MJ16 - 38 Blessings - Impartiality (17 Of 39)

This is the seventeenth session of the Buddhist path of practice leading from the mundane to the transcendental based on the 38 Blessings of the Mangala Sutta. This sixteenth blessing concerns impartiality, or or more widely, how to purify oneself through Dharma practice, in order to avoid the prejudices holding one back from becoming a true pillar of society.

Transcript

Last time you saw me,

We looked at Blessing No.

15 on Practising Generosity.

With the Dhamma Talk today,

We will move on in our series on Enlightened Living to the next blessing in the Pillar of Society subsection,

Namely Blessing No.

16 on Dhamma Practice.

The word used for Blessing No.

16 is Dhamma Practice or its Pali translation Dhammacharya.

The word is a compound of two terms Dhamma and Charya.

The word Dhamma,

Which you are probably familiar with,

To some extent at least,

Comes usually with the capital D.

It's harder to find it because it can have anything up to 40 different meanings.

But for our purposes in the study of Buddhism,

The Pali word Dhamma or Dharma in Sanskrit can be taken to mean correctness,

Goodness,

Purity or what the Buddha taught.

Sometimes the word Dhamma appears with a small d,

In which case it would mean phenomena,

Which is a neutral term applied to both positive and negative things,

For example,

Ageing,

Sickness and death are all Dhammas according to Buddhism.

In English we would capitalise Dhamma when it means goodness,

Purity or the teaching of the Buddha and leave it with a small d when it just refers to phenomena or mental phenomena.

As for the word Charya,

This means conduct.

The two terms combined together as Dhammacharya mean the practice of good deeds or correct practice.

Dhamma practice is essentially about becoming pure.

We will come to the sort of deeds that are good or correct in more detail in a moment.

However,

To give a practical idea for the purposes of this blessing,

We can say that it is the sort of deeds and conduct which promote our sense of responsibility for human dignity on three levels,

The personal level,

The interpersonal level and the level of society and the economy.

In this particular blessing we will concentrate mainly on personal and interpersonal levels of human dignity because we will see more of human dignity on the economic level in blessing 18 that talks about blameless work and blessing 19 that talks about not consuming intoxicants.

In essence,

Dhamma practice is intended to achieve two goals.

Firstly,

To purge oneself from the effects of any unwholesomeness we have done in our past and secondly,

At the very least,

To conform with standards of good governance in life or better still to double down on our existing purity which you might call sanctification.

The Buddha positioned Dhamma practice as number 16 in the series of blessings because it needs to be mastered before we can successfully deal with blessings about looking after one's extended family and blameless work.

The rationale behind this is that looking after one's extended family and blameless work can be ethical minefields because they force us to work alongside people of possibly dubious dispositions in a wider society.

Without particular caution in our dealings we run the risk of spoiling our good intentions or coming into conflict by taking sides.

This is why,

Before embarking on works of social value,

We have to prepare ourselves by studying the impartiality in worldly and spiritual work so as not to bring inadvertent harm to ourselves or others.

So,

Before we look at how Buddhists can do Dhamma practice to purge themselves of any unwholesomeness in their past,

Perhaps it's useful to draw a comparison with how other religions deal with the same issue.

In Christianity,

Especially Catholicism,

If a Christian breaks a commandment they will go to confession with a priest in the church.

To unburden themselves before death,

A priest would be called to administer last rites.

In that way it's believed that they can be alleviated of their sins.

In Hinduism there's also a way of purification,

Bathing in the Ganges on full moon days.

Hindus believe they can rinse away their sins with river water.

Sin is treated as if it's a sort of physical dirt that can be washed away by the holy waters of the river Ganges.

In its approach to purification,

Buddhism is rather different from the other religions that I've already mentioned because Buddhism does not concern itself with purging sin or the accumulation of bad deeds in the past,

But with purging oneself of the impurities in the mind that might cause the intention to commit further such sins in the future.

This purging is a sequential process and works on three levels rather like the way gold is purified from its naturally occurring deposits.

