insight into the nature of reality. The extreme one-pointedness of mind eventually shuts down investigation. In fact many adepts are said to have reached enlightenment with limited concentration. Also deep levels of concentration carries a couple of dangers. First, one can become attached to the pleasure of concentration, which then becomes a self-serving impediment to progress on the Path. Second, the intense serenity of concentration can mislead you into thinking you have reached some great attainment on the path, possibly even awakening. With these caveats, concentration is nevertheless and important tool which the sincere practitioner should give a lot of attention to developing.
On this day of the Last Quarter Moon spend some time in seated meditation, enjoy the serenity of clarity that comes with concentration and resolve to make seated meditation a part of your daily routine if it is not already, even if it is for ten or fifteen minutes each day.
July 4, 2010
Uposatha Day Teaching
Noble Eightfold Path: Right Livelihood
We are now at the fifth fold of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha’s master checklist for mastering the skill of life. The Ethical Conduct Group of the Noble Eightfold Path consists of Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. We will finish the Ethical Conduct group with this post and its comments.
We have seen that Right Speech and Right Action are karmic, that is, they are intentional, something done by choice. We might think of our lives as a long series of densely packed choice points, in each of which we try freely to pick the most skillful alternative: “Speak falsely or tell the truth, I think I’ll, um, … tell the truth… Take what is not given or be satisfied with what I have, I think I’ll grab what I want while no one is looking, …” However, for most of us it does not generally feel like we live life so deliberately. If we pay attention we recognize that there are choice points, but we seem to skip right through the on automatic pilot almost every time: “Mmmm, chips, grab, gobble. Yikes, there’s that jerk, must avoid. Beautiful woman, hubba hubba, straighten tie and smile, …” The reason lies in our habit patterns. These are like the ruts worn in a path over which ox carts have passed for many years. At any point we could veer to the right or to the left, but we don’t. And when we don’t, the currently operative habit pattern becomes even deeper. These habit patters are the stuff of our character. Those grounded in seeking personal advantage tend to be our natural overriding concern. Ethical Conduct is the practice of changing our habit patterns with respect to actions of body and speech to those that are more skillful. Ethical precepts, such as “Do not take that which is not offered,” define points at which we become more deliberate in our choices,; they are clearly defined opportunities to get out of the rut. Developing the resolve toward loving-kindness apply a more general pressure toward deliberation.
There are other concerns besides existing habit patters and our practice vows that may form future habit patterns and ultimately character. Each of us is embedded in a network of relations, and prominent among these are societal relations, which entail obligations to do certain things or behave in certain ways. These can take the ox cart out of old ruts, and lead to the creation of new ruts. Prominent among these is our livelihood. Now, once we choose our livelihood we might not have much choice left about the actions we preform while engaged in that livelihood. Nevertheless the karmic effects of those actions will be as before: Performing those actions will have harm or benefit as before and will shape one’s character as before. Therefore, it is important that one choose one’s livelihood with care. For the aspiring master potter Right Livelihood would be to actually make a living as a potter, especially with a customer base with a great appreciation of fine workmanship. This would afford the greatest opprortunity to develop skillful habit patterns indeed. It is so with the skills of life: Right Livelihood would be that which allows full expression of selflessness, goodwill and compassion without compromise.
So, when is a particular livelihood Right? Just look at the job description. Is each task mentioned consistent with Right Speech and Right Action? Does it involve deceit? Does it involve killing or otherwise harming living beings? Does it entail taking what is not given freely? Does it involve or encourage misuse of sexuality? The Buddha specifically points out the following red flags in assessing livelihood: deceit, treachery, soothsaying, trickery, and usury. It is a challenge to find Right Livelihood in sales or marketing, or in banking or investing that fall under Right Livelihood. The Buddha also specifically recommends against jobs that deal in weapons, in living beings (such as raising animals for meat production or facilitating prostitution), in meat production, in poisons, and in intoxicants. So you should not be a soldier or arms dealer, a butcher or corporate farmer, a pesticide producer (or presumably a farmer if this means using pesticides), or a liquor store proprietor (or even a Benedictine monk if this involves brewing beer). In modern times is that it is probably particularly difficult to find a job that is Right Livelihood. Before I was a monk I used to work in software R&D, artificial intelligence, for companies that had contracts with defense contractors, which I decided was clearly Wrong Livelihood. But how about working as a cashier for a retail store that happens to sell liquor? We often have little choice of livelihood simply because the economy offers few choices.
