A tale of two arrows and a hothead.
To review some of these concepts,
Imagine a hypothetical morning in our chain of lifetimes.
In this hypothetical lifetime,
We are a worldly person.
Not too bad,
But not too good either.
Sometimes we can be a bit hot-headed.
On this particular morning,
Unbeknownst to us,
Two karmic arrows,
Feedback from our past action,
Are coming towards us.
The first is a small arrow of good karma.
The second,
A big,
Powerful,
Dangerous arrow of bad karma.
We made and launched them both at some point in our past.
For whatever reason,
Conditions are such that they both arrive today.
The first good karma arrow arrives as we are at home preparing to go to work.
We look in the mirror and get the feeling that today something weird may happen.
Maybe something bad.
At the same time,
We also remember that the five precepts are a kind of protection from the bad.
We want that protection,
So we decide today we will be a real five precepts person.
We connect with what we hold sacred and we lock our intention on keeping the precepts.
At that moment,
Our level in the field of merit increases 100 times.
We leave the house feeling different than normal,
More alert,
Because today we are a five precepts person.
As we're driving to work,
The highway traffic is heavy but still moving fast,
The way we like it.
One of our habitual pet peeves is bad drivers,
Especially drivers who cut us off on the highway.
Our usual reaction to being cut off is to hit the horn and aggressively tailgate the perpetrator.
Today,
We remind ourselves that we are keeping the five precepts.
Today,
We are better than our bad habits.
That very second the bad arrow arrives,
Suddenly some reckless driver swerves into our lane without warning.
Our cool head from keeping the precepts holds us back from our habitual response and instead of hitting the horn and tailgating,
We take a deep breath and back off on our speed.
The reckless driver swerves again,
Clips the guardrail and flips right in front of us,
Like some Hollywood action movie.
But instead of being right behind him,
We're far enough back to react a little,
Hit the brakes and turn away from the most deadly impact.
Our car is wrecked and we find ourselves in the hospital with a few fractured ribs.
On a normal day,
We would have been killed but because we were keeping the precepts,
Our bad karma had 100 times less destructive force in our world.
We could not stop the bad karma arrow.
After all,
We made it ourselves.
We sent it to ourself but we could change the self to which it arrives.
We made ourself a higher-level person so the bad arrow had lost most of its energy by the time it got to us.
And remember too,
We were keeping the precepts because we felt the first arrow of good karma and heeded its warning.
Small arrows of good karma can be wonderful things.
After all,
They are gifts we made and sent to ourselves.
Ultimately,
We cannot know in any full sense the details of our old karma.
Buddhist teachings considers it a waste of time to dwell on what may or may not have been or done in our past lives.
It's past and done.
Let it go.
Better to focus on the principles at work.
This moment now is much more important.
Our intention and our commitment not to harm ourselves or others diminishes the impact of our returning bad karma.
A wise person acts on this knowledge.
10 Wholesome Actions.
At this point,
It might be of value to clarify what we mean by doing good.
Buddhism identifies 10 wholesome causes of action.
10 Kusala,
4 verbal,
3 bodily,
And 3 mental.
This goes beyond the five precepts in spelling out actions that are considered moral,
Correct,
And wholesome.
The mental actions directly affect our mental equilibrium.
And both bodily and verbal actions directly affect our world equilibrium.
The 3 Wholesome Bodily Actions.
Precept 1.
Avoid killing.
Act in a way that cares for,
Respects,
And supports life.
Precept 2.
Avoid taking what is not given.
Act in a way that respects others' property.
Precept 3.
Avoid sexual misconduct.
Act in a way that respects others' and respects society's sexual morals.
The 4 Wholesome Verbal Actions.
Precept 4.
Avoid lying,
Especially for the sake of advantage.
Precept 5.
Avoid malicious speech.
Speak to unite those in discord,
To encourage and make harmony.
Precept 6.
Avoid harsh language.
Speak gentle,
Loving,
Courteous,
And agreeable words.
Precept 7.
Avoid frivolous talk.
Speak at the right time in accordance with facts.
What is useful,
Moderate,
And full of sense.
The 3 Wholesome Mental Actions.
Precept 8.
Be free from covertedness and craving.
Precept 9.
Be free from ill will.
Hope for the best for all beings.
Precept 10.
Accept as fact that there are results from both wholesome and unwholesome acts.