There is a simile in the Bhamsuttho Bhaktsutta of the Angutta Nikaya that when smelting gold you need to work your way through the impurities starting with the gross ones,

Moving on to the medium ones and finishing up with the subtle ones.

Buddhism recommends using the precepts on the gross level,

Meditation on the medium level and wisdom on the subtle level.

At this stage in the blessings we are dealing with the coarse or gross levels of impurities.

If it were someone panning for gold then it would be the coarse sand and fine grit.

The prospector would have to rinse the gold again and again until they've washed all the sand and grit away.

In Buddhism this function would be by keeping the precepts or more extensively the fulfilment of the tenfold path of wholesomeness.

As for the second and third levels of purification,

Well we will return to them in blessings later on in the series.

What's important for Buddhism is that there is not the belief that a supernatural being or even the Buddha can somehow magic away the bad things we've done in our past.

And on the subject of trying to wash away our sins in the sacred waters of a river,

The Buddha had a whole conversation with a Brahmin called Sankarapa with his own eponymous sutta in the Samyutta-Nigaya that trying to wash away one's sins would be like washing the outside of a cooking pot when there is still a lot of dirt stuck on the inside.

In other words our problem is on the inside,

It's in our mind and it's not water we need but changes to our mental habits if we want to make a difference there.

On the subject of confession it should be acknowledged that this practice also has an important role in Buddhism too,

Mostly in the monastic community,

But it's from the point of view of declaring one's intention to renew one's effort to overcome unwholesomeness after having broken a precept.

But it's not really seen as a way of overcoming the consequences of the evil already done.

Supposing Mr.

A punches Mr.

B on the nose and subsequently confesses it to a spiritual mentor,

Buddhists would see this as helping Mr.

A to feel better about it and hopefully to avoid repeating his behaviour.

But the act of contrition doesn't help Mr.

B feel any better about his swollen nose.

So Buddhists at least feel that even on a superficial level the consequences of an action are not lessened by confession.

Therefore Buddhists have their own particular way of understanding the purging of past unwholesomeness.

On our path of self-development via the 38 blessings of life there are many reasons on many levels of description why to purify oneself is attractive.

On a personal level it would mean bolstering the strengths in our character while recognising and uprooting any known weaknesses in our character.

On an interpersonal level it would mean building on our strengths and the quality of relationships we have with other people.

On a social level it wouldn't mean going on a protest march but rather overcoming in ourselves the weaknesses and inequalities that are often so obvious in our modern society.

By being one less person who is prone to corruption,

Nepotism and fraud,

By displaying the sort of compassion which makes our society a more pleasant place to live,

Rather than concentrating on how we feel about our past or the physical residue of the unwholesomeness in our past,

The Buddha concentrated on the residue of evil deeds left as defilements in the mind.

The only real hope for purging bad stuff in our past might be referred to in Buddhism as dilution rather than absolution.

Usually the only way in which karmic retribution becomes defunct is by giving its fruit.

But rather than just sitting and waiting for one's karma to run out,

The Buddha suggested two ways to purify oneself,

Namely the indirect way of diluting old bad karma with large quantities of new good karma,

And the more direct uprooting of the old bad karma through meditation and wisdom.

The second method,

For the medium and subtle defilements,

Is something we will come back to in Blessings 31 and 32 through the practices of austerity and chastity.

But at this early stage in the Blessings,

When we are still focused on the more indirect method of dilution,

Supposing you compare the negative things in our past to a spoonful of salt,

And you compare the positives in life to a container of water,

Supposing you put the spoonful of salt in a glass of water,

If you taste the water it will still have a salty taste.

If you put the same amount of salt in a bucket of water though,

Then you will find that although the water still tastes a little bit salty,

But it tastes a lot less so.

But what would happen if you put a spoonful of salt in a huge water tank?

Now,

Even if you drink the water,

You will no longer be able to detect the salty taste,

Even though the salt is still there.

