Dhamma Talks - The Protection Of Sīla :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Written by Anagarika Abhipañño on 10/01/2004

As far back as one can look in history, the idea of spiritual protection has played an overwhelmingly significant role in religion. All over the world, people put their trust in deities and amulets, symbols of their particular religious faith and special prayers and mantras. If one were to add up all the many different methods from every region, religion and culture on earth as to how to appease the many different gods or the forces of the universe, or how to avoid trouble and suffering by keeping away evil spirits and demons, the numbers would run well into the billions. Having said that, if there are so many ways to protect ourselves through the use of external objects and religious paraphernalia, how is it that we still suffer to such a massive extent?

The truth is that, and here’s the interesting thing, we all create our own suffering and hardship, for both ourselves and others, through misunderstanding or ignorance, which in the Pali language we call avijja. So many of us are running around, much like the proverbial ‘headless chicken’, without seriously paying any heed at all to what we do and how we do it.

The Buddha’s teachings, although seemingly very complex, are actually fairly straightforward. They are threefold:

Sabbapāpassa akaranam, Cease all evil,
Kusalassa upasampadā, Do only good,
Sacittapariyodapanam. Purify the mind.

That’s it. There are scriptures, books, commentaries, and even commentaries on the commentaries, but they all point to essentially the ceasing of evil, the development of good conduct and the purification of the mind, to thus attain emancipation from suffering.

Sīla is the Pali word for morality. It is one of the three supreme virtues we need to develop for it to be possible for us to attain supreme happiness, paramam sukkham. The other two corners of this triangle are samadhi, concentration, and paññā, wisdom. However, the fundamental base for all practice is sīla. There is an expression, ‘we all have to start somewhere’, so why bother to start building the citadel of practice within us without first creating a solid, unshakeable foundation. Without the foundation of sīla, everything will come tumbling down. Of course, the Buddha knew that we have to start from the beginning, so he set ‘ceasing from evil’ on the first rung of the ladder, and ‘doing only good’ on the second. How can one really start doing only good, if one is still intent on doing evil? ‘Evil’ has a fairly harsh connotation in the English language, but really we can look upon it as meaning ‘unskilfulness’. So that is the first step to sainthood, abandonment of unskilful action or akusalakamma.

Evil and unskilful action will create unskilful consequences. That’s just the way it is. Blame it on demons and devils; blame it on bad luck or the lack of adequate amulets if you choose. However, know that karmic law and understand it and then you will have acquired the most potent talisman of all.

The Buddhist precepts, laid down by the Buddha of our present age, are simply guidelines to achieving this perfection of sīla. The guidelines are there for us to use for our own benefit, and of course for the benefit of other beings too. There are different levels of sīla according to particular lifestyles but they are all based on the basic 5 precepts, we all know and love.

Although these are fairly simply put, the practitioner may choose to develop sīla to a greater degree by refining the precepts down further, for instance, keeping the precepts not just in bodily action but also in speech and in thought. Although we take the first precept as refraining from killing, we could perhaps refine it down to become, refraining from harming any living creature in any way. Many of the precepts of the BhikkhuPatimokkha or the 227 monk’s rules are simply refinements of the 5 precepts.

The precepts are truly protection in the most basic sense of the word, and are protection against that most dangerous obstacle to our own potential happiness … ourselves. They will steer us away from unskilful action, which would otherwise eventually come round and kick us in the back. They are protection from our own unskilful kamma, as they stop us doing it in the first place. However, it is not just us that they protect, for if we stop doing unskilful action, then others who interact with us will be safe from our ‘unskilfulness’ too. The Buddha teaches us to be our own refuge,

Attā hi attano nātho One is truly one’s protector

What better refuge is there to have, than in the purity of one’s own conduct?

Keeping the precepts and developing sīla is something that requires a certain degree of sati or mindfulness. To develop the firm foundation we need, we must try to be aware of our actions, know the consequences of doing bad and good, and not act on impulse and desire. Most of the unskilful action one does comes from following moods and not observing. Letting anger consume us, we may go and do something we really regret later on. The way to get past that is to watch the anger arise, know that it is subject to anicca or impermanence, and now that it is anatta or non-self. Then watch the anger dissipate, just as with a wave which seems to rise out of the ocean from nothing and then slide back down again. Learning to sit on the bank of the river of consciousness flowing through our minds and to observe those things which float on by is the method to overcome ‘unskilfulness’. If we sit on the bank, looking into the flowing torrent, observing the desire floating past, or the anger, or the hatred, then watch it as it disappears, we are not subject to it in any way. However, for those who are not on the bank, but who are instead tossing and turning in the turbulent waters of the river itself, being pushed over and under by the currents of the defilements, they give themselves no chance to find peace

The great protection of sīla is there for us all, but it comes through patient observation and diligent practice. Those who develop it are standing on the first rung of the ladder to emancipation. As with all dhamma, and as the Buddha himself advised, please do not take what is written here without investigating it for yourself. Practice and learn from the practice, in that way one can develop wisdom within oneself. Pay heed to your actions, and to what wisdom decrees, and peace will soon develop.

Appamādena Maghavā By heedfulness did Indra

Devānam setthatam gato; become overlord of the gods.

Appamādam pasamsanti Heedfulness is ever praised,

Pamādo garahito sadā. And heedlessness ever despised.

Evam.

< Go back to all Dhamma Talks