What is considered a respectable livelihood in our society may be quite a bit different from what is Right Livelihood in the Buddhist sense. Being a soldier, or a banker, investing in real estate, exterminating insects and pests or stretching the truth a little to make a sale might all be completely acceptable a particular culture or subculture. However, the mechanisms of Karma will shape the character in pretty much the same way regardless of the approbation of the society. In other words, Buddhist ethical thinking rests primarily on observable causes and effects rather than on social norms (though social norms do determine what constitutes harsh speech or otherwise might lead to disharmony). If a livelihood forces one to act habitually with greedy or cruel intentions, the character will develop to become more greedy or cruel. Consider that when you take on employment, your boss generally predetermines many of your choices from that point on. This means that your character will come more and more to resemble that of your boss.
We may further reduce our options by taking on various obligations. If we have debt or a family to feed, or own property or possessions that must be maintained and insured, we are forced into earning a certain level of income, possibly forcing us into a Wrong Livelihood. A monastic has the great benefit of what might be called the ideal livelihood. First, in order to be ordained into the Sangha one must be quite free of conventional societal obligations: no wealth, no debt, no family to speak of. Second, one has no livelihood at all in the conventional sense: One is entirely outside of the exchange economy, there is almost nothing one can do on one’s own behalf. As a monastic, one is subject to a large number of precepts, many of which are in fact societal obligations. However, each of these obligations is of benefit to others and consistent with the harmony of the community. In fact, monastics take on the greatest societal obligation of all: they are the designated caretakers of the Buddha’s teachings and responsible for its perpetuation.
Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood constitute the Conduct or Virtue or Morality Group of the Noble Eightfold Path. Broadly speaking Buddhist virtue is presented in different terms, in Precepts, that is, specific rules of conduct; in the principle of Karma, and in Right Resolve, the resolve to be selfless, kind and compassionate. In fact, every step in the Eightfold Path reinforces this thrust.
On this New Moon Day, consider your Livelihood or the Livelihood you aspire to have. And what of your other obligations? How are these of benefit, how of harm? How do you feel about what you do all day? This is not to encourage guilt—Right Livelihood I fear is the exception and we all have to eat—but to take stock and maybe to encourage some slow disentanglement from factors that you can control. If you are fortunate, your livelihood is blameless.

June 12, 2010
Uposatha Day Teaching
Noble Eightfold Path: Right Action
In the last episode we considered Right Speech, the first of the Ethical Conduct Group of the Noble Eightfold Path. Today we take up Right Action. The most common of the alternative formulations of Buddhist ethical conduct is the Five Precepts:
1. Not to kill living beings.
2. Not to take what is not given.
3. Not to involve oneself in sexual misconduct.
4. Not to speak falsely.
5. Not to intoxicate oneself.
Here (1) – (3) most directly relate to Right Action and (4) to Right Speech. (5) relates indirectly to Right Speech and Right Action, since in the intentional haze of intoxication Speech and Action occur that are typically later regretted., but more directly to Right Effort, which we have not discussed yet, basically purification of the mind. Notice that all of these are abstentions. These do have implicit positive counterparts, such as to promote or cultivate or care for life, to be generous, to keep others properly informed, and so on. In fact, Precepts are generally a bottom line, much like the oath “Do No Harm” in medicine; but in fact we can do so much of benefit above that bottom line. However the positive forms would be more difficult to formulate, since they are open-ended; We understand out obligation to not killing, for instance, but unclear is the extent or direction of our obligation to promote life. Still the positive forms of the Precepts are already implicit in Right Resolve, in Renunciation, Goodwill and Harmlessness or compassion.
Through Right Action and Right Speech we not only make the world, we also make ourselves. Virtue gives rise to virtue. Every action has two kinds of consequences, first, out there in the world, and second, in shaping our own character, or own future. Simply put, the more you steal the more you become a thief, the more you kill the more you become a killer, the more you gossip the more you become a gossip. Actions become habits and habits become character. So action is very important in the process of perfecting character. The potter’s skills grow in exactly the same way. The more fine pots the potter throws the finer potter he becomes. The more he throws pots with thin elegantly tapered sides, the more skillful the becomes at that. This is the heart of karma, and the way we learn a skill.
