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Talk Notes
Good morning and thank you for coming today to our Sunday morning practice. Buddhism loves lists (as do many other organizations).
In this case, the list I’m going to draw from is called the Six Paramitas. Paramita is about wisdom. So basically, it is a grouping of 5 qualities that combined together make the sixth paramita: the prajna paramita or perfection of wisdom.
Raizelah began the series by talking about the paramita of dana, roughly translated as generosity. How can one be wise without a generous heart?
The second paramita is called Sila in Sanskrit. It is about ethical conduct. No one in this room is unfamiliar with the notion of ethics. Think for a moment about the ethical practices you were introduced to in your childhood.
what are some of them?
Norman Fischer wrote a book on the paramitas that I have drawn from, called The World Could Be Otherwise.
In it, he suggests that the ethics described in the second paramita are a somewhat different take:
P.55 the bodhisattva’s perfection of ethical conduct isn’t the usual sort of ethical conduct—it’s ethical conduct beyond ethical conduct.
At first it involves some intentional restraint, but as bodhisattvas continue on the path, they easily and spontaneously practice it without particularly noticing.At this point, the perfection of ethical conduct isn’t uptight or restrictive; it’s a joyful path of doing what comes naturally out of the fullness of the heart. We don’t generally think of ethical conduct that way. We think of it quite soberly as a matter of restraint, purification, and righteousness. You follow ethical guidelines to clean up your act, straighten out your behavior, be a decent and good person.
and he says that, of course, Bodhisattvas do all of that, too, just that it becomes a path of joy.
Again, Norman:
They know above all that there is no “them” without everyone else, so conducting themselves with respect for others is common sense.And when they mess up, as they sometimes do, they pay attention and make corrections. Yet the perfection of ethical conduct, like an eagle in flight, soars far beyond conventional ethics into the empty blue skies of love and delight.
All of which is to say that, like everything else, the practice of ethics is empty (of a separate sense of self; so we aren’t doing it just for us.)
It reminds me of something John Wiley said about his flight of nerves before his shuso finale, the hossen shiki (the potentially scary practice of people standing in a line to ask you a question that you haven’t prepared any answers for) He confessed to Norman that he was really nervous & was considering ducking out the back door. Norman said, “Practice (be there) so that others may practice, too”.
When I was in my mid twenties I was a hippie. We wanted to save the world. Not everyone in that culture was entirely upright, and I had made friends with a guy who owned a head shop; very exciting…leather products, tie dye, and a little drugs thrown in. At one point he asked me if I wanted to make some money. Big money. I would transport cocaine from South America back home. He thought I would be good because I was teaching school at the time and had that teacher personna in the midst of being in that counterculture world. I actually considered it, for about five minutes. Until I thought about my grandpa. He was still alive and we had a great relationship. Beyond the idea for myself of the risk of being caught and jailed, I knew I couldn’t ever risk hurting him, perhaps never seeing him again, and letting him down from all the good he had given to me. What the effect would be on others was equally important to the danger to myself.
Norman goes on:
Ongoing meditation practice makes this connection even more obvious. You see that you never get away with anything, that shoddy conduct casts shadows on your mind and heart that you feel, sooner or later, as mental or physical discomfort when you sit down to meditate.
So the framework for ethical conduct in zen, if you haven't already figured this out, is through studying the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts. It’s a lifelong study and practice once you have embraced it. Some people choose to make a formal course of preparation in order to really commit to the precepts. We spend about a year in study. While at Red Cedar we offer the precepts study to everyone who is interested, there are always at least a few people who are immersed in the precepts study in preparation for taking the formal bodhisattva vows, who are sewing a rakusu, who are participating more actively in sangha.
My first precepts study was Ike this: after asking to “study the precepts”, and waiting several years for enough people to make a group for the teacher to expend that energy on, eleven of us did the study in Canada. We met once a month as a group and in between studied with a partner, one precept at a time. We spent a weekend at one practitioner’s home starting to sew our rakusus. We became a cohesive group.
These are the precepts:
THREE REFUGES
I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in dharma. I take refuge in sangha.
THREE PURE PRECEPTS
I vow to refrain from harmful conduct. I vow to cultivate beneficial conduct. I vow to benefit all beings.
TEN CLEAR MIND PRECEPTS
I vow to protect life, not to kill.
I vow to receive gifts, not to steal.
I vow to respect others, not to misuse sexuality.
I vow to be truthful, not to lie.
I vow to remain clear, not to intoxicate self or others.
I vow to speak kindly, not to speak ill of others.
I vow to practice modesty, not to praise self at the expense of others. I vow to practice generosity, not to be possessive of anything.
I vow to practice loving-kindness, not to harbor ill will.
I vow to cherish and polish the three treasures.
While these precepts are strong statements they are flexible.
each precept may be viewed on levels or perspectives: concrete or relative, compassionate, and absolute.
For example: the second of the ten clear mind precepts reads “I vow to receive gifts, not to steal”.
from a concrete point of view we vow to refrain from taking something that is not ours. But what about the man whose family is starving, who walks by a bakery…is one loaf of bread truly breaking a precept? From a compassionate point of view, children must eat or they will sicken and die. On an absolute level, there is no difference between giver, receiver and gift. All of this requires discernment and flexibility, and a devotion to upright living.
P.57 Norman
Although we have all become adept at presenting ourselves to the world as if we were upstanding citizens in good shape, in fact none of us is what we have become adept at seeming to be. Everyone is more tentative, more vulnerable, and rougher than they appear. Accepting this, you are kinder to yourself and everyone else. This kindness, based on a grounded understanding of human nature, is the root of ethical conduct.
In addition to the precepts, there are a few concepts related to ethics that we cannot leave out: karma, renunciation and atonement, forgiveness and love.
Karma: “If___then___”, says Norman. Karma is the result of actions. It is cause & effect. In zen, since we do not tend to dwell on reincarnation from life to life, we view it within this life, moment to moment. How will this action affect my/our/the world’s future? In a timeless view, the vow of repentance (all my ancient twisted karma) reflects the infinite nature of beginningless greed, hate and delusion. We pick it up from all time. It doesn’t make it right, but it does absolve us from inventing new karma.
Forgiveness: formal zen doesn't use the word love much, but if it is not at the foundation of our understanding of the world, how can we behave ethically? We love incompletely if it only goes one way ( like the infatuation of a big crush…it has to come from within, to infinity and back. So with the concept firmly imbedded (even though everything is in motion), we can’t live ethically if we hold grudges or carry old stories about ourselves or others. To love fully includes forgiveness. I didn’t see the Grammy’s, but I understand that Bad Bunny, when he won, suggested that in light of present conditions in our society, we cannot reflect hatred back and expect to “win”. The only way we can win is with love.
