Examining the Precepts, Part 1: Affirm Life, Act Generously, Be Loving

The Precepts are guiding principles that serve to direct our behavior and reorient our thinking so that we can realize our potential to Wake Up! Once we see through to our true nature we can use these as barometers to guage that we are still awake. Remember: each of us is capable of living a life of true freedom and joy beyond comprehension. Nirvana is right here!

This is the first episode in a four part series examining the 11 precepts as taught in Hollow Bones Rinzai Zen. Affirm Life, Act Generously, Be Loving.

Transcript

In this episode we will begin looking at the 11 precepts of the hollow bones Zen order.

These precepts act as both a guidepost and a barometer in our journey in this practice.

In each episode we are going to look at about three of these precepts at a time and kind of dig into them a little bit more deeply.

But as with all of the teachings it is very important that we each sit on them,

We contemplate them,

And we examine them ourselves to understand fully what they mean.

Before we get into the first three precepts,

Which we'll cover in today's episode,

I wanted to quickly go through the concept of karma.

So karma means actions,

And it indicates the cause and effect relationship of our actions in this world,

And how they interdependently co-relate with all other actions.

So a quick summary of this moment could be said that it is a moment full of karma,

And this means that this moment is the sum of all the causes that have ever happened in the entire universe.

So for all of the actions that have ever happened,

They have led to effects.

All of those effects have been causes that have led to more effects,

And everything relates.

Whether we can see it or not,

Everything relates.

This means that this moment is also the effect of all of the futures,

Right?

So it is a simultaneously arising of all of the cause of the future and the effects of the past.

So when you grasp that deeply,

You start to realize a sense of urgency in our behavior,

And also a great sense of freedom,

Right?

One it gives us clarity to look into this moment and see,

Okay,

This is how we got here.

And two,

It gives us the clarity,

Or the urgency rather,

To act now in a way that positively shapes the future.

And so that's where these precepts come in.

These precepts kind of show us the right types of causes to lay so that we can have the effects in the future that will be good for us and for the world around us.

One last thing before we get into these precepts though is to understand that cause and effect are not separate.

As human beings,

It's very easy to look at an event and label it as either a cause or an effect.

Instead,

Though,

We must understand that everything is both a cause and effect.

For example,

If I am holding an apple in the kitchen and I drop the apple,

Well,

That is a cause of it eventually hitting the ground or the counter or falling and being bruised.

Maybe I'm really unfortunate and I drop it on top of my daughter's head and now she's got a big bump,

Right?

So dropping it is going to be the cause of other actions.

So this is how this moment establishes a cause for the future.

The dropping of the apple is also an effect of things that happened before it.

So why did I drop the apple?

There's always a why I dropped the apple.

It could be anything from as simple as it was slippery because I just washed it.

It could be because I bumped my hand on the counter as I was bending down to give it to my daughter.

It could be anything,

But there's going to be a cause for dropping the apple.

So this action of dropping an apple holds both cause and effect at the same time.

And that's the same with all of our actions in this present moment.

And so with that clarity we must understand that in each moment we must act in a way that is consistent with our values.

We have personal responsibility to see the causes and effects that are going to take place because of our actions.

And we can also take a look and see how our karma,

How our actions and the actions of those around us have affected the world in a way that we are in the current situation in which we are.

And this ties into part of the Bodhisattva's vow which says before we react we will consider deeply all of our personal and collective karma which brought these conditions and circumstances upon ourselves.

So we want this clarity,

This clarity of meditative awareness to see through to the entire chain of cause and effect,

At least as far as our limited perception can perceive it.

But we want to see through this chain of cause and effect so that we can understand how we are where we are and how we need to get where we want to be.

And so we have these actions.

And these actions can be guided by these precepts.

So the first three precepts of the hollow bones Zen order are to affirm life,

Act generously,

And be loving.

Now to affirm life means that I will respect all sentient and insentient beings and always act with compassion towards them.

In order to live it is necessary for me to take life and I do so with reverence for the life taken and gratitude I do not take my own life for granted.

Fairly clear cut but it's a little bit more comprehensive than simply not hurting other people.

So it also means respect.

I respect all sentient and insentient beings and always act with compassion towards them.

So we have respect and compassion which is a step beyond do no harm.

It is also do good.

And so we look at the world around us and we identify all of our sentient and insentient beings which is fancy talk.

What sentient means is that it is a being that has a nervous system.

This is all of your animals and things that we normally identify as beings that we need to have respect and compassion for.

Insentient beings is a much broader category and this includes things like plants and bacteria and yeasts and you know all that kind of stuff.

