Thoughts On The Dhamma – Ethics 

5. Ethics 

The Light of Dhamma

Virtue, concentration, and wisdom (sila, samadhi, pañña) can lead one to the Path. Yet some assert that it is not necessary to observe the rules of morality if they are convinced of the teachings. It is often put forward by such protagonists that they have invented simplified or easy methods for their followers. How strange! It cannot be denied that, in Buddha’s times, there were instances of intelligent and mature individuals who at once saw the light of Dhamma the moment they heard the Buddha’s sermons. Of course geniuses exist like the ugghatitaññu who can at once grasp the meaning of the Four Noble Truths after a brief exposition, or the vipañcitaññu who can realize the Truth after a wider exposition. In Buddha’s times such individuals gained the light of knowledge while listening to the Buddha’s teachings without appreciable endeavor. But when it comes to an ordinary neyya individual who has to be guided for the gradual realization of Truth, even the Buddha may not be able to let him see the light of Dhamma all at once. So, the following verse of the canonical Dhammapada, stanza 276, as taught by Buddha, should serve one as a reminder. In an expanded paraphrase:

You should strive for the annihilation of all potentials of defilements. Tathagatas can only show you the way. You yourself must practice meditation on the objects for samatha (concentration) and Vipassana (meditation). Only then will you be liberated from the bonds of defilements that destroy what is wholesome and moral.

— Discourse on To Nibbana via the Noble Eightfold Path —

Keeping The Precepts

Noble Ones who have attained the first stage of sainthood, the ariyas, adore the five precepts. They do not want to break them; they are always anxious not to break the sila. They observe the precepts not because they are afraid that others would censure them, but because they want to keep their minds in purity, and purity of the mind can be achieved only by observance of the five precepts. Not only during this life, but in all future existences they do not want to fail in keeping the precepts. They may not know that they have become stream-enterers (sotapanna) in their previous existence, but they do know that they must observe the five precepts fully and with no default.

Sometimes one comes across a person who has never since his infancy done any evil deed such as killing or stealing. He was not given any particular instructions by his parents, but he knows by himself what is an evil deed and refrains from it. He has kept his virtue pure since his childhood. Maybe he had achieved a special insight of the Dhamma in his previous existence. There are also instances of persons who, though born of non-Buddhist parents have come to the East to practice meditation. Maybe such persons have had some practice of observance of the Buddha’s Dhamma in their previous existences. These are interesting instances, and their cases must be evaluated in accord with the extent and depth of their study and practice of the Dhamma.

— Discourse on the Hemavata Sutta —

On Kindness and Charity

All human behavior resulting from the practice, in deed, in word, and in thought, of loving-kindness shall be rendered memorable throughout one’s life.

Where love, compassion, and respect pervade human society, there shall one find enduring unity.

Acts of charity inspired by loving-kindness live long in human memory, generating love and respect among mankind, thus laying foundations for the unity of the whole world.

— Discourse on To Nibbana via the Noble Eightfold Path

Ill-will

Ill-will (vyapada) is one of the five hindrances on the holy path. It is like a disease that creates a distaste for good food and makes the sick man listless and apathetic. Ill-will makes us irritable, bad-tempered and suspicious. We do not trust even our friend who is on good terms with the man we dislike. A man who has ill-will should regard himself as suffering from a disease. Unless it is treated promptly, it may gain ground and lead to death. Likewise, the effect of unrestrained ill-will may be disastrous, as is evident in the newspaper reports of violent crimes.

— Discourse on the Ariyavasa Sutta —

Killing in Self-defense

Once, a writer said in one of the journals that a stream-enterer (sotapanna) will not kill others, but if anyone comes to kill him, he will kill his attacker. That writer declared that he made that statement after a research of the nature of the human mind.

That is ridiculous. I just wonder whose mind he had made a research of, and how he could do that. He must have made a research of his own mind. He might have thought he was a sotapanna. He might have asked himself if he would allow the attacker to kill him when he had an effective weapon to return the attack by way of defense, and it might have been his own answer that he would attack the attacker first. From his personal attitude he obtained the conclusions which he expressed in his article. According to the tenets of Buddhism, this is a ridiculous statement.

The very fact that one thinks one can and should retaliate if attacked proves that one is not a stream-enterer, for according to Buddhist tenets, the person entertaining such a notion is a mere puthujjana, an ordinary worldling, definitely not a stream-enterer. A real sotapanna would not kill even a flea or a bug, not to say a human being. This fact must be remembered once and for all.

— Discourse on the Hemavata Sutta —

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