The Three Buddhist Trainings: Sila 1/3

The First of the Three Buddhist Trainings "Sila" covers how we should act and be in everything outside of our meditation practice itself. It is the first and last of the Buddhist Trainings, being that thing which brings us consistently to the cushion before awakening and the thing which has infinite depth of practice afterwards.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to the first part of a three-part lecture series on the three trainings of Buddhism,

Which in a certain sense provide the framework for the entire path as a whole.

As I did not want to make this a two- or three-hour-long lecture on the three of them,

I have tried my best to keep it short and to the point,

As well as split it into three separate parts.

I'm Silas Day,

And thank you for joining me.

The first of the three trainings is Sīla or Sīya,

As I have sometimes heard it said.

It is,

By some,

To be considered both the first and the last training,

But we will come back to that part later.

Sīla in English is most often translated to something close to morality,

Though I have seen it translated in various ways.

If you prefer a different translation,

I understand,

But for the sake of this lesson,

I will be using either morality or just Sīla to keep things short.

Whenever this training is discussed,

I have found that it can leave a sour taste in the mouth of those talking or hearing about it.

In the West,

We seem to carry the weight of much assumption and history when the word morality is bandied about.

More often than not,

It seems that those whom have little true idea of what morality is are the ones who are discussing it.

Though it may leave us a touch uncomfortable,

I think that morality is something which we all must consider very carefully.

For to not have any morality at all is to live in a realm of chaos and nihilism,

But to try and exist within a rigid structure of morality at all times will leave one just as cold and almost always disappointed in how far we fall short,

If we are honest with ourselves.

So,

Why don't we try to take a careful and honest look at this training in morality,

Putting aside our assumptions and ideas about it,

And finding a good middle way?

Sound good?

Good.

From my perspective,

Which,

Take that as you will,

And with as much salt as you deem necessary,

Morality's wheelhouse is contained within the dominion of everything we do,

Which is not explicitly meditative or involved with meditation.

From our physical,

Verbal,

Mental,

Conceptual,

Ideological,

Or anything which we do as conscious beings as a force of will that is not centered on or around meditation.

When we awake to a new and fresh chance at the day,

And in it try to be good,

Honest and kind people in the conventional world around us,

This is morality and training in morality.

When we are trying our damnedest to improve our being,

Whether it be emotionally,

Mentally,

Or physically,

We are working on our morality.

When we are engaging in honest discussion,

Reading books that make us think,

Trying to figure out the world and the way we are a part of it and engage with it,

Philosophizing to our heart's content,

We are engaging in that noble and daily training of morality.

When we act in a compassionate manner,

Trying to care for that which we feel is important,

Whether it be ourselves,

Others,

The environment,

Our diet,

Our pets,

Our spiritual practice,

Our home,

Our children,

Our marriage,

Our car,

All this is an aspect of that first training.

If we decide to move to some distant mountain,

Cave,

Or land,

Shave our head and give up our worldly possessions and engage in intensive spiritual and meditative practice and do so out of compassion not only for ourselves but others,

This too is training in sila.

All that we consciously do,

Which is not meditation itself,

Whether it be walking meditation,

Lang meditation,

Metta meditation,

Insight meditation,

Or anything of that specific kind of thing,

Whatever we do in this ordinary,

Everyday existence that we call life,

That we think will be of benefit,

This is the training,

Day by day,

Moment by moment,

In sila.

Now one can pursue some of these points to their extremes,

Which is to be avoided.

Avoid the extremes of hedonism and asceticism,

Just like Buddha did,

And walk the middle path.

Living a life of absolute riches,

Decadence,

And materialism,

While it may feel and be good for you,

May be causing unseen amounts of unknown suffering,

Subjugation,

And oppression.

As well,

Starving yourself to the extent of weakness and sickness in mind,

Heart,

Body,

And practice in the pursuit of being totally moral and good can cause you and those who care about you great amounts of suffering.

This isn't to say all decadence and pleasure is bad.