I actually personally take it further than that and mean all physical matter.

So to me when I say I respect all sentient and insentient beings it also means that I respect all of my stuff,

Cars,

Phones,

Books,

Papers,

Desk.

And to me it's a deeper practice and it's something that keeps me more engaged to view all of the world,

All matter,

As interconnected.

So just because these items have sentience or these items are identifiable as plants that grow and live and move towards the sun and reproduce,

That doesn't mean that they're made up of matter any differently than any other items such as my desk or my cell phone or any of these other things.

And that realization allows us to live very mindfully because everything is a miracle.

And it might sound a little bit out there but science tells us that this is true.

All matter is made up of these fundamental forces which combine particles into atoms,

Into molecules,

Into matter.

Some matter happens to be lucky enough to have sentient light sentience like humans and animals.

Some matter is alive and insentient like plants.

Some matter is neither or at least not in any way that we can identify like rocks and stuff like that.

Anyway,

This is just something that we do.

We affirm life and to affirm life we have to treat it with respect and also compassion.

And compassion is a tricky word.

It's a deep type of altruistic love.

It means to suffer with others.

Come means with and passion means suffering.

So when we have respect and compassion for all sentient and insentient beings it means that we take care of them.

We take care of them like they are our family.

And that's how we want to interrelate with the world.

Now in that we also recognize that it is necessary for us to be destructive.

Our existence cannot continue without a certain level of destruction and the taking of life.

But when we have to do that we do so with reverence,

With complete clarity that this is what we are doing.

We're going to be looking at this relationship to other sentient and insentient beings.

We're going to determine is this necessary?

Is this a necessary type of destruction?

Am I doing so in a way that harms the least number of beings possible?

Okay,

Great.

Well now I can say that even though I am killing or destroying I am also affirming life.

So in gratitude for this great miracle of life that we have we also do not take our own life for granted.

It's important that we look at ourselves and our situations very clearly and understand how blessed we are.

Now even when it doesn't seem we are there are times in life for all of us where it just seems like everything is going terribly and we recognize that.

But it's important to remember that that's not really true.

If we look deeply just the fact of being alive and existing and having the ability to experience these moments is incredibly powerful and incredibly wonderful.

So life is always,

Like I usually say this,

Life is always amazing.

That doesn't mean that it's always pleasant.

So anyway,

We affirm life.

Precept one,

Affirm life.

I respect all sentient and insentient beings and always act with compassion towards them.

In order to live it is necessary for me to take life.

I do so with reverence for the life taken.

In gratitude I do not take my own life for granted.

Precept number two is to act generously.

I act with generosity and open-handedness.

I receive only things that are freely given to me.

I remember that clinging and attachment are the root of suffering.

There's a little bit in there that we need to look into.

First is generosity and open-handedness.

This is not just freedom with money,

Freedom with food,

It's also freedom of ourselves.

So when I give myself generously and I give myself with open-handedness,

It means that I am truly looking out for my fellow beings.

I understand that they have needs too and my life needs to be a balance of meeting others' needs and my own.

So what I can do for other people to help them live a happy life is something that is important to me and it is something that I can then know is sharing the love and compassion for others.

It also means acting generously also means that we receive only things that are freely given to me and that is a very broad category.

Again,

It's easy to think of it in terms of things,

But it can also mean the time that we take from other people.

It can mean the emotions that we take from other people.

It can mean all sorts of things.

This is why we have to sit with it.

We have to sit and contemplate these items so that we can understand what it means to us in our lives.

But for me it's everything in a relationship with other human beings as well as the relationship between possessions.

And then the final part is,

I remember that clinging and attachment are the root of suffering.

This is a,

This one sentence has been the topic of countless Dharma talks throughout all of history.

We're not going to dig into it quite that far,

But basically what it says is that when we see separation between self and other,

We want to hang on to things.

When we see things as permanent,

Independently existing entities,

We want to possess them.

And that clinging and attachment of possession generally creates a bunch of problems.

And so through generosity and through freely giving and through open handed giving and through compassionate giving,

We can kind of break loose some of that attachment and clinging and through doing so relieve ourselves from some of the suffering that comes through that separation.

We're going to leave that there for a minute and come back to it again in another topic and another post.

So keep an eye out in the future for posts that relate to attachment,

But you can also see the other post,

The other episode that was titled A Look at Non-Attachment for a more in depth discussion on that topic.

The third precept and the final precept that we'll be covering today is to be loving.

In this one we're saying,

I am conscious and loving in all of my relationships.

