Throughout the history of Buddhism, the Buddha has been described as a
doctor, treating spiritual ills. The path of practice he taught has
likewise served as therapy for suffering hearts and minds. This
understanding of the Buddha and his teachings dates back to the earliest
texts, but its meaning for contemporary practitioners has become more
relevant than ever.
Buddhist meditation is often touted as a form of
healing, and many psychotherapists now recommend that their patients try
meditation as part of their treatment. But the Buddha understood--and
experience has shown--that meditation on its own can’t provide a total
therapy. It requires outside support. In many ways, modern meditators have
been so destabilized by the stimuli of mass civilization that they often
lack the resilience, persistence, and self-esteem needed to achieve
concentration and cultivate insight. To provide a grounding in these
qualities, and to foster a personal environment conducive to meditation,
the Buddha prescribed a path made up not only of mindfulness,
concentration, and insight practices, but also of virtue.
And virtue
begins with the Five Precepts, which are:
to refrain from
intentionally killing any animal, from insects on up the evolutionary
ladder; to refrain from stealing; to refrain from illicit sex, that is,
sexual intercourse outside of a stable, committed relationship; to refrain
from lying; to refrain from intoxicants (such as alcohol, marijuana, and
psychotropic drugs).
These precepts constitute the first step on the
path. There is a tendency to dismiss them as Sunday-school rules bound to
old cultural norms that no longer apply to modern society, but this misses
the role that the Buddha intended for them: to be part of a therapy for
wounded minds. In particular, they are aimed at curing two ailments that
underlie low self-esteem and block progress on the path--regret and
denial. When our actions don’t measure up to certain standards of
behavior, we either regret the actions or engage in one of two kinds of
denial--denying that our actions did, in fact, happen, or denying that the
standards of measurement are really valid. These responses are like wounds
in the mind. Regret is an open wound, tender to the touch, while denial is
like hardened scar tissue twisted 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.
This is where the Five Precepts come in. Healthy self-esteem comes
from living up to a set of standards that is practical, clear-cut, humane,
and worthy of respect. The precepts provide just such a set of standards.
The standards are simple. They may not always be easy or convenient,
but they are always possible to live by. Some people translate the
precepts into standards that sound more lofty or noble. To some, taking
the second precept, for example, means not abusing the planet’s resources.
But that's an impossibly high standard. The Buddha understood that if you
give people standards that take a little effort and mindfulness but are
still possible to meet, their self-esteem soars dramatically as they find
themselves actually meeting those standards. They can then face more
demanding tasks with confidence.
The precepts are formulated with no
ifs, ands, or buts. This means that they provide very clear guidance.
There’s no room for waffling or less-than-honest rationalizations. An
action either fits in with the precepts or it doesn’t. Anyone who has
raised children has found that while 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--as in the case of mosquitos--that
would place your convenience on a higher level than your compassion for
life. Convenience would become your unspoken standard--and 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 you
are providing unlimited safety for all. In terms of other precepts, you
provide safety for their possessions and their sexuality, and truthfulness
and mindfulness in your communication with them.
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 choose in the present moment. This means
that you are not insignificant. With every choice you make--at home, at
work, at play--you are exercising your power in the ongoing shaping 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.
When you adopt a set of standards, it’s 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, in the words of the Buddha, are "standards appealing to the
noble ones." From what the texts tell us of the noble ones, they aren’t
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 seen
for themselves, for example, that all lying is pathological, and that any
sex outside a stable, committed relationship is spiritually and
emotionally, as well as physically, unsafe. Other people might 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. You can look at the
standards by which you live and breathe comfortably as a full-fledged,
responsible human being. For that’s what you are.
Thanissaro
Bhikkhu was ordained in the Thai forest tradition of Buddhism in 1976 and
is the abbot of Metta Forest Monastery near San Diego, Calif. He is the
translator of numerous Buddhist texts, among them the Dhammapada. His most
recent books include "The Wings to Awakening" and "Noble
Strategy."