The Healing Power of the Precepts
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Copyright © 1997 Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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The Buddha was like a doctor, treating the spiritual ills of the human
race. The path of practice he taught was like a course of therapy for
suffering hearts and minds. This way of understanding the Buddha and his
teachings dates back to the earliest texts, and yet is also very
current. Buddhist meditation practice is often advertised as a form of
healing, and quite a few psychotherapists now recommend that their
patients try meditation as part of their treatment.
After several years of teaching and practicing meditation as therapy,
however, many of us have found that meditation on its own is not enough.
In my own experience, I have found that Western meditators tend to be
afflicted more with a certain grimness and lack of self-esteem than any
Asians I have ever taught. Their psyches are so wounded by modern
civilization that they lack the resilience and persistence needed before
concentration and insight practices can be genuinely therapeutic. Other
teachers have noted this problem as well and, as a result, many of them
have decided that the Buddhist path is insufficient for our particular
needs. To make up for this insufficiency they have experimented with
ways of supplementing meditation practice, combining it with such things
as myth, poetry, psychotherapy, social activism, sweat lodges, mourning
rituals, and even drumming. The problem, though, may not be that there
is anything lacking in the Buddhist path, but that we simply haven't
been following the Buddha's full course of therapy.
The Buddha's path consisted not only of mindfulness, concentration, and
insight practices, but also of virtue, beginning with the five precepts.
In fact, the precepts constitute the first step in the path. There is a
tendency in the West to dismiss the five precepts as Sunday-school rules
bound to old cultural norms that no longer apply to our modern society,
but this misses the role that the Buddha intended for them: They are
part of a course of therapy for wounded minds. In particular, they are
aimed at curing two ailments that underlie low self-esteem: regret and
denial.
When our actions don't measure up to certain standards of behavior, we
either (1) regret the actions or (2) engage in one of two kinds of
denial, either (a) denying that our actions did in fact happen or (b)
denying that the standards of measurement are really valid. These
reactions are like wounds in the mind. Regret is an open wound, tender
to the touch, while denial is like hardened, twisted scar tissue around
a tender spot. When the mind is wounded in these ways, it can't settle
down comfortably in the present, for it finds itself resting on raw,
exposed flesh or calcified knots. Even when it's forced to stay in the
present, it's there only in a tensed, contorted and partial way, and so
the insights it gains tend to be contorted and partial as well. Only if
the mind is free of wounds and scars can it be expected to settle down
comfortably and freely in the present, and to give rise to undistorted
discernment.
This is where the five precepts come in: They are designed to heal these
wounds and scars. Healthy self-esteem comes from living up to a set of
standards that are practical, clear-cut, humane, and worthy of respect;
the five precepts are formulated in such a way that they provide just
such a set of standards.
Practical: The standards set by the precepts are simple -- no
intentional killing, stealing, having illicit sex, lying, or taking
intoxicants. It's entirely possible to live in line with these
standards. Not always easy or convenient, but always possible. I have
seen efforts to translate the precepts into standards that sound more
lofty or noble -- taking the second precept, for example, to mean no
abuse of the planet's resources -- but even the people who reformulate
the precepts in this way admit that it is impossible to live up to them.
Anyone who has dealt with psychologically damaged people knows that very
often the damage comes from having been presented with impossible
standards to live by. If you can give people standards that take a
little effort and mindfulness, but are possible to meet, their
self-esteem soars dramatically as they discover that they are actually
capable of meeting those standards. They can then face more demanding
tasks with confidence.
Clear-cut: The precepts are formulated with no ifs, ands, or buts. This
means that they give very clear guidance, with no room for waffling or
less-than-honest rationalizations. An action either fits in with the
precepts or it doesn't. Again, standards of this sort are very healthy
to live by. Anyone who has raised children has found that, although they
may complain about hard and fast rules, they actually feel more secure
with them than with rules that are vague and always open to negotiation.
Clear-cut rules don't allow for unspoken agendas to come sneaking in the
back door of the mind. If, for example, the precept against killing
allowed you to kill living beings when their presence is inconvenient,
that would place your convenience on a higher level than your compassion
for life. Convenience would become your unspoken standard -- and as we
all know, unspoken standards provide huge tracts of fertile ground for
hypocrisy and denial to grow. If, however, you stick by the standards of
the precepts, then as the Buddha says, you are providing unlimited
safety for the lives of all. There are no conditions under which you
would take the lives of any living beings, no matter how inconvenient
they might be. In terms of the other precepts, you are providing
unlimited safety for their possessions and sexuality, and unlimited
truthfulness and mindfulness in your communication with them. When you
find that you can trust yourself in matters like these, you gain an
undeniably healthy sense of self-respect.
Humane: The precepts are humane both to the person who observes them and
to the people affected by his or her actions. If you observe them, you
are aligning yourself with the doctrine of karma, which teaches that the
most important powers shaping your experience of the world are the
intentional thoughts, words, and deeds you chose in the present moment.
This means that you are not insignificant. Every time you take a choice
-- at home, at work, at play -- you are exercising your power in the
on-going fashioning of the world. At the same time, this principle
allows you to measure yourself in terms that are entirely under your
control: your intentional actions in the present moment. In other words,
they don't force you to measure yourself in terms of your looks,
strength, brains, financial prowess, or any other criteria that depend
less on your present karma than they do on karma from the past. Also,
they don't play on feelings of guilt or force you to bemoan your past
lapses. Instead, they focus your attention on the ever-present
possibility of living up to your standards in the here and now. If you
are living with people who observe the precepts, you find that your
dealings with them are not a cause for mistrust or fear. They regard
your desire for happiness as akin to theirs. Their worth as individuals
does not depend on situations in which there have to be winners and
losers. When they talk about developing lovingkindness and mindfulness
in their meditation, you see it reflected in their actions. In this way
the precepts foster not only healthy individuals, but also a healthy
society -- a society in which the self-respect and mutual respect are
not at odds.
Worthy of respect: When you adopt a set of standards, it is important to
know whose standards they are and to see where those standards come
from, for in effect you are joining their group, looking for their
approval, and accepting their criteria for right and wrong. In this
case, you couldn't ask for a better group to join: the Buddha and his
noble disciples. The five precepts are called "standards appealing to
the noble ones." From what the texts tell us of the noble ones, they are
not people who accept standards simply on the basis of popularity. They
have put their lives on the line to see what leads to true happiness,
and have seen for themselves, for example, that all lying is
pathological, and that any sex outside of a stable, committed
relationship is unsafe at any speed. Other people may not respect you
for living by the five precepts, but noble ones do, and their respect is
worth more than that of anyone else in the world.
Now, many people find it cold comfort to join such an abstract group,
especially when they have not yet met any noble ones in person. It's
hard to be good-hearted and generous when the society immediately around
you openly laughs at those qualities and values such things as sexual
prowess or predatory business skills instead. This is where Buddhist
communities can come in. It would be very useful if Buddhist groups
would openly part ways with the prevailing amoral tenor of our culture
and let it be known in a kindly way that they value goodheartedness and
restraint among their members. In doing so, they would provide a healthy
environment for the full-scale adoption of the Buddha's course of
therapy: the practice of concentration and discernment in a life of
virtuous action. Where we have such environments, we find that
meditation needs no myth or make-believe to support it, because it is
based on the reality of a well-lived life. You can look at the standards
by which you live, and then breathe in and out comfortably -- not as a
flower or a mountain, but as a full-fledged, responsible human being.
For that's what you are.
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Source: http://world.std.com/~metta/lib/modern/precepts.html
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