Thoughts on Virtue (Sila)

December 9th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Irrigators guide the water,
Fletchers shape the arrow shaft,
Carpenters shape the wood,
Those of good practices control themselves.
– The Buddha

The Buddha said there are five gifts, five great gifts. He said they were long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, from the beginning—not open to suspicion, and will never be open to suspicion. What are these five things?

Abandoning the taking of life. (abstains from taking life)
Abandoning taking what is not freely given. (abstains from stealing)
Abandoning illicit sex. (abstains from illicit or heedless sex)
Abandoning lying. (abstains from lying and untruths)
Abandoning the use of intoxicants (abstains from taking intoxicants and illegal drugs)

In doing these things you give others freedom from anger, freedom from danger and animosity, freedom from oppressing others. In doing so you are the recipient of freedom of anger, freedom from danger and animosity, and freedom from oppression.

Virtue is a treasure. It is a treasure that you give yourself. Who is more important than yourself? The Buddha listened one day to a conversation with a person who had sought him out for guidance, about a conversation, he had had with his wife. The Buddha offered him this quote about self worth:

Searching all the directions
With your awareness,
You find no one dearer to yourself.
In the same way, others
are fiercely dear to themselves.
So you shouldn’t hurt others
if you love yourself.
The Buddha

Virtue in itself is a skill, and much like any skill, must be developed. So at the outset we must acknowledge that skill building is an involved process. We must first develop a definition of what is skillful and what is not. What is skillful and what is not skillful? Let us place skillful in the context on an action.

Taking life is not skillful. Taking what is not given…sexual misconduct … lying … abusive speech … divisive tale-bearing … covetousness…
Ill will and wrong view are all not skillful.

So what is skillful? Abstaining from taking life is skillful, abstaining from taking what is not freely given, from sexual misconduct … from lying … from abusive speech … from divisive tale bearing … from idle chatter … lack of covetousness … lack of ill will … right views are all skillful actions, and a good mindset for us to work within.

As we move along in our lives we come across many situations that should cause us to stop and think about how we should proceed. But do we do that? In many instances, if we are honest with ourselves, due to the pace at which we live, we do not ask any questions: We simply re-act. We become the reaction to whatever event has just manifested it self in our lives. By not thinking before any action is taken we rob our selves of our own intelligence. This is being unskillful.

How do we improve our skills? Take a moment to think before we respond. Like a person who thinks before speech as opposed to the person who forms the idea while speaking, we need to take a few moments to think. By exercising this skill we become better and better at it. Anything that is practiced well becomes easier and more second nature with repeated practice. Isn’t this what we are after? It is so much easier to proceed along your path without having to apologize for an action, or miss-action, spoken or unspoken indiscretion.

When we approach the time for our meditation we need to be able to sit quietly and not be bothered by the thoughts of the day and previous days.
It is so much easier to live our life without feelings of remorse or anger for having either victimized someone or been the victim. Words or actions taken or spoken out of anger are quick to happen and long to be forgotten.

If we practice for ourselves these five gifts, we will be able to increase our mindfulness to the small things about us everyday. Meditation is a skill. It is also a practice. Remember the roots of not having skillfulness are greed and delusion. So practice looking at things not with the prejudicial eye but with intelligence. Begin to know yourself. Develop the fine understanding between needs and wants. Seek out the places in your life that are controlled by greed. See things as they are. Continue the practice of your meditations and develop the skills needed for a good understanding of your life and how you are living it.

Give yourself permission to be happy. In so doing you give yourself the gift of kindness. Every gift you give yourself is a gift to each of us.

Searching all the directions
With your awareness,
You find no one dearer to yourself.
In the same way, others
are fiercely dear to themselves.
So you shouldn’t hurt others
if you love yourself.
– The Buddha

I Wish You Peace,

Bhante Kassapa

Bhante n. Kassapa Bhikkhu
bhante_kassapa@yahoo.com
Buu Mon Temple
Port Arthur, Texas, 77640
409.982.9319