Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness Page 4

  Of those two causes, faith and wisdom, the wisdom realizing emptiness is principal, because it is what actually liberates us from cyclic existence. It eradicates self-grasping ignorance so that it can never reappear in the future. While faith, compassion, and bodhichitta can limit our afflictions, they cannot eliminate them from the root.

  People with sharp faculties are suitable vessels for realizing emptiness. They will hear teachings on emptiness, reflect on them deeply, and discuss them with others in order to gain a correct understanding. By then meditating on emptiness, the wisdom that leads to highest good will grow in them.

  Faith in karma and its effects is a prerequisite to generating the wisdom realizing emptiness. Faith is the cause for ethical conduct, which leads to higher rebirth. Higher rebirth is the basis for generating the wisdom realizing emptiness, which, in turn, is the direct cause for the highest good of liberation and awakening. Thus, while faith in karma and its effects is a secondary cause, it is essential and cannot be overlooked.

  In short, to attain highest good, we must directly realize the ultimate nature of phenomena by cultivating the wisdom realizing emptiness. To generate this wisdom, we must have a series of special higher rebirths that provide the freedom and fortune to learn about and cultivate this wisdom. The principal cause for such higher rebirths is abandoning nonvirtue and practicing virtue. Faith in the instructions on karma and its effects is essential for this.

  6.One who does not neglect the practices

  through partiality, anger, fear, or ignorance

  is known as one with faith —

  a superior vessel for the highest good.

  A Person with Faith

  A person with faith is someone who has confidence in the law of karma and its effects, and who, due to this confidence, does not forgo the practice of virtue by engaging in nonvirtuous actions motivated by four afflicted emotions. These four emotions, which are mentioned in the Vinaya (monastic discipline), are partiality or attachment, anger, fear, and ignorance. For example, people who forgo the virtuous action of abandoning killing may kill due to partiality or attachment to an animal’s meat or skin, kill out of anger or hatred, kill due to fear of punishment by an authority that orders them to kill, or engage in animal sacrifice ignorantly thinking it will benefit the family. These are just a few examples; please think of other ways we forgo virtue due to partiality, anger, fear, or ignorance.

  Someone who does not neglect or transgress virtuous practices due to these four emotions is a superior vessel for the highest good. He or she is the best kind of person to be led on the path to liberation by a spiritual mentor.

  7.A wise [person] is one who,

  having accurately analyzed

  all actions of body, speech, and mind,

  always acts for the benefit of self and others.

  A Person with Wisdom

  A wise person continuously examines his or her physical and verbal actions to see if they are virtuous, nonvirtuous, or neutral. Wanting to create virtue, she makes effort to abandon nonvirtuous and neutral actions and to engage in virtuous ones. She enthusiastically undertakes virtuous actions with bodhichitta, the intention to attain full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings, and dedicates them for this purpose. In this way, she does what benefits herself and others. In short, a person who knows what to abandon and what to practice on the path and acts accordingly with a bodhichitta motivation is a wise person who is capable of engaging in the path to liberation and full awakening.

  On the other hand, someone who lacks faith in karma and its results and is ignorant of what to practice and what to abandon does not possess wisdom. Such a person is not suitable to be led to liberation at this time. While in general all sentient beings can be led to awakening, they cannot actually attain awakening until they abandon wrong views about the law of karma and its effects.

  In our world, somebody is considered wise or intelligent when he is able to learn quickly, excels at speaking or writing, or has knowledge about topics respected by society. However, that is not the meaning of a “wise person” in this context. From the Buddhist perspective a wise person has faith in karma and its effects and understands the points of the paths of the three beings — those of initial, intermediate, and advanced capability — and practices them correctly. Everything concerning the entire path to awakening is included in this simple idea.

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  3.Aryas are those who have realized emptiness directly and nonconceptually. They constitute the Sangha Jewel in which we take refuge.

  4.The world of sentient beings consists of three realms: the desire, material, and immaterial realms. Desire realm beings are preoccupied with objects of the five senses — sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Within the desire realm are three lower realms, so-called because the beings born there experience a preponderance of suffering. These are beings temporarily born as hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals. The three fortunate realms are those of human beings and two types of celestial beings; these beings experience much more happiness and joy. In the material and immaterial realms, beings enjoy the bliss and equanimity of deep meditative concentration. In the material realm they have bodies made of very refined material; in the immaterial realm, they have no gross bodies at all.

  2. The Advantages of Ethical Living and a Fortunate Life

  HIGHER REBIRTH AND ITS CAUSES

  Having described a person with faith and a person with wisdom, Nagarjuna now goes into detail about the causal relationships leading to higher rebirth and highest good, beginning with the foundation, ethical conduct. To ensure we understand that these are the correct causes of higher rebirth, he explains that practices such as extreme asceticism do not bring higher rebirth; in fact, they bring the opposite. Those who practice such an erroneous path not only harm themselves by creating heavy destructive karma, but when they teach this wrong path to others, they ruin others’ chance to attain higher rebirth and liberation as well. With compassion, Nagarjuna then explains the three results of karma so that we can consider the consequences of our choices before acting, restrain ourselves when necessary, and encourage ourselves to act in constructive ways.

