:: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Written by Ubasaka Colin on 11/13/2007

THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH – SILA (MORALITY)

Beginners at Buddhapadipa Temple in 2004 used to be given an introductory booklet produced by the Buddhist Society, 58, Eccleston Square, London SW1 entitled Introducing Buddhism by Ven. Dr. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya, Mahanayaka Thera Aggamaha Pandita and Jayasili (Jacquetta Gomes) (1). The brief chapter on the Eightfold Path outlines very concisely the basic elements that are at the heart of Buddhism and which, I realize, I am still investigating three years later and which will surely remain the object of my investigations for the rest of my days. The importance of the Eightfold Path is made clear in the question of the Buddha to his monks in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in the Sutta Pitaka:
“What, O Bhikkus is that Middle Path the Tathagata has comprehended, which promotes insight and knowledge, and which tends to peace, higher wisdom, enlightenment and Nibbana? The very Noble Eightfold Path.”
The Pamphlet goes on to outline very simply The Four Noble Truths (Ariya Sacca):

1. The Noble Truth of Suffering Dukkha Ariya Sacca
2. The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering Dukkha Samudaya Ariya Sacca
3. The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering Dukkha Nirodha Ariya Sacca
4. The Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation Dukkha Nirodha Gamini
of Suffering Patipada Ariya Sacca
This is the Noble Eightfold Path Ariya Atthangika Magga

The Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya Attangika Magga) is then outlined and subdivided into the groupings that are the subject of this new series of discussions:

WISDOM PAŇŇA
1. Right View or Understanding Samma Ditthi
2. Right Thoughts or Intentions Samma Samkappa

MORALITY SILA
3. Right Speech Samma Vaca
4. Right Action Samma Kammanta
5. Right Livelihood Samma Ajiva

CONCENTRATION SAMADHI
6. Right Effort Samma Vayama
7. Right Mindfulness Samma Sati
8. Right Concentration Samma Samadhi

The group that we are concerning ourselves with here is the Moral Discipline Group – Silakkhanda.

From my reading of some other commentators, it is clear that this linear presentation of the Eightfold Path is merely a convention and should not be taken to mean that one has to attain each factor in numerical order as one proceeds along the Path. As with many of these lists – and there are many of them in Buddhism – there is an inter-relationship and moving dynamic between the various factors. So, in order for one thing to be present another must be present, but when another factors falls away this falls away and this other factor moves to the fore and so on and so forth.
This said, there is lively debate among commentators about which of the group of factors underpins all the others. Sayadaw U Pandita (2) states in his book In This Very Life (p.217) that the Buddha generally instructed people step by step, beginning with morality, progressing through concentration and the right view of kamma, before he began with insight practice. Ajjahn Chah (3) in the Key to Liberation (p.9) says that: ‘According to the theory, we say that it’s sila, samadhi and then paňňa; but I’ve reflected on this and found that paňňa underlies all the other aspects of the practice. You need to fully understand the effects of your speech and actions on the mind and how it is that they can bring about harmful results. Through reasoned reflection you use paňňa to guide, control and thereby purify your actions and speech. If you know the different characteristics of your actions and speech which are conditioned by both wholesome and unwholesome mental states, you can see the place of practice. You see that if you’re going to cultivate sila, it involves giving up evil and doing good; giving up that which is wrong and doing that which is right.’ Ajjahn Chah points out, however, that ‘ultimately sila, samadhi and paňňa will merge in the practice, as one lasting and unified whole’. So in the end, whichever, route one takes it seems that the end result is the same.
In starting this series of lectures by beginning with Sila we are effectively following the traditional direction of teaching used by the Buddha himself.
What is it then that Morality or Sila comprises of in the Buddhist view of the world?
Our simple pamphlet again usefully outlines each of the factors of Sila with the briefest of descriptions of what they are:-

MORALITY SILA
3) RIGHT SPEECH SAMMA VACA
a) Refraining from false speech
b) Refraining from slanderous speech
c) Refraining from harsh words and abusive language
d) Refraining from idle chatter and frivolous talk

4) RIGHT ACTION SAMMA KAMMANTA
a) Refraining from killing and injuring any living being
b) Refraining from taking anything not freely given
c) Refraining from sexual misconduct and abuse of the senses

5) RIGHT LIVELIHOOD SAMMA AJIVA
a) Dealing in weapons and arms
b) Dealing in human beings (e.g. prostitution and slavery)
c) Dealing in living beings and flesh (e.g. butchery)
d) Dealing in intoxicating drinks
e) Dealing in poison

There is a further note reminding us that lay people should refrain from wrong livelihood by means of immoral physical and verbal actions (e.g. deceit, fortune-telling (soothsaying), treachery, trickery and usury).