Let’s look a little more closely at how this works. The Sanskrit word for action is Karma. Properly the Buddha analyzed Karma into two components, Intention and Action, why you do something, and what it is you actually do. The intention is critical: If no intention is present, for instance in the case of killing a bug accidentally, there is no Right Action and no Wrong Action. It matters to the world, but not generally to the character. But if intention is present, then that particular intention is reinforced in the action. There is a great assortment of intentions, but we must give special attention to avoid the unskillful roots: Greed, Hatred and Delusion, because actions that have these as intentional components (1) are likely to hurt others, (2) tend to make us greedy, hateful and deluded and (3) bring us personal suffering. The relation between (2) and (3) might not seem obvious, until you consider the state of happiness or well-being of greedy, hateful and deluded people. It turns out the Virtue Is its Own Reward; this is the Law of Karma. The explanation for this has to do with the origin of suffering, in clinging.
Fortunately, we can take care in our actions with regard to our intentions. First, the intention precedes the physical action that it gives rise to. This provides an opportunity to abort an unskillful intention by not acting on it. For instance, when anger arises I do not yell, I do not throw things, I don’t do anything, until the anger subsides, which it will. Second, we improve the quality of the intentions that do arise by controlling their conditions. For instance, if I avoid stressful activities, anger is less likely to arise. If I avoid the company of people who are drinking alcohol, I am less likely to have the impulse to do so. Through the cultivation of mind, the topic of the last three folds of the Noble Eightfold Path, our capacity for caring for our intentions becomes quite refined. Through such care, skillful habit patterns develop, and the character is moved in a more skillful direction. This is a simple transparent theory of human skill acquisition, with karma, intentional action, as its basis.
Often the word karma is assumed to refer to something more interesting, something like fate. Let’s take a minute to look at how a sense like this has arisen, and also how it is a bit, but not really, accurate. Often the word karma is used by extension (metonymously) to refer to cumulative consequences of intentional action, much as the words “wear” or “worn” can refer to the result of wearing shoes, say, over and over. So it is used to refer to the character itself, or other factors that are often assumed to impinge on the life of the acting agent for good and bad, as cumulative results of karmic acts. This meaning takes on particular significance in the light of rebirth. Rebirth greatly extends the lifespan of cumulative karma. The science is still out on the issue of rebirth, but rebirth as even a working assumption puts the project of perfecting character in a useful context. Perfection is rarely achieved in one lifetime, rebirth makes sense of heading in that direction inexorably and without frustration. Looking the other way rebirth allows a karmic basis in the distant past for much of our current character. Still, the principle of karma as a basis for acquiring skill remains the same; we work with karma moment by moment only in the present, seeking what it skillful, and shaping our character into something ever more virtuous.
Karma is the key to the entire path and should be understood and practiced , as the Buddha says, “seeing danger in the slightest fault.” We might extend this to seeing benefit in the slightest virtue. Often the development of character through Right Action are clearer than the immediate affects of Right Action in the world. For instance, the First Precept above is one that we easily become fuzzy around; we are not really convinced that the Buddha meant cockroaches and scorpions, snakes and slugs, when he referred to “living beings.” Yet if we uphold the Precept rigorously (catch pests and place them carefully outside) we observe a remarkable change in ourselves: We become kinder, more tender in our feelings not only for all the little creatures but for people as well. Try it! Your Virtue will grow, and that in turn will improve the tendencies of our future actions in the world. You will also find yourself more and more joyful in disposition.
Throughout this Uposatha Day of the First Quarter Moon, think about your actions. Am I violating one of the Five Precepts? What are my intentions, is there a hint, or maybe a lot, of greed or hatred behind my actions?
June 3, 2010
Uposatha Day Teaching
Noble Eightfold Path: Right Resolve
For new readers: Each quarter moon, on Uposatha Day, I am posting a short Buddhist teaching. The present posting is the third in the series on the Noble Eightfold Path, the Buddha’s master checklist for practice, the practice of perfecting character. We have been using the metaphor of the potter to describe the elements of this practice.
