Autogenerated Transcript (may not be accurate)

So that practice [referring to meditation on seeing the mind as like the sky and thoughts as like clouds] we’ve done a few times during these sessions. It’s not the easiest practice, belongs to the Mahamudra tradition, but it is a very worthwhile practice to learn and try, because it’s learning to be still in the midst of the motions of your mind. It’s learning to not be carried away by the thoughts and stories in the mind, which is a very useful skill to have, because as we know, we have monkey mind. We have a mind that can be very busy, that can torment us, that can take us to all sorts of places, and a mind that often is not always telling us the truth. It can be adventitiously defiled, it can be under the influence of delusion, it can be thinking along the lines of aversion or attachment, trying to exaggerate stories and so on.

So if we can learn to remain relatively still in the midst of all of that, then that’s how we start to exercise power and control and decide, actually, no, I’m not following after that thought because I know where that’s going. I’m going to instead follow after this one. So whether you found it difficult or easy, it is a practice I would encourage you to try and get familiar with because it’s how we start to unlock the ability to work with our minds and our thoughts.

So then the talk – to be quite brief then – for this week as we’re going through these Six Paramitas, this week it is morality, ethics, the second paramita, the six paramitas, the six transcendent perfections, if you missed the first one. And so this one is about avoiding harm very simply, it’s about refraining from any behaviour which is destructive, which is harmful.

And so as I mentioned [before the meditation], they are not commandments from a higher being. There’s nobody watching over you and sort of enacting punishment for what you do. It’s not like there’s anybody else that you really need to answer to other than yourself because ethical discipline is for your sake, for your well-being and the well-being of those around you.

And it’s very simply, it’s just realising what are the effects of engaging in harmful behaviour? What are the effects of engaging in destructive behaviour? And if we ponder that, if we contemplate that, they’re not good, they’re not good for us, they’re not good for the people that were harming, and they’re not good for us because they they spoil our mind.

But, they they harm our practice as well. My teacher, Lama Alan Wallace, one of the ways he describes it in one of his books is it about being protection for your practice. And the analogy he gives is that, our practice right now, our meditation practice, our spiritual practice, whatever it is, is quite vulnerable. It’s quite small. We’re looking after it, we’re cultivating it, but it’s quite new isn’t it? And, things can come in and bombard it. And so we need to protect it. And so he describes it as like putting a fence around a little seedling, something that’s just started to sprout, just started to grow. It’s very precious right now.

Maybe it can’t do much, but one day it will grow into a big oak tree and it will be able to do a lot. And so it’s about putting a fence around your practice because when it’s very small, even a rabbit could come along and decapitate that little seedling, couldn’t it? And so there needs to be a little fence to protect it.

And, as our practice continues to grow, it may be that the fence gets bigger, ethical discipline gets even stronger, but then eventually it becomes an oak tree and it provides protection for other people and it doesn’t need protecting anymore. 

So how does it protect our practice? Well, the idea is that if you spend 10 minutes on the cushion, very serene, you do your meditation practice, or you do loving kindness and, you have ‘love for all beings’ and you do all that – wonderful! But then you get off the cushion and – you may have heard my cat meowing during the meditation – and the cat was being annoying during the practice. And so you shout at the cat and then you get off in traffic and then you scream at people and you get upset at work – and what you’re doing is you are decapitating your little sapling.

You’re just destroying your practice with overwhelming negativity. So the idea of it protecting our practice is that you’re trying to cultivate peace, love, patience, and all of these minds. And so we need to have a way of life that is conducive to that. So how are we behaving off the cushion? Are we hoping to get peace and love when we’re acting with anger and hate and just harming everybody that we come into contact with? So that’s the first point: that it protects our practice. 

It helps us to avoid problems, for the same reason. Many problems arise from acting, speaking and thinking harmfully, saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, acting out of jealousy, acting out of anger. We cause a lot of issues by doing that. And so by acting always with non non-harmful attitude or always trying to make sure that at the very least, I’m not harming anybody, and generosity. Remember, the first Paramita is, is benevolence – acting good. So ideally these two go hand in hand, but at the very start, ideally I’m not harming anyone.

And if that is your way of being, that creates a basis of trust with others. And that’s the foundation of friendship. It’s the foundation of relationships, strong relationships ,with controlling our mind and controlling our behaviour. At least at first, actions of speech and actions of body. We will bring greater peace and greater mental balance because it’s training ourselves to overcome that compulsive negative behaviour.

It’s self-control. And so it leads to a calmer, more stable state of mind. It feels good as well. It’s one of the doorways to genuine well-being, when you know that your presence in the world isn’t harmful, that you are doing your best to help other beings, to, to act with benevolence, but at least not harm. 

There’s a sense of well-being and a sense of comfort and fulfillment that comes from that of knowing my presence is good, at least I’m not harming anybody. If you are going through the world, and you scream at the cat, you shout in traffic, it leaves a bit of ill feeling in your mind of ‘I know that wasn’t the best thing to do’ and ‘I could have done better there.’ And so it leaves this ill feeling in your mind all the time. But if you know, ‘I’m at least I’m not harming’, there’s a sense of well-being that comes with that. 

And then, I mean, more importantly, but what’s been covered already is that it prevents us from hurting others.

The more that we have that control over our mind, we’re not going to be harming other people. And that’s what’s important as well, is that that our presence is good. And so, as I mentioned, ideally all of these six paramitas, they complement each other. You practice all six of these and you’re moving along the bodhisattvas path to enlightenment.

And so they go together. And so we see the ones that we’ve done already generosity, i.e. offering goodness, having a positive presence, benevolence, giving, and then this, avoiding harm and nonviolence. These two go very, very well together, knowing that, you know, your place in the world is one that is good.

So I hope that’s clear, and that although there are guidelines from the Buddha, there’s guidelines in the in the traditions and in the scriptures of what behaviours to avoid, because there are very obvious ones like killing, like torturing, like deceiving other people. So there are very obvious ones. But really, what determines if this behaviour is ethical or not is based on is based on whether what the harm is: is it going to harm us? Is it going to harm others? And so it’s something very much that we need to be aware of. It’s not something that somebody else imposes on you, but it’s it’s our self and our intentions, but primarily its outcome, you know, does it actually harm others and ourselves, in the short term and the long term?

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