In the same way,

Although we may have many things we've done in our past which we regret,

We can start afresh in our lives by doing so many positive things in our lives that the old negative things become insignificant by comparison.

The water for dilution is gained by living up to the ideals of the tenfold path of wholesomeness,

Which we already mentioned in passing in Blessing 9,

And which in Pali is known as the Kusala Tammapata,

Consisting of absolutely not killing,

Absolutely not stealing,

Absolutely not committing adultery,

Absolutely not telling lies,

Absolutely not engaging in malicious gossip,

Absolutely not speaking harshly,

Absolutely not engaging in adult chatter,

Absolutely not thinking to take the possessions of others,

Absolutely removing ourselves from vengefulness and absolute possession of right view.

Getting to this tenfold path of wholesomeness starts with boosting our sense of responsibility for our own human dignity by avoiding the so-called defilements of action.

These are the main behaviours of word and deed that indicate a person is unscrupulous or constantly takes advantage of other people,

Either in their presence or behind their backs.

In other words,

They have no sense of conscience.

So,

If impurity consists of taking advantage of others,

Then purity should come from what would be known in Thai Buddhist culture as the five virtues,

Or Panchatthamma,

Which builds on the virtues of abstaining from the four defilements of action.

Although I've mentioned these in passing before,

Today I'll go into a little more detail about each of the five virtues that help to dilute the salt of any unwholesomeness we have in our past.

And you will note that the five are the diametric opposite,

Or the flip side of breaking the five precepts.

The first of the five virtues is compassion,

Which means making sure we are presentable,

Well-spoken and courteous,

Expressing concern for others,

Having good manners,

Going out of our way to help others,

And not doing things to arouse other's suspicion.

The second of the five virtues is generosity,

Which means giving others resources,

Time,

Forgiveness,

Attention,

Teaching and advice,

All the details of which we have already spoken about in the previous blessing.

The third of the five virtues is contentment with one's lawfully wedded,

This means being faithful to one's partner where applicable and actively practicing the virtues that keep a marriage going,

As we have seen in blessing 13.

The fourth of the five virtues is truthfulness in everything we say,

Honesty to ourselves,

Earnestness in every task we do,

Especially towards the cultivation of good deeds.

It also means training ourselves to do better than best in every task that comes our way.

We need to make sure that we are authentic,

Both within ourselves and towards other people.

The fifth and final of the five virtues is mindfulness,

Which at its simplest means training ourselves to keep the mind at the centre of the body the whole of the time,

Whether we have our eyes closed for meditation or open for other duties we attend to in our life.

We need to keep up the habit of meditation to give ourselves the mental momentum to keep our mindfulness going despite any problems that may crop up in our life.

Cultivating any or all of these virtues will also help add the proverbial clean water to rinse away the salt from our past unwholesome deeds and change our mind from negative to positive on a more regular basis.

Even if we have negative things in our past or things we have done and which we now regret,

By building up more and more positive deeds in all the ways I have already mentioned,

Will allow us to dilute the regrets and anxieties we have in our minds.

So this time for a quick story.

It is said that longevity is one of the marks of a person who is pure or who is established in the tenfold path of wholesomeness.

And to this end,

There is a story of when the Buddha went back to visit his father King Suto Isa Nga.

The king informed his son that he had heard the rumor that his son had already died as a result of his practice of self-mortification.

However,

The king had not believed the rumor.

He had had more confidence in his own son than that.

The Buddha told him that this was not the first time that the king had shown such confidence in him as a son.

In a previous lifetime,

When the Bodhisattva had been studying in a town far away from home with his teacher Dissapamukha a young fellow student died.

The Bodhisattva informed his teacher in an offhand comment that where he lived,

No one younger than a hundred years old could die,

Even by misadventure.

The teacher didn't believe the Bodhisattva,

So he decided to investigate for himself.

He took some goats' bones and carried them in a sack to the Bodhisattva's father,

Saying that he had returned the bones of his son who had passed away in the course of his studies.

At that time,

The Bodhisattva's father did not believe the teacher.