In sexuality,

I discern the difference between love and lust and do not take advantage of other human beings.

I transform the arising of lust into true loving.

So in this one we are really looking at our intimate relationships,

Specifically romantic relationships.

We want to make sure that the way that we treat others in our intimacy is not selfish,

It is not lustful,

It is not born of base desires.

We want to rise above that and we want to see the difference.

So in sexuality I discern the difference between love and lust.

So clearly see,

Is this love or is this lust?

Is this an animalistic desire or is this a higher emotional desire?

And in that discernment we clearly see whether or not we're taking advantage of other human beings.

And as we can probably understand,

Taking advantage of other human beings isn't showing respect or compassion for them.

So these precepts are mutually reinforcing.

Odds are if I'm being loving I'm acting generously and affirming life.

Et cetera.

But to talk a little bit more about this,

This also means towards ourselves.

Is the behavior that I am engaging in loving toward myself or am I allowing base desires to guide my actions in such a way that I am supporting other people who are living off of lust?

So how do I interrelate with other people and how do I make sure that all of my actions promote those of love and not lust?

The final part of this is that I transform the arising of lust into true loving.

And this statement has a lot of power in it,

Especially for younger people.

Not to say that that's exclusive to them,

But it seems like generally speaking the younger we are the harder it is to differentiate between love and lust.

And this statement saying I transform the arising of lust into true loving is an indicator that I will take the time to recognize this desire for another person inside me.

I will look at it and I will understand it and I will say wow,

This person is extremely attractive to me.

Before I act on the physical intentions of this lust,

I will take the time to get to know this person and to see if the emotional content is there that will facilitate a deep and meaningful relationship.

And this is how we are conscious and loving in all of our relationships,

By not immediately gratifying all of those physical desires.

So those are the three precepts that we are going to look at today.

To quickly review,

They are to affirm life,

Which means that I will always act with respect and compassion towards everything.

We will act generously,

Which means that we will be generous of both our possessions and our time and be very cognizant of how we relate to others and what we ask of them.

And also we will remember that maintaining the separation between ourselves and other items or other beings or other life as independent,

Permanent entities can create a lot of suffering.

And so through practicing generosity,

We break down those barriers and we live a little bit more freely.

And third is to be loving,

In which case we will make sure that the fulfillment of our physical desires and our sexuality is one that is born of mutual respect,

Compassion,

And love,

Not lust.

So in a few days I'll be posting another episode in which case we'll talk about the next three precepts,

Which are to manifest truth,

Respect clarity,

And honor silence.

And thank you very much for listening.

Reviews

Many thanks. I look forward to hearing more of your teachings. 🕊️🎶🙏🏼

Love this. Thank you.

Very appreciative of this teaching

Enjoyed this! However, the narrative was so quick in speed when reciting the Precepts that I couldn't quite catch them all in their entirety. Made it harder to follow along. Unfortunately "Insight Timer" doesn't let you rewind a few seconds, so I couldn't finish taking the notes that I wanted to about them. 😊
This is only Ep.1, on Precepts 1-3, so I'm feeling certain that they will get better and easier to follow as we go along. Cheers!

I wasn’t expecting such a clear and in depth description. Thank you. I shall find out more.

Clear and insightful

Very insightful, I will need to replay so the info will sink in , too much distraction in my room my hubby was watching football. Lol

Powerful information.

One of the best podcasts I've listened to in some time. Thank you!

Thoughtful and contemplative

🙏🏼 thank you. Interesting!Desks and wherever we create are things to be revered . Looking forward to hearing more from you . Going to look for your non - attachment talk. I always try and non - attach with love and have balance with relationships and work and find this a way to avoid unnecessary suffering. Namaste ~~

This was clear, insightful, thoughtful. I will return to this again and again. Namaste 🙏

Well said! Thank you 🙏🏼

Awesome message! Something you could hear over and over again and it could mean different things to you over time! Thanks again for your inspirational message.

Easy to understand talk about important things, looking forward to the next time!
🙏🏻

Very informative. I’ll look for more. Thank you.

Very good talk. The 3 precepts made much sense & opened my eyes for clearer understanding how we affect others & ourselves.

Very informative talk. Enjoyed the down-to-earth explanations and examples. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🙏

Enjoyed this one looking forward to the next one👍🏻

At first I had my doubts... but the longer I listened, the more Wisdom I learned. By the end, I was taking a lot of notes, bookmarking this recording and following this speaker.

Thank you for giving me so much to consider (in a timely way). I'm glad I found this, I'm glad I found you. Thank you, Namasté 🙂.