Buddhism And 12 Steps: Right Action (Episode 15)

The Noble Eightfold Path's Right Action is the teachings of moral, ethical and compassion intention that the Buddha taught to help limit creating suffering for ourselves and others. Today's lesson includes a special task to help the learner better understand the three overarching principles of the Noble Eightfold Path: Wisdom, Ethical Conduct and Mindfulness.

Transcript

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Spiritual Sobriety.

I'm your host,

Chris McDuffie.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and that your new year is off to a sober,

Spiritual,

And safe start.

A few important notes before we start today's lesson,

Unright Action.

Our beloved Ram Dass died last month at his home in Maui.

Ram Dass's work has had a very powerful impact on my spiritual,

Sober life and I will miss his new teachings very much.

If you are new to Ram Dass and his works,

Please be sure to invest your time into his teachings,

Books,

And the retreats that will continue in his name.

Next,

I have asked the folks at Insight Timer to arrange my podcasts in order on the app and they cannot.

My lessons for now are designed to be linear and progressive.

It's best to listen to them in order.

I have numbered them to better assist your learning.

Lastly,

I'm very excited to announce that in late 2020 this year,

I will begin interviewing leading spiritual teachers,

Scientists,

And scholars from around the world.

I'll announce when these interviews here on Spiritual Sobriety start here on Insight Timer.

And now back to today's lesson on the Noble Eightfold Path's suggestion of Right Action.

As a reminder,

Spiritual Sobriety is a weekly podcast on Insight Timer where I seek to teach how to practice spirituality from both a Buddhist and a 12-step perspective.

We will begin today's lesson with a brief task.

You will need a piece of paper and a pen.

I want to help you generate a visual aid to see the Noble Eightfold Path and its three spiritual objectives clearly.

Again,

The three spiritual objectives are wisdom,

Ethical conduct,

And mindfulness.

On your piece of paper,

Let's begin by drawing three columns with the following three headings.

Wisdom,

Ethical conduct,

And mindfulness.

Again,

The first column should be entitled Wisdom,

The second titled Ethical Conduct,

And the third heading entitled Mindfulness.

Now under the first column entitled Wisdom,

Please write the words Right View and Right Intention.

Under the second heading,

Please write Right Speech,

Right Action,

And Right Livelihood.

Once again,

Right Speech,

Right Action,

And Right Livelihood.

And under the third heading,

Please write the terms Right Effort,

Right Concentration,

And Right Mindfulness.

Here you have an aid to help you better understand how each of the Eightfold Path's suggestions support the three chief aims for cultivating compassion for oneself and others.

For today's lesson on Right Action,

We will look at Buddha's own words as well as the teachings of Zen Buddhist scholar and Soto Zen practitioner Barbara O'Brien.

If you would like to read a breathtaking reading of the history of Zen Buddhism,

I recommend that you read Barbara O'Brien's newest book,

The Circle of the Way,

A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World.

The Buddha himself defines Right Action as,

Quote,

Abstaining from taking life,

Abstaining from stealing,

Abstaining from unchastity,

End quote.

The Buddha again begins his teachings of Right Action by sharing that Right View is again the forerunner to discerning Right from Wrong Action.

You may recall that this is the same manner as the other ethical conduct teachings on Right Speech began.

Similarly,

The Buddha reports that for Right Action,

Quote,

One discerns Wrong Action as Wrong Action and Right Action as Right Action.

This is one's Right View.

And what is Wrong View?

Killing,

Taking what is not given,

Illicit sex,

This is Wrong Action,

End quote.

Let's now take a look at Barbara O'Brien's article entitled Right Action and the Eightfold Path.

She writes,

Quote,

The three spokes of the Dharma wheel teach us to take care in our speech,

Our actions,

And our daily lives,

To do no harm to others,

And to cultivate wholesomeness in ourselves.

She adds,

This means that when we act rightly,

We act without selfish attachment to our own agendas.

We act mindfully without causing discord with our speech.

Our Right Action springs from compassion and from an understanding of the Dharma,

End quote.

You will recall that Buddha used the ox cart wagon wheels,

Eight spokes,

As the symbol of these teachings.

Barbara O'Brien includes in this article,

Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings of Right Action.

You may remember that Thich Nhat Hanh is the Vietnamese Zen teacher and peace activist who was banished from his homeland in Vietnam,

Where he established Plum Village Monastery when he was sent to France.

According to him,

Quote,

The basis of Right Action is to do everything in mindfulness.

He teaches in his five mindfulness trainings of Right Action this way,

Labeling them as respecting life,

Practicing generosity,

Avoiding sexual misconduct,

Using loving speech and deep listening,

And eat with healthy consumption.

Again,

According to Thich Nhat Hanh,

These are five unique versions of Right Action.

Barbara O'Brien does a wonderful job explaining the importance of ensuring that we bring compassion to our Right Actions.

She quotes His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings from his book entitled The Essence of the Heart Sutra.

He writes,

Quote,

According to Buddhism,

Compassion is an aspiration,

A state of mind,

Wanting others to be free from suffering.

It's not passive.

It's not empathy alone,

But rather an empathic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering.

Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and loving kindness.

That is to say,

One must understand the nature of suffering from which we wish to be free.

This is the part about wisdom.

And one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings.

And this is the part of loving kindness.

I love the verbs and call to actions that His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings call for here.

I'll summarize and repeat them for you again.

He uses words like aspiration,

Wanting,

Actively striving,

Understanding,

Deep intimacy,

And empathy.

What wonderful words to summarize the importance of Right Action.

Let's now go back to the chart that you created at the beginning of today's lesson.

I invite you now to compare your chart to the 12 steps of your choice.

Begin by reading each of the 12 step suggestions in reverse order and contemplate for a moment on each step one at a time.

As you do this assignment,

Write the number of the step under the corresponding column of the three columns that you generated for the Noble Eightfold Path.

To be clear,

There is no one right way to complete this task.

The goal here is to have you consider how the 12 steps correspond to Right Wisdom,

Right Ethics,

And Right Mindfulness.

If you are interested in my thoughts after you're done,

I will list them now for you to consider.

Here they are.

Under the heading of Right Action,

I associated the 12 steps of Step 1,

Step 2,

Step 3,

And Step 6.

Under the headings of Right Ethics,

I associated Step 4,

Step 5,

Step 7,

Step 8,

Step 9,

Step 10,

Step 11,

And Step 12.

And finally,

Under the headings of Right Mindfulness,

I associated the 12 steps of Steps 4,

Steps 5,

Steps 8,

Steps 9,

10,

And 11.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson on Right Action.

I look forward to hearing your comments,

And I wish you all a wonderful,

Safe 2020.

Thanks for being a part of Spiritual Sobriety each week.

Reviews

How can i hear the past lessions, i feel as if so mu h is missing

Yahoo..so glad you are doing this. Rest In Peace ram das.

Love his theories and the sound of his voice and will look for the course.

Thank you Chris 😊💕