  8.Refraining from killing and from stealing,

  not engaging in adultery;

  restraining from lying,

  divisive speech, harsh words, and idle talk;

  9.abandoning covetousness, malice,

  and nihilistic views —

  these are the ten bright paths of action.

  The ten gloomy ones are the opposite.

  Refraining from the Ten Nonvirtuous Paths of Action

  Developing ethical conduct involves ceasing thirteen activities and engaging in three practices. While we loosely refer to the first ten as destructive or nonvirtuous karma, more specifically they are paths of action, meaning they are paths to rebirth in cyclic existence. Of the ten, the seven of body and speech are also karma, or action, while the three mental ones are afflictions, not karma. Sentient beings take rebirth under the power of afflictions and karma by means of creating the ten constructive and ten destructive paths of action. For ease of speaking, now we’ll call them the ten virtues and ten nonvirtues.

  The ten nonvirtues are covered in Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Knowledge (Abhidharmakosha) and are extensively explained in the lamrim texts. For one of these to become a complete nonvirtuous action three criteria must be present: (1) the preparation, which involves correct identification of the object, the intention to do the action, and the presence of an affliction such as attachment, anger, or confusion; (2) the action itself; and (3) the completion, accomplishing what we set out to do and rejoicing in it.

  As I will only briefly explain the ten nonvirtues to abandon, please study the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path by Tsongkhapa for a more detailed explanation.

  1.Restraint from killing is to abandon taking the life of a human being or animal.

  2.Restraint from stealing means not to take things that belong t
o others that haven’t been freely given to us.

  3.Restraint from adultery refers to abstaining from sexual relationship with others’ partners, or if you are in a relationship, having sexual relationships with another person. These three are collectively called “turning our back on the three destructive physical actions.”

  4.Restraint from lying is to abandon false speech that changes others’ minds so they believe the opposite of what is.

  5.Restraint from divisive speech is to avoid speech that creates disharmony among people.

  6.Restraint from harsh speech means to abandon speech that hurts others’ feelings, such as calling them names, criticizing them, or ridiculing them.

  7.Restraint from idle talk is to avoid speech about topics that have no meaning, speaking just to pass time, and speech that distracts or confuses others.

  8.Abandoning covetousness refers to abandoning looking at the possessions of others and craving to possess them ourselves. Covetousness easily arises in shopping centers. For this reason, the Buddha advised us to walk with our eyes cast downward.

  9.Abandoning malice is to give up planning how to harm the body or possessions of another sentient being out of anger or hatred.

  10.Abandoning nihilistic views means to relinquish wrong views that deny the existence of the Three Jewels, the law of karma and its effects, the four truths of the aryas, and so on.

  If we seek higher rebirth we should definitely abandon the ten paths of nonvirtue and engage in the ten paths of virtue.

  10.In brief, Dharma consists of not taking intoxicants,

  maintaining a proper livelihood, abandoning harm,

  being respectfully generous,

  honoring the worthy, and [cultivating] love.

  Refraining from Other Blameworthy Activities

  The ten nonvirtues are not the only counterproductive actions to give up. Taking intoxicants, engaging in a wrong livelihood, and harming others are also activities to be relinquished. The reason for not taking intoxicants is that when we take them they impede our ability to think clearly and make wise decisions. We lose control of our speech and actions and easily engage in many destructive actions. Newspapers are full of stories of the harmful and regrettable things people say and do while intoxicated.

  Nagarjuna also advises us to earn our living through a wholesome livelihood and abandon wrong livelihood. For lay practitioners this entails avoiding deceit in business — such as cheating or lying to customers, clients, employers, or employees — manufacturing goods that harm sentient beings or the environment, and killing others. It also includes employing guile to avoid repaying loans; for example, forcing others to repay more than you loaned them or not repaying the full amount you borrowed from others. Abuse of power is also considered wrong livelihood. For example, an official tells someone that a minor offense is a serious crime and asks the person to pay a large fine to avoid arrest. Not paying others fair wages could also be considered wrong livelihood.

  A monastic lifestyle involves relying on the kindness of others to receive life’s necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Monastics should abandon five wrong ways to gain these necessities from benefactors: hypocrisy, flattery, hinting, pretentious behavior, and misusing property to get more. All of these constitute wrong livelihood for monastics who are dependent on the kindness of others.

  Hypocrisy is behaving impeccably in the presence of benefactors, relatives, or friends with the hope of receiving offerings, service, or respect from them. Normally we may lie around not doing much, but when we’re with these people we sit up straight with our Dharma texts in front of us and our tantric implements close at hand to impress them so they will give us offerings and respect.

  Flattery involves speaking sweet words to others with the hope of getting something in return. For example, we say, “I haven’t seen you in so long. I came all this way to visit you because I was worried that perhaps you weren’t well,” or “You’re so kind! You must be a bodhisattva!” Of course if you genuinely respect others it is good to praise them, and if you’re genuinely concerned, it’s fine to express that. But in this case, the motivation is to get something for yourself.

