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• Sitting Meditition - 20-30 minutes

 
• Welcome and Introductions

 
• There are three components of The Noble Eightfold Path: Virtue (Skillful Speech, Skillful Action & Skillful Livelihood), Concentration (Skillful Effort, Skillful Mindfulness & Skillful Concentration) & Wisdom (Skillful Understanding & Skillful Thinking).

 
• We began with Skillful Understanding - a conceptual understanding of The Law of Cause and Effect and The Four Noble Truths.
• Then we explored Skillful Thinking.
• With Skillful Understanding and Skillful Thinking as our foundation be began to look at Skillful Speech.
• We will conclude Skillful Speech today, and then conclude our focus on Virtue with Skillful Action and Skillful Livelihood.
• Next week, we will begin to explore the third section of the Path, Concentration, as we experience Skillful Effort, Skillful Mindfulness & Skillful Concentration.
• Finally, we will return to the Wisdom section of the Path as we contemplate the non-conceptual understanding of The Four Noble Truths.

 
• Review of Skillful Thinking

 
• Importance of Intention
• Each action (i.e., speech and deed) is preceded by a thought
• Each unskillful thought is rooted in greed, hatred and delusion
• Each skillful thought is rooted in non-greed (generosity), non-hatred (loving-friendliness and compassion) and wisdom
• We have experienced through Skillful Understanding and the Law of Cause and Effect,
• thoughts rooted in greed, hatred and delusion lead to disharmony and suffering
• thoughts rooted in generosity, loving-friendliness, compassion and wisdom lead to harmony and peace
• As the mind begins to understand suffering and its cause (craving), it begins to lose interest in its attachment to sensual stimuli, rests in each moment with equanimity, and responds appropriately to each moment as wisdom naturally arises.

 
• Skillful Thinking is Intentions of:
• Generosity - Letting Go (Renunciation): Material, People, Experiences and Beliefs
• Loving-Friendliness or Metta (Goodwill): wishing for the happiness and welfare of others
• Compassion (Harmlessness) - understanding the suffering of others and wishing them to be free from suffering

 
• Review of Skillful Speech

 
• Abstaining from false speech - intention to deceive
• Abstaining from malicious speech - intention to incite discord in relationships
• Abstaining from harsh speech - uttered in anger, intended to cause the hearer pain: abusive speech, insult, sarcasm
• Abstaining from idle chatter - pointless talk, speech that lacks purpose or depth

 
• Sharing of Experiences (have class help me illustrate Skillful Speech in their own experiences).

 
• Keeping Skillful Thinking in mind, let us now consider Skillful Action. The Buddha divides Skillful Action into three components - abstaining from the taking of life, taking what is not given, and sexual misconduct.

 
• Not Killing

 
• Why do we kill?
• The inclination to kill generally arises out of hatred or fear - which, in turn, arise out of a perception of separation and isolation (a separate self that is in pain), which is due to unwise attention to one's experiences.
• When we kill living beings, even insects, we diminish our respect for all life -- and thus for ourselves
• When we abstain from killing, our respect for life grows and we begin to act with compassion towards all living beings.
• Mindfulness (wise attention) helps us recognize our own aversions and to take responsibility for them
• Reverence for All Life
• Practice of protecting all lives
• Not only with the body, but also with speech and thought.
• Read from Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Five Wonderful Precepts", First Precept.
• Examples from the class

 
• Not Stealing

 
• An expression of greed or envy
• One must make an effort to be honest and respect the property of others
• It means pointing out the error to the clerk who has given you too much change; or re-depositing the coin found in the pay phone or soda machine.
• It goes beyond direct stealing
• Fraudulence - gaining possession of another's belongings by falsely claiming them as one's own
• Deceitfulness - using false weights or information to cheat customers
• Taking credit for someone else's idea
• Taking small items from the office - paper, pens, notebooks -- making personal copies
• Read from Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Five Wonderful Precepts", Second Precept.
• Examples from the class