Last week we considered the first element of the Eightfold Path, Right View. Right View is what we need to know about the mind and the world in order skillfully to craft our character, just as a potter needs to know certain things in order to skillfully craft a bowl. This week we consider the second element of the Eightfold Path, Right Resolve, also sometimes called Right Intention or Right Thought.. Right View and Right Resolve together form the Wisdom Group or Training in Wisdom within the Eightfold Path. The remaining six elements form the Training in Conduct and Training in Cultivation of Mind.
A potter in crafting a bowl not only needs to know about clay and glaze and potter’s wheel, he also needs to have an idea of what he hopes to produce. This is Right Resolve. For the potter Right Resolve might be to make a bowls of exquisite elegance and beauty and at the same time of practical functionality. For the Buddhist Right Resolve is to craft a character of highest Virtue, one that embodies Renunciation, Good Will and Harmlessness. Right Resolve is in the Wisdom Group because it requires wise reflection to fully understand. Renunciation, Goodwill and Harmlessness are not, for most people, an obvious set of qualities to put here. For instance, you might think that the Perfected Character is wealthy, attractive, popular, fun-loving, sporty, and ever young, .. and, oh, enlightened. Or you’ve come to Buddhist practice because of inner pain; your resolve is to fix yourself. No doubt the reader has resolved to be this way or that way at various times—New Year’s Day is the traditional American occasion for this—and almost certainly it has not lead to satisfactory results. The Buddha advises us to resolve ourselves to live lives , and establish the virtues, of Renunciation, Good Will and Harmlessness as a step in his path. With a mind open to his every suggestion, we can see how that works out in our lives.
Right Resolve in short means this:
Make everything you do a Gift.
Can you do this? This means you set out on the Buddha’s eightfold path as a Gift. It means you work and relax as a Gift. It means you watch the news as a Gift, you eat as a Gift. It means you choose your livelihood as a Gift. It means you meditate and develop Right View as a gift. This sounds saintly. Buddhism aims at nothing less, … but it also recognizes that few will quite get there, which is OK too. Nevertheless this is our constant resolve.
Renunciation takes the “Me First” out of Gift giving. Any true Gift involves renunciation, otherwise it is not quite a Gift; otherwise I give it because I expect to get something in return. The full virtue of Renunciation is not easy to see: Our common sense tells us that happiness comes from grasping after things, but in fact it comes from letting go. This is one of the reasons we have monastics in Buddhism, professional renunciates, to remind us over and over that this is the case, to gently steer us in that direction. It is also completely cool, that that that which enables pure giving to others is also the greatest source of personal happiness. In other words giving is a Gift to yourself, and receiving a Gift is a Gift to another. You can’t get cooler than that. Once you fully recognize this, Right Resolve is not such a difficult thing to develop.
Goodwill and Harmlessness, or loving-kindness and compassion, drive the act of Gift giving. With the “Me First” out of the equation the wish for the benefit of all and the recognition of the enormous suffering of the world extends without limit, even to those we once thought we did not like or were deserving of their pain. It is for all of them that we undertake to take the Noble Eightfold Path to the production of a character of exquisite elegance and beauty and at the same time of practical functionality.
On this Uposatha Day, I suggest that you consider, first, What is it that brought me to Buddhist practice, that is, to walk the Noble Eightfold Path? and second, How is my practice a Gift to the World? Can the two answers be reconciled?
May 20, 2010
Uposatha Day Teaching
Noble Eightfold Path, Right View
In order to craft a ceramic object a potter needs to understand his materials and tools: the varieties of clay, how much water to add to the clay, how the clay behaves under pressure, what conditions will cause a pot to crack or explode in the kiln, what happens to clay at different baking temperatures, various types and properties of glaze, etc. In order to craft a life in the Dharma the Buddhist practitioner also must understand his materials and tools: the body, the mind, the nature of the world we are embedded in, how thoughts are triggered, how actions are triggered, how our habit patterns evolve.
Right View is seeing things as they really are. It is not accepting an orthodox set of unexamined beliefs. This gives Buddhism one of its startling properties. The skilled potter has to work with the conditions at hand: he must not pretend he has clay when he is out of it, he must not pretend his clay is other than it is or that the temperature of his kiln is not five degrees above what the knob says. Pretending will lead to unanticipated results. So it is with the Buddhist practitioner. This gets Buddhism into trouble with the outside world, where it has gained a reputation as pessimistic, focusing on such things as suffering, on sickness, old age and death. The Buddha even recommended the practice of observing corpses in various stages of decay. These are all the things we prefer to turn away from, yet these are realities, and it is advisable not to fashion a life out of what is not real.