  Hinting means with an ulterior motive to receive money or goods, saying things such as, “Last year you gave me some money. It was really useful; I did retreat and created a lot of virtue.” Or we say, “That jacket you gave me last year was so warm,” hinting that we’d like another one this year.

  Pretentious behavior involves trying to get something by appearing to be what we are not; for example, saying, “I heard you are supporting your parents and that’s wonderful. But what would you do if an arhat came to your house?” Or we tell them that when we go to visit another family, they treat us like an arhat.

  Misusing your property to get more entails giving someone a small gift in the hope of receiving something big in turn. Another example is showing your benefactor your alms bowl, saying that the president, a movie star, or famous athlete gave it to you. In this way, you make the person think you’re a special person who should receive fine offerings.

  In addition to taking intoxicants and wrong livelihood, a third blameworthy activity to relinquish is harming others physically and verbally by beating or hitting them, destroying their possessions, humiliating them, or hurting their feelings in other ways.

  Three Practices to Engage In

  In addition to the thirteen actions to abandon, Nagarjuna recommends three activities to do: practice respectful generosity, honor the worthy, and cultivate love.

  Respectful generosity is making offerings to those who are worthy — our preceptors, spiritual mentors, and sentient beings in general — with a respectful attitude and in a respectful manner. Rather than ask others to make offerings for us, it’s better to give them ourselves, using both hands. In general, the Buddha spoke of four kinds of generosity: giving material possessions; giving fearlessness by protecting others from danger; giving love with the thought “May all beings be happy”; and giving the Dharma by giving teachings and sharing the Dharma with others.

  Honoring the worthy entails showing respect to those who are superior to us in virtuous qualities. The worthy are our preceptors and spiritual mentors, as well as others who may not be our spiritual mentors but who have greater knowledge or more excellent qualities than we do.

  Cultivating love indicates all four immeasurables: immeasurable love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Contemplating these as much as possible will make our mind peaceful and improve our relationships with others.

  Learning the causes for higher rebirth gives us a lot to contemplate. Examine your previous actions so that you can improve in the future. Also contemplate how to go about enacting these sixteen practices in your life.

  11.Dharma does not come about

  merely through engaging in physical austerities;

  through that type of practice one neither ceases harming others

  nor does one benefit them.

  Engaging in Imperfect Paths Harms Oneself and Others

  Non-Buddhists have their own practices for attaining higher rebirth, many of which are very different from the sixteen Nagarjuna prescribed. Some non-Buddhists engage in ascetic practices that mortify the body, such as fasting for long periods of time, bathing in the Ganges, sitting in a fire, and jumping on top of a trident. Some of them walk around naked, and others stand on one leg for months. They believe these practices purify negativities and lead to liberation.

  These practices are not causes of liberation; nor do they bring higher rebirth. The practice of asceticism does not forsake injuring others — which is essential for ethical conduct — nor does it help others.

  Buddhists do fasting practices such as the Nyungné, the two-day fasting retreat of Avalokiteshvara, but our motivation, the actual practice, and the conclusion of the practice differ from those of non-Buddhists. Buddhists engage in a Nyungné with bodhichitta as their motivation. The fasting is not extreme, and we do prostrati
ons, make offerings, meditate on compassion and emptiness, and cultivate serenity during the Nyungné. While Buddhist fire pujas may outwardly resemble non-Buddhist fire offerings, our motivation, the meditation we do during practice, and the conclusion of the practice are very different.

  12.One who does not respect the great path of the true Dharma

  with its manifest generosity, ethical conduct, and fortitude,

  follows the mistaken path of inflicting hardship on the body

  just as [a cow in a herd follows] the line of cattle.

  13.Such a person with a body

  entwined by the savage snakes of negative mental states

  wanders for a very long time in the terrifying wilderness of cyclic existence,

  whose trees are limitless beings.

  People Who Go on the Wrong Path

  The sixteen practices can be summarized in three: generosity, ethical conduct, and fortitude. The four types of generosity were discussed above. Ethical conduct entails abandoning the ten nonvirtues and the three other blameworthy actions. Fortitude is of three kinds: the fortitude of not retaliating, of enduring hardship and suffering, and of practicing the Dharma.

  People who have no respect for the true Dharma — as embodied in the three practices of generosity, ethical conduct, and fortitude — and engage in practices opposite to these such as self-mortification go on the wrong path. Many of them mistakenly believe that they have attained liberation because they have good concentration or can endure pain. Then when they experience suffering at the time of death, they lose faith completely and think there is no such thing as liberation or a path leading to liberation. Clinging to these wrong views, they fall into hellish rebirths.

  In addition to doing these deviant practices themselves, non-Buddhists teach them to others and in doing so, they lead others astray. Their followers proceed after them, spending their entire lives adhering to wrong views and following a wrong path, thus wasting their time, putting latencies of wrong views on their mindstreams, and creating destructive karma.