 
• Not Engaging in Sexual Misconduct
• A particularly damaging form of sensual abuse.
• It includes rape and manipulating someone to have sex against their wishes. Also, sex with minors, animals, someone else's spouse or partner, or someone protected by parents or guardians.
• Having sex with an appropriate and consenting adult partner is not considered misconduct, but be aware of whether sensual gratification or loving-kindness in a committed, long-term relationship is the controlling intention (Have the class help me distinguish the intentions and their roots)
• Read from Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Five Wonderful Precepts", Third Precept.
• Examples from the class

 
• Not Using Intoxicants (not literally part of Skillful Action, but included in the Five Precepts for Laypersons since it leads to infractions of the other precepts)
• In this precept, the Buddha used conditional wording: not to avoid all intoxicants, but only those that cause "negligence, infatuation, and heedlessness". For example, pain-killing drugs prescribed by a doctor does not violate the prohibition.
• While light use of alcohol may be technically allowed, it is not advisable. One drink leads to another. And even one drink can cause heedlessness.
• Read from Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Five Wonderful Precepts", Fifth Precept.
• Examples from the class

 
• Higher Precepts for Laypersons (retreats or special occasions) - the Five Precepts plus:
• Not eating after midday
• Not dancing, singing, indulging in music, or watching shows, and not using perfumes, cosmetics, or adornments
• Not using luxurious beds or seats

 
• The Buddha said, "All wholesome words, deed, and thoughts have mindfulness as their root." In other words, Skillful Action grows naturally out of mindfulness.

 
• Still Keeping Skillful Thinking in mind (generosity, loving-friendliness, and non-harming), let us now consider Skillful Livelihood

 
• One's wealth should be gained in accordance with certain standards
• only by legal means, not illegally
• peacefully, without coercion or violence
• honestly, not by trickery or deceit
• in ways that do not involve harm and suffering to others

 
• The Buddha described five specific kinds of livelihood that bring harm to others, and should be avoided:
• Weapons
• Living beings - animals for slaughter or slaves or prostitution
• Meat production and butchery
• Poisons
• Intoxicants

 
• The Buddha also names several dishonest means of gaining wealth:
• Deceit
• Treachery
• Soothsaying
• Trickery
• Usury

 
• Questions for Assessing Skillful Livelihood
• Is my job an inherently wrong occupation - i.e., does it cause harm by definition - as listed above?
• Does my job lead me to break the five moral precepts

(not killing, not stealing, avoiding sexual misconduct, not lying, and not using intoxicants)?
• Are there other aspects to my job that disturb me and keep my mind from settling down? (e.g., dishonest co-workers, unreasonable profit pressure "at all costs", rude clients, products with harmful impact on the environment)

 
• Summary of Sila (Virtue): Skillful Speech, Skillful Action, and Skillful Livelihood.

 
• It leads to harmony on several levels:
• Social - help establish harmonious inter-personal relationships
• Psychological - brings harmony to the mind, protection from inner anxiety caused by guilt and remorse over moral transgressions
• Kammic - through the Law of Cause and Effect, wholesome actions will result in favorable, harmonic results that will be conducive to awakening
• Contemplative - helps establish the preliminary purification of the mind to be completed through serenity and insight practice

 
• Asked for the training in brief, the Buddha replied:


"First establish yourself in the starting point of wholesome states, that is, in purified moral discipline and in right view. Then, when your moral discipline is purified and your view straight, you should practice the four foundations of mindfulness." (SN 47:3)
 

• Assignment for next week:
• Homework Schedule (Review Exercises)
• Read Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness - Step 4: Skillful Action and Step 5: Skillful Livelihood

 
• Closing Meditation - Taking Refuge in the Triple Gem:


I take refuge in the Buddha,
The one who shows me the way in this life.

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I take refuge in the Dharma,
the way of understanding and love.

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I take refuge in the Sangha,
the community that lives in harmony and awareness.

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