Not even the other villagers would believe him and laughed out loud in his face.

The reason why everyone in that village was so long-lived was that for seven generations everyone in the village had been practicing all of the tenfold path of wholesomeness I described earlier,

That are the wellspring of the purifying water that can dilute away all the unwholesome salt from our past karmic history.

So,

To come back to our subject matter of Dhamma practice for today,

We consider how the virtues we practice can be not just a pathway out of past unwholesomeness,

But also behaviour in accordance with what is pure and the wellspring of ever-increasing purity for ourselves in the future as well.

Sometimes this is referred to as the aspect of pure practice,

And mostly it pertains to our habits,

The habits of people who live together in groups,

On the level of the family,

Society or country,

And up to dictate the collective prosperity or deterioration of that community.

So,

The habits we end up with have usually brushed off on us from those in our human environment,

Especially those in the six sectors of society mentioned in the Siggilo-Vadasutta.

Many of the duties and habits fulfilled in the six directions have already been touched upon in our journey through the 38 blessings already,

Whether it be friends' duties to each other that we saw in the second blessing,

The clergy's duties to their congregation that we saw in blessing number three,

The students' and teachers' duties to each other that we saw in blessing seven,

Our duties in looking after our parents that we saw in blessing eleven,

Our duties to raising children properly that we saw in blessing twelve,

Our marital duties that we saw in blessing thirteen,

The congregation's duties in support of their spiritual mentors that we saw in blessing fifteen,

And duties between employer and employee that we'll see in the workplace when we come to blessing number eighteen.

If we were to put the overview of habit formation into one single graphic,

We would end up with a triangle like this one,

That tries to show the process of habit formation all the way from being an upstanding member of society to becoming a pillar of society.

To change ourselves,

Society and humanity for the better,

We have to transform the habits of the members of society for the better,

Starting with our own.

The most important habit is being responsible on three levels of description,

Our own sense of human dignity,

Self in the diagram,

Responsibility for the human dignity of others,

Soc in the diagram,

And responsibility for the human dignity as part of a fair economic system or econ in the diagram.

We will come back to the economic aspect in future blessings.

From the last slide,

You can see that the influence of doing right by the six directions are like the rainfall of influence of our habits,

That guides us from above,

At least in the diagram,

Providing us with ENV,

Which stands for a positive human environment for pure habit formation.

From ENV,

The next stop on the journey is working with human dignity on our individual level of self in the diagram,

Where the four defilements of action need to be avoided.

Four defilements of action or gamakilesa are four impure behaviours which you will recognise from the tenfold path of wholesomeness that I mentioned earlier,

Namely killing people or animals or parinatipata,

Stealing or taking that which is not given or adinadana,

Adultery or sexual misconduct or gamesu misjajara,

And finally telling lies or musawatha.

Anyone who can abstain from the four defilements of action can be said to respect their own sense of human dignity because they neither harm others nor take advantage of them.

You notice that these four forms of behaviour are diametrically opposite to the decent behaviours described in the moral code of most religions.

In Buddhism,

Restraint from these behaviours is covered in the first four of the five precepts.

Keeping the five precepts is well known to be the underlying virtue that underpins our sense of humanity.

If we want to stay human,

In other words remain humane or respect our own human dignity,

Then it is necessary to live our lives according to the five precepts,

Otherwise we will descend into savagery or give in to animal urges.

The missing fifth precept on abstaining from consuming intoxicants doesn't appear in the four defilements of action but returns later at blessing number 19.

But for today,

Responsibility for human dignity on a personal level,

Illustrated by the self node in the diagram,

Means being responsible for preserving our own sense of human dignity or humanity rather than behaving like a savage by not killing,

Stealing,

Cheating on a trusting spouse or partner and not telling lies.

Moving on from self,

We come to Sok,

Which represents responsibility for human dignity of others in society,

Which according to Buddhism means the four forms of bias.

Bias because of desire,

Bias because of hatred,

Bias because of ignorance and bias because of fear.