In the limited time available to me, I have been able to trace some (but not all) of the scriptural sources that underlie these prescriptives. Thanissaro Bhikku (4) (a monk in the Forest Tradition) in a pamphlet entitled The Four Noble Truths: A Study Guide gives the following:

(Samyutta Nikaya XLV.8)
And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, and from middle chatter. This is called right speech.
And what is right action? Abstaining from taking life, from stealing and from sexual intercourse. This is called right action.
And what is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned dishonest livelihood, keeps his life going with right livelihood. This is called right livelihood (4 p.28)

(Anuguttara Nikaya X.99)
RIGHT ACTION
Having thus gone forth, following the training and way of life of the monks, abandoning the taking of life, he abstains from the taking of life, he abstains from the taking of life. He dwells with his rod laid down, his knife laid down, scrupulous, kind, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking from taking what is not given. He takes only what is given, accepts only what is given, lives not by stealth but by means of a self that has become pure. Abandoning sexual intercourse, he lives a celibate life, aloof, refraining from the sexual act that is the villager’s way.
FALSE SPEECH
Abandoning false speech, he abstains from false speech. He speaks the truth, holds to the truth, is firm, reliable, no deceiver of the world. Abandoning divisive speech he abstains from divisive speech. What he has heard here he does not tell there to break those people apart from the people here. What he has heard there he does not tell here to break those people apart from the people there. Thus reconciling those who have broken apart or cementing those who are united, he loves concord, delights in concord. Abandoning abusive speech, he abstains from abusive speech He speaks words that are soothing to the ear, that are affectionate, that go to the heart, that are polite, appealing and pleasing to people at large. Abandoning idle chatter, he abstains from idle chatter. He speaks in season, speaks what is factual, what is in accordance with the goal, the Dhamma and the discipline. He speaks words worth treasuring, seasonable, seasonable, circumscribed, connected with goal.
(4 p.33)

RIGHT ACTION & RIGHT SPEECH FOR LAY PEOPLE
(Anuguttara Nikaya X.176)
Abandoning sensual misconduct, he abstains from sensual misconduct. He does not get sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments or even those crowned with flowers by another man.
Abandoning false speech, he abstains from false speech. When he has been called to a town meeting, a group meeting, a gathering of his relatives, his guild or of the royalty (i.e .a royal court proceeding), if he is asked as a witness, ‘ Come and tell, good man, what you know’; If he doesn’t know, he says, ‘I don’t know.’ If he does know, he says, ‘I know.’ If he hasn’t seen, he says, ‘I haven’t seen.’ If he has seen, he says, ‘I have seen.’ Thus he doesn’t consciously tell a lie for his own sake, for the sake of another, or for the sake of any reward.’
(4 pp 33-34)

With regard to right livelihood, Access to Insight.com (2005) gives us the following (5), some of which are definitions of what Right Livelihood is not, as well as what it is:

WRONG LIVELIHOOD FOR LAY FOLLOWERS:
(Anuguttara Nikaya 5.177)
A lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison.

WRONG LIVELIHOOD FOR CONTEMPLATIVES
(Digga Nikaya 2 )
….reading marks on the limbs (e.g. palmistry); reading omens and signs; interpreting celestial events (falling stars,comets); interpreting dreams; reading marks on the body (e.g.phrenology); reading marks on cloth gnawed by mice; offering fire oblations, oblations from a ladle, oblations of husks, rice powder, rice grains, ghee and oil; offering oblations from the mouther; offering blood-sacrifices; making predications based on the fingertips; geomancy; laying demons in a cemetery; placing spells on spirits; reciting house-protection charms; snake charming, poison-lore, scorpion-lore, rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore, fortune-telling based on visions; giving protective charms; interpreting the calls of birds and animals ….