This is not to say Buddhism has no doctrine. Buddhism provides many pointers and many observations that highlight particular things as they are and makes many statements about what you should discover there. Buddhism points to impermanence, suffering and absence of self as characteristics of existence and correlates suffering with clinging or aversion. Clinging and aversion arise from false views, particularly a false conception of the self, which then cannot keep pace with an ever-changing world. Tendencies to clinging, aversion, wrong view, and hence suffering are unskillful aspects of a personality that can be mitigated and eventually disappear altogether through skillful action in the present. Skillful action is related to the purity of one’s intentions. Buddhism also introduces the notion, often controversial in the West, that the process of shaping one’s life continues right past the end of this life an into another. These all become objects for contemplation and personal observation.
In the beginning many Buddhist views are obscure and complex, and therefore not immediately verified in one’s own experience. Although verification in one’s own experience is always encouraged, i.e., blind faith is discouraged, and verification leads to greater confidence in Right View, it is important from the beginning that one be ready to accept Buddhist views with and open mind and an open heart, as working assumptions. Too much skepticism will inhibit coming to terms with the parts of things as they are that Buddhist doctrine points to. A degree of faith is necessary in this and in all aspects of life, because of the incessant gap between the little we know and the great deal that we need to know just to function in the world. Even in the training of a scientist one taught particular viewpoints, but then invited to challenge these viewpoints if they seem untenable. So it is in Buddhism. Right View comes right at the beginning of the Eightfold Path because we need to begin our practice within the framework of Buddhist understanding. However we never step beyond Right View as a critical concern for the Buddhist practitioner. Right View will deepen with the remaining practices of the Eightfold Path, and in fact deep penetrating insight into the way things are is often regarded as the culmination of the Eightfold Path.
So far I’ve been presenting Right View as a doctrinal or conceptual understanding. That does not go far enough. First of all a conceptual understanding has a way of staying in our heads without really changing our attitudes and behaviors. Think of the physicist who during the day inhabits a world in which nothing is substantial, everything is strings or particles that can instantaneously disappear from one place and appear in another, then goes home to play with the kids and the dog as if it were not the same reality; nothing has carried over. Sometimes we experience an “Aha!” moment in which our already clear conceptual understanding moves into something deeper, a recognition that this really IS the Way Things Are. The word collectively had such a moment of insight when one of the astronauts in the Apollo 8 mission to orbit around the moon took a picture of a half-earth against a lunar foreground. We all knew what to expect, but what we viewed was surprising anyway, we were surprised that what we already knew really was true! Buddhism encourages this kind of deepening of insight.
But Right View goes even deeper; eventually extending beyond the limits of conceptual understanding., the limits of what we can wrap actual words around. Consider that most of the knowledge of a good potter comes from actually working with the clay, it is in his fingers not in his head. An apprentice potter does well to listen carefully to his master, to remember what he says about the variety of clays, what happens to clay at different baking temperatures and so on. But the apprentice will continue to gain insight, often inexpressible insight, far beyond those instructions. So it is with the Buddhist practitioner. The genius of Zen Buddhism is that it has a language, partly poetic, partly conceptual, but also comfortable with the contradictions that arise between the concepts, that can accompany the Buddhist apprentice a bit further in gaining insight into how things really are.
I suggest that, on this Uposatha Day, this day of the new moon, you do a little Web surfing. Follow some of the links I’ve put at the bottom of the Dhamma page and get an idea of the range of Buddhist teachings. These Upodatha Day postings are of course themselves intended as an entry into those teachings.
For extra credit, consider this question: Do moon Buddhists have an Uposatha Day at the same time that Earth Buddhists do, if moon Buddhists use the phases of the Earth as the determinant? (Warning: trick answer)

May 13, 2010
Uposatha Day Teaching
Noble Eightfold Path, Introduction
Recall that every Uposatha Day, traditionally a day for connecting with Buddhist practice, I am posting a short teaching, and that today I begin a series of short teachings on the Noble Eightfold Path.