First order bias is bias because of desire or Chantagati.

For example,

Parents who don't love their children equally because of favouritism may treat their children unfairly.

The second sort of bias is bias because of hatred or Dosagati.

For example,

Teachers suffering from bias based on hatred or anger will behave unfairly towards annoying students,

Perhaps awarding them less than their due grades.

The third sort of bias is bias because of ignorance or Mohagati.

For example,

Someone who suffers from bias because of ignorance may take decisions based on their own stupidity or lack of information or put someone unscrupulous or incompetent in a position of responsibility.

The fourth sort of bias is bias because of fear or Payagati.

Usually we think of a fearful person as someone to be pitied,

But they can also be a person who can make decisions that seriously lack good judgement.

For example,

Someone who is biased because of fear might bear false witness under duress against someone they know is innocent.

All forms of bias or prejudice cause us to trample the dignity of the innocent.

Trampling dignity through bias starts with trampling one's own dignity by twisting the truth in one's own heart and mind.

Such bias in our minds then twists the things we say or do to deviate from what is pure and just.

The way Buddhists see it is that bias can undermine a person's responsibility towards human dignity,

Whether it is merely latent in a person's mind or if it is expressed in unjust actions.

Bias can impede our cultivation of virtue because it might cause us to perceive a gift made out of gratitude as being no more than a bribe.

If we could trust that the world were free of bias,

It would make it much simpler to cultivate good deeds without having to be constantly suspicious of ulterior motives.

Anyone who can abstain from all four forms of bias is someone who is in a good position to uphold justice,

And knowing about the subconscious origins of prejudice should help us to avoid infringing the rights of others,

Twisting the truth or bearing false witness.

It should help us to avoid thinking that we are above the law everyone else has to follow and therefore,

To a greater or lesser extent,

To be a person with social responsibility.

A third facet of Dhamma practice is behaving in accordance with what is pure or just,

Not letting our mental impurities or temptations interfere with what we know to be good or fair.

If you are in a leadership position or as a pillar of society,

It behooves you to maintain a certain standard of moral calibre.

In the Buddhist scriptures,

The sort of leaders that are idealised are those who can uphold the ten virtues of a ruler,

Otherwise known as the Rajah Dhamma.

These standards of moral calibre are supposed to apply to both monarchs and presidents alike,

Although generally a monarch will stay in power as long as they live,

Whereas a president will have a limited length of office.

Mostly it doesn't go into detail about despotic acts like rewriting the constitution to keep your own opponents out of power or undermining democratic or human rights.

It applies more to the sort of leader that people would be happy to see continue in power.

So the ten virtues of a ruler deal mostly with personal qualities,

Those qualities of the sort of person who might in the present day be referred to as a philosopher king.

The qualities particularly mentioned are generosity or dāna,

Self-discipline or silā,

Self-sacrifice or paricchākā,

Integrity or ājāvā,

Gentleness or matavā,

Austerity or tapak,

Non-anger or akhota,

Non-violence or avihṃsā,

Patience or kanti,

Non-deviation from righteousness or avirottanā.

Of course if a ruler is able to conduct themselves in accordance with these ten virtues of a ruler,

The country or kingdom and all its subjects will prosper.

In ancient times,

According to the Buddhist scriptures,

Such exemplary rulers existed at certain times in history and were known as universal monarchs or chakravātīn.

They were seen as the sort of secular counterpart of the Buddha and are also found in the scriptures of Buddhism,

Hinduism and Jainism.

They are the sort of monarchs which had such a good reputation that people of neighbouring territories would come along and petition them to come and rule their territory as well,

Until the whole world became united without borders.

To give an illustrated example of the sort of things that can be expected of a truly just ruler,

According to the Buddhist scriptures,

The benefits of pure governance go much further than a happy populace.

In the 334th Jātaka,

Called the Rājāvata Jātaka,

There was once a king of Benares who wasn't making a very good job of governing his kingdom.