It is perfectly fine to enjoy nice things on occasion or too fast when you feel it a good idea,

But I think it is wise,

And in line with the training in morality,

To understand our position and what the decadence or lack thereof may be causing.

It is good to be reflective,

All in all.

And it is not that we shouldn't enjoy our lives either.

The enjoyable life is one that is much easier to live and accept than one burdened by the unnecessary suffering that we or others may impose on our existence.

We simply must live an examined existence and not live in the bliss of ignorance,

But the light of understanding and self-examination,

Knowing that at times plenty of pathways to enjoyment may produce more suffering than enjoyment or fulfillment.

We can make small steps in life in this way,

In the clothes and food we buy,

In the cars we drive or companies we support,

In the way we treat and see those around us.

Each of these is a training in morality.

This is why morality is the first and last training.

It is the thing which can lead and support our practice to awakening,

And is the thing which can be infinitely perfected,

Even after awakening.

It is quite astonishing,

Isn't it,

That there is no upper limit in how we can conduct ourselves for the betterment of ourselves and the world around us.

There is also no way to measure one's perfection of practice like there may be in the other trainings of concentration and wisdom.

Thus,

The real reason why morality is also the last training,

In the sense of being the training we need to cultivate throughout our lives,

And not on the medication cushion exclusively,

Is that we may be able to attain extraordinary states of consciousness and understand many aspects of the actual nature of sensei reality,

But what people see and what is causal are the ways that these abilities and understandings translate into how we live in the world.

I don't think that the practice of morality in this way is all-exclusive to Buddhism,

Nor are they extraordinary,

Mind-blowing,

Or arcane in the slightest,

Which is rather helpful,

I think,

And speaks volumes of their importance in our day-by-day existence,

Of not only making our life better,

But building a better world for the benefit of all beings,

Come and gone.

It is also wise to know that Buddhism's ethic and morality is not the only one,

And shouldn't be considered higher or mightier than the others.

In life,

Whether we wish it to be spiritual or not,

It is helpful to accept an easy-going and non-dogmatic approach to anything of this kind.

While you may have a preference for name,

Ancient language,

Statues,

Or whatever you want to call yourself,

Know that within each tradition there lay some nuggets of good moral code which helps us to build a better today and tomorrow.

Mostly what I am saying here is don't be sectarian about morality.

You may have your grievances and disagreements with certain traditions or schools of thought,

But try not to have a stick up your ass about it.

It is worth waking up to the fact within morality training that to pin the ideas of positive and negative actions,

Thoughts,

Words,

Or whatever you wish is much a question of perspective,

Time,

And place.

For example,

While I love some of the writings of St.

Thomas Aquinas or the Zen Master Dogen,

Considering them both spiritual masters,

Their moralities are entirely divergent,

And then are even more different than what mine may or may not be.

Realizing this,

Some may then retreat into rather self-serving places of moral relativism,

Which expounds that morality is either subjective or entirely arbitrary,

Which,

While they may have a point,

Doesn't help anyone at the end of the day,

Especially not yourself.

If you don't hold up the inherent virtue of this human endeavor,

Then you slowly crumble and end up buried underneath the rubble of your own nihilistic self.

But I digress.

Daily practices and guidelines that are less airy,

Intellectual,

And vindictive,

And more grounded in common sense,

Kindness,

And understanding can help us to avoid falling into the paralyzing and extremely dangerous trap of imagining that it is futile to train in morality.

Try to aim for the highest good you can conceive of,

Even if you miss the mark,

And shoot for it.

While I was on retreat,

A teacher once said,

This is the reason why Buddha taught that our everyday,

Moment-by-moment actions affect our whole existence.

I connected with this,

And in that understood not only why the Buddha approached life this way,

But why so many of my other teachers of the Eastern and Western traditions worked at everything on a day-by-day,

Moment-by-moment manner,

Rather than approaching them as grandiose plans for the centuries to come.

All we have is today.