Buddhism is about the Perfection of Character. The Noble Eightfold Path is the Buddha’s instructions or how to do this. According to the earliest accounts it was the very first thing the Buddha taught after attaining Enlightenment.
Actually in declaring perfection of character as the function of the Noble Eightfold Path I am being a little vaguer than the Buddha. The Buddha, after unfolding the Eightfold Path then embedded it as the last of the Four Noble Truths: (1) There is suffering (dissatisfaction). (2) Suffering is caused by clinging. (3) This means there is a means to free ourselves from suffering. (4) The Noble Eightfold Path is that means. The Buddha was a master at matching his words to his audience. The problem is that most Westerners are initially perplexed by the Four Noble Truths and particularly have trouble finding any possible relevance of (4) to (1)-(3). For instance, (4) makes no mention of suffering or clinging. So let me try some different words.
“Perfection of Character” is deliberately vague, but think of it as being a joyful and benevolent presence in the world. It is good to leave it vague at this point because our idea of what a perfected character is will change as we travel the highly introspective Eightfold Path. But let me now describe it as a kind of craft, the skill of living one’s life joyfully and benevolently. This provides apt analogies with other crafts.
Take the craft of making pottery and imagine that you are with a group of people, each of which is given a big lump of clay and access to the tools of the craft, the potter’s wheel, a kiln and other tools. Chances are you will be able to craft something, an off-center plate, a snake with a frog and a mouse in different stages of digestion, a teapot whose lid does not fit, etc., but you will probably not be satisfied with the results. You might look around and cannot find anyone else who seems to have a better idea of what they are doing, so you get frustrated and look for distractions, start a clay fights or so on. Someone might come in and sell you more or better clay as if that were the root of your dissatisfaction, but that just gives you more material to be dissatisfied about. If you are really lucky you will be near someone who happens to be skilled in this medium, providing a good example or even instructions. You will then improve your skills and produce more satisfying results. Your skills will be found (1) in what you understand, for instance, about the properties of clay, about your tools and about what are desirable results; (2) in what you do, for instance, the sequence of steps you have learned in the process and the technique for centering clay on the potter’s wheel; and (3) in what mental factors you bring to bear on the task, for instance, mindfulness and concentration (maybe you will have learned that you cannot watch TV while crafting an urn). Significantly, as you become more atuned to the medium and the task, your sense of what the perfect pot might be will become more refined.
What we do in Buddhism is the same as what the potter does, except it is our characters, our lives that we are shaping. Uninstructed and without a good example you don’t have a clear idea what to do with this lump of life. You try different things and end up distracted. The Buddha once described good spiritual friends (kalyanamitta) as the “Whole of the spiritual life.” From them you learn that life is a matter of skill and we begin to pick up the skill involved. Notice how normative this all is. Before we talk about skill we are already assuming that there is such thing as a Right Result and a Wrong Result, that there is a Right Way to do things and a Wrong Way. This is not the way many people in the West think of Buddhism (“You’re just being like dualistic, man.”) In fact Buddhism is profoundly ethical at every stage, but ethics is not a matter of some invisible forces of Good and Evil, it is a matter of what is skillful (kusala) and unskillful(akusala) and those are within yourself and trainable. The Master List of skills in the Buddhist path is the Noble Eightfold Path:
1. Right View,
2. Right Intention,
3. Right Action,
4. Right Speech,
5. Right Livelihood,
6. Right Effort,
7. RightMindfulness and
8. Right Concentration.
In each case “Right” expresses the normative nature of a skill. And, as for the potter, these skills fall in three main groups; these define what we call the Three Trainings. First, Wisdom (pannya) is what the Buddhist practioner understands, and it consists of
Right View and Right Intention. Second, Conduct (sila) is what the Buddhist does, and it consists of Right Action, Right Speech and Right Livelihood. Third, Cultivation of Mind is the set of mental factors brought to bear in life’s tasks, and it consists of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
I suggest that, on this Uposatha Day, this day of the last quarter moon, you reflect on this lump of life before you. What is its shape and what shape would you like to give it? What do you know about the nature of character, what forces are at play? How do you conduct your life, beneficially for yourself and others? Where is your mind at, is it unwieldy, scattered, or is it a precise instrument ready to fulfil its purpose. What would it take to craft something exquisite of your life?
May 6, 2010