To find out what was wrong,

He sneaked out of the palace and travelled about in disguise and in the course of his wanderings came to the Himalayas where the Bodhisattva lived as an ascetic.

The ascetic gave him ripe figs,

But no matter which tree he picked them from,

The king found that all the figs tasted bitter.

He asked the Bodhisattva,

Who in that lifetime was the ascetic,

Why the figs were so bitter,

And unaware that the subject of the conversation was standing right in front of him,

The ascetic explained to him that the present ruler was failing to rule in accordance with the ten virtues of a ruler.

The king thanked the Bodhisattva and snuck back to his palace.

From that time on,

He tried much harder to rule his kingdom in accordance with the ten virtues of a ruler.

Several years later,

When he had the chance to return to the same mountain hermitage,

When he picked figs from the same trees,

He sampled all those years ago,

He found this time that they all tasted sweet.

This time the Bodhisattva explained needlessly that the change had come about since the king of the country had started ruling his kingdom justly and this time the king returned to his palace feeling vindicated.

A similar parable is given in the 396th Jataka called the Kukkujataka,

Which tells of one of the Buddha's previous births as a counsellor who needed to speak truth to power,

Since his monarch at the time,

Called King Brahmadatta,

Was an unjust ruler who used to extort taxes or extract taxes from his subjects by violent means.

Afraid of the king's temper,

The Bodhisattva had waited tactfully for a long time for the opportunity to correct the king's ways.

One day,

However,

The opportunity presented itself when the king and the counsellor were visiting a building under construction in the royal park.

The roofing was not complete and the rafters had just been laid in place.

The king asked his counsellor how the rafters could stay in place and having found his opportunity the counsellor said that just as the peak of the roof will fall unless tightly held by the rafters,

A king will soon fall from power unless supported by subjects who have been won over by his righteousness.

Understanding the parable,

From that time forth the king behaved much more justly in the way he received taxes from his subjects.

Often we feel pretty smug about our human rights record in the west,

With the attitude that injustice and atrocities could never happen here,

But often if we know the telltale signs,

We would recognize that we can never afford to be complacent,

Even in an advanced democracy.

According to an exhibition I saw at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta,

The early warning signs of human rights starting to be compromised in any society are marked by ghettoization when a particular social group is forced to relocate,

Often to a neglected area.

A second early warning sign is the labeling of groups with a symbol or being forced to carry identity papers.

Sometimes even their homes are marked.

The third early warning sign is the defamation of particular social groups.

Characteristically they are referred to as disloyal or subhuman,

Perhaps being referred to as rats or cockroaches.

Often the paranoia stoked to justify human rights abuses is marked by the stockpiling of weapons without any evidence for any existential threat to the country.

The victims of human rights abuses are sometimes subjected to a slow death by disruption of drinking water,

Sanitation or other vital services.

Often human rights abuses are indicated in interference in reproductive rights of a suppressed social group to limit their numbers.

And finally,

And least subtly,

There may be a destruction of cultural or religious artifacts.

Institutions belonging to that social group are desecrated and influential people in that group are targeted by threats,

Imprisonment or disappearances,

Perhaps their leaders or those of military age.

Of course governments or nations can confront the perpetration of atrocities.

Nonetheless it's also important that individuals avoid ending up as bystanders or collaborators to a system that perpetuates injustice.

In a quote that is usually attributed to John Stuart Mill,

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Speaking out or helping those targeted by violence or injustice is the only difference between a bystander and an upstander.

In fact it is a rare person who does something about injustice before that injustice starts to affect them personally.

So in order to go beyond mere awareness of the way our prejudices can affect our subconscious,

We also need to be aware of the reasons why people who witness injustice fail to do something about it,

So that we can keep up with any lack of resolve that might compromise our true sense of respect for human dignity,

A sense of dignity that is needed for us to become pillar of society,

Rather than someone who's just along for the ride.

The first thing compromising any resolve may be fear.

Some people feel they have to go along with perpetrators of injustice in order to protect themselves.