Yesterday has gone to an infinite,

Unreachable past,

And tomorrow never truly comes.

We are stuck in this very present moment,

Between a concrete past and a concrete future.

So why not be good,

And work for the benefit of yourself and all beings?

When undertaking training in morality,

We are proceeding from the premise that we can,

If we choose,

Control what we think,

Say,

And do through hard work,

Discipline,

Motivation,

And repetition,

Thus creating consequences that are pleasant and beneficial instead of otherwise,

Both in terms of our experience and that of others.

In training in morality,

We are accepting that wherever we are in life,

It can be improved by one person,

Yourself,

One day at a time.

Rather than accepting that our current level of intellect,

Emotional intelligence,

Psychological development,

And physicality are perfect or beyond our power of change,

We take up the torch of noble virtue and lead the charge into the howling darkness of the unknown future,

Acting as a pillar unto ourselves and a pillar unto the world.

We assume that we do have the capacity to change our world and our attitudes towards the world,

One day,

One action,

And one moment at a time.

We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences and work to make ourselves better.

So with all of this in mind,

Ponder for yourself what a life well lived would mean and look like to you.

In that,

You will find the first training of sila,

Morality.

I am Silas Day and I hope you enjoyed my little talk.

If you did,

Please say so.

Every little bit helps me know what to make next.

I'm looking forward to telling you about the next two of the three trainings,

Which are much more meditative instead of life and orientation.

And I hope to see you then as well.

Otherwise,

I hope you enjoyed this talk.

And if you are interested in learning more about Buddhism,

I have two courses up on Insight Timer that I would happily have you a part of.

Otherwise,

Have a wonderful day and I'm excited to see you next time.

Reviews

Enjoyable and informative a good introduction for me, thank you

🙏 thank you. I loved this clear and concise introduction to sila and look forward to the other 2 in the series!

As non English mother tongue I will listen to it once again because I do not want to miss not even a single word. I just loved it at 360 degrees, in each and every aspect. I am so grateful Silas🙏🏻

Thank you for sharing this. It was very helpful to remind myself that morality differs depending on a philosophical school, tradition, culture. Morality also changes as we mature. As tempting as it may be, we shall abstain from judgement other traditions and people if their morality differs.

Excellent delivery. Well done

Loved this. I did your 30-day course and wanted more so started listening to this. I so appreciate your humor!

Thanks Silas. Enjoyed this, especially the phrase, “...for the benefit of all beings, past, present and future.” Big mind!

Engaging and thought-provoking. I'll be back for parts 2 and 3! Thank you.

Easy to listen to, clear, and insightful. Thank you!🙏🏼🌺

Liked your clear, concise presentation

Thank you for your insight into Buddhism. I have listened to several of your talks and it is amazing to me how very much the teachings of Christ are so similar to the teachings of the Buddha. Your talks are helping to deepen my own faith. I look forward to hearing more.

Thank you I’m looking forward to more of your talks

Thank you so much Silas for sharing this. It came at a time when I really needed it 🙏

Love to hear about the Buddhist teachings.... it’s all new for me!! I like the “day by day.....moment by moment” pathway of bettering oneself; and not having to be a grandiose plan. We all make a difference In the big scheme of things..... whether we think so or not! Thank you for sharing!

Really enjoyed your talk. You have a calming voice & I enjoyed learning about a basic fundamental in Buddhist teaching. Thank-you Silas.

That was an excellent overview of Sila. Were I to make a request, it would be to break some of the more complex sentences down. It is probably just me, but in trying to break them down in my mind, I lose the next sentence. But like I said it's probably just me. In writing this, I realized that I do exactly the same thing when I write an email. Something for me to work on in Sila. LOL namaste

Thank you for sharing 🦋💫🌈 🙏

Enjoyed your talk and look forward to parts 2 & 3. Namastè for sharing your thoughts about Buddhism. 🙏🙏🙏💖💖💖

Enjoyed your talk and looking forward to parts 2 & 3