A BALANCED LIVELIHOOD
(Anguttara Nikaya 8.54)
Herein, Vyagghapajja, a householder knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income

BEING A SOLDIER
(Samyutta Nikaya 42.3)

When Yodhajiva, the headman, goes to the Buddha to ask if it is true that warriors slain in battle get reborn in the company of devas, the Buddha tries not to respond twice and on the third time says: Apparently, headman, I haven’t been able to get past you by saying, ‘Enough headman, put that aside. Don’t ask me that.’ So I will simply answer you. When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, his mind is already seized, debased and misdirected by the thought: ‘May these beings be struck down or slaughtered or annihilated or destroyed. May they not exist.’ If others then strike him down and slay him while he is thus striving and exerting himself in battle, then with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the hell called the realm of those slain in battle. But if he holds such a view as this: ‘When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others then strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle, then with breakup of the body, after death, is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle,’ that is his wrong view. Now, there are two destinations for a person with wrong view, I tell you: either hell or the animal womb.’ When this was said, Yodhajiva the headman sobbed and burst into tears.’

BEING AN ACTOR
(Samyutta Nikaya 42.2)

Similarly to the story of Yodhajiva the Headman, when Talaputa, the head of an acting troupe, goes to the Buddha and asks whether actors, who makes people laugh and who give delight with their imitation of reality, are reborn in the company of the laughing devas is responded to on the third time of asking with: .. I will simply answer you. Any beings who are not devoid of passion to begin with, who are bond by the bond of passion, focus with even more passion on things inspiring passion presented by an actor on stage in the midst of a festival. Any beings who are not devoid of aversion to begin with, who are bound by the bond of aversion, focus with even more aversion on things inspiring aversion presented by an actor on stage in the midst of a festival. Any beings who are not devoid of delusion, focus with even more delusion on things inspiring delusion presented by an actor on stage in the midst of a festival. Tus the actor – himself intoxicated and heedless – with the breakup of the body, after death, is reborn in what is called the hell of laughter. …there are two destinations for a person with wrong view.. either hell or the animal womb. When this was said, Talaputa, the head of the acting troupe, sobbed and burst into tears.

Venerable Ajahn Sumedho (5) points out in his book entitled The Four Noble Truths (p.60) that the monastic order was established by the Buddha so that men and women could live an impeccable life which is completely blameless. He points out that as a Bhikku living under the Patimokkha discipline of 227 precepts for the past 25 years he has not committed any heavy karmic actions. When you live under the Vinaya, even if your actions and speech are heedless, at least they don’t leave strong impressions. You can’t have money so you cannot go anywhere until you are invited. You are celibate. Since you live on alms food you are not killing any animals. You don’t even pick flowers or leaves or do any kind of action that would disturb the natural flow in any way; you’re completely harmless. In Ajahn Sumedho’s experience, for a monastic, the most difficult factor to change is speech. Speech habits are the most difficult thing to break and let go of, although speech can also be improved. By reflection and contemplation, one begins to see the unpleasantness of saying foolish things or just babbling or chatting away for no good reason. For lay people, however, Right Livelihood is something that is developed as we come to know our intentions for what we do.

How is it, then, that we, as lay people, can develop Right Speech? Thanissaro Bhikku in a short paper on the subject (7) tells that once his teacher said to him, ‘If you can’t control your mouth, there’s no way you can hope to control your mind.’ This is a good admonition that we should all heed.
Right speech means avoiding the four types of harmful speech I have already outlined: lies (words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth), divisive speech (words spoken with the intent of creating rifts between people), harsh speech (words spoken with the intent of hurting another person’s feelings); and idle chatter (words spoken with no purposeful intent at all). Phra Thanissaro brings our attention to the fact that the most important factor here is on intent. This is where the practice of right speech intersects with the training of the mind. If you see any unskilful motives lurking behind a group’s or committee’s decisions, you veto them. As a result, you become more aware of yourself, more honest with yourself, more firm with yourself. You also save yourself saying things that you may later regret. In this way you strengthen qualities of mind that will be helpful in meditation, at the same time avoiding any painful memories that would get in the way of being attentive to the present moment in one’s mediation. Phra Thanissaro explains that in positive terms, right speech means speaking in ways that are trustworthy, harmonious, comforting and worth taking to heart. When you make a practice of these positive forms of right speech, your words become a gift to others. In response, others will start listening more to what you say, and will be more likely to respond in the same way. This will give you a sense of the power of your actions: the way you act in the present moment does shape the world of your experience. You don’t need to be a victim of past events.
Phra Thanissaro points out that in the west, for us westerners the most difficult aspect of practising right speech is the way that we express humour. We are all used to get getting laughs through using exaggeration, sarcasm, group stereotypes as well as pure silliness. All of these are classic examples of wrong speech. If people get used to these sorts of careless humour, they stop listening carefully to what we have to say. In this way, we cheapen our own discourse. What is required is thought and effort into expressing our humour in ways that are truthful and wise.

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