The second possible reason for going along with injustice is personal or economic gain in allowing others to be victimized.

A third reason for going along with injustice is blind obedience because some people just do what they're told by an authority figure and are afraid to rock the boat.

A fourth reason for going along with injustice is prejudice,

For all the four reasons I've already mentioned,

Often stoked by propaganda which reaffirms a person's existing prejudices.

A fifth reason for going along with injustice is that people don't know what else to do.

Often people do nothing because they don't believe they can make a difference.

The final reason for going along with injustice is that no one else seems to be helping.

No one else stands up is easier for others to justify doing nothing.

And although Buddhists don't naively expect that society would be completely equal in all respects,

None of these six excuses for tolerating injustice of opportunity would be seen as befitting of a Bodhisattva trying to lead all living beings toward Nirvana.

Of course it's not easy to initiate and sustain dhamma practice in our life.

Two of the main obstacles are lack of morale and negative surroundings.

Some try to practice but give up too easily because they lack morale.

In such a case it is useful to associate more closely with those who are supportive of our cultivation of wholesomeness and justice in life.

Otherwise,

Even if you start out motivated,

You can be drained by a negative environment that doesn't allow you to live up to your ideals.

Sometimes it can be to do with an unsupportive family or the nature of the work we do for a living.

The important thing is not to let perfect be the enemy of good.

Even if you are only able to keep five precepts one day a week,

It still gives the mind a chance to rest from unwholesomeness and reduces the toll of negativity in the mind.

The important thing is to do good deeds whenever you have the opportunity,

While trusting that when it comes to the right time,

More conducive opportunities will present themselves.

In this imperfect world in which we are trying to strive towards whatever is pure,

Four sensible pieces of advice would be to be selective about our career path,

To avoid shoddiness and prejudice,

And of course to meditate regularly.

For the aspect of being selective about our career path,

Although we will come back to this in right likelihood again in blessing number 18,

If you are able to choose the sort of work where you can avoid having to put yourself in a negative situation every day of the week,

You need to be choosy about the work you do by avoiding making profit out of the suffering of other people or sentient beings.

At the same time,

Whatever craft you turn your hand to,

You should never turn in shoddy work.

Always do things to the best of your ability,

Whatever task comes to hand.

This thoroughness will carry over when you come to work on yourself spiritually.

An example of this might be a monk preparing proper notes and references for a sermon rather than simply making it up as they go along.

A third practical aspect of Dhamma practice in everyday life is to police your own attitudes for bias or prejudice.

For example,

I know that I'm racially prejudiced.

It is a by-product of growing up while taking white privilege for granted.

These days I would also be accused of cultural appropriation,

In spite of being a white Euro,

But dressing up in saffron robes and shaving off all my hair in an attempt to be more acceptable to Asians.

Nonetheless,

I am at least aware of my blind spots and I do my best to find out more about the issues,

To read about the lived experiences of Black,

Latin or Asian authors and challenge my own attitudes to become more woke when appropriate.

If you,

Like me,

Realize that you have somewhere to go in uprooting the blind spots of prejudice from the mind,

Six useful pieces of advice which might help you in this respect are firstly to consciously commit yourself to egalitarianism.

Secondly,

To recognize the unconscious bias is no more the real you than your conscious values.

You are both the unconscious and the conscious.

Thirdly,

You need to acknowledge differences rather than pretend you are ignoring them.

Fourthly,

You may need to seek out friendship with people from different groups in order to get outside your bubble and increase your brain's familiarity with diverse perspectives while expanding your point of view.

Fifth,

It's natural to focus on how people are different from you,

But try to consciously identify with what qualities and goals you may have in common.

Lastly,

When you encounter examples of unambiguous bias,

You need to speak out against them because that will help you to create and reinforce a standard for yourself and the people around you in addition to providing some help to those who are the targets of explicit and implicit prejudice.

Lastly,

No matter how smart you are,

Without meditating regularly,

You have no chance of being successful in your pursuit of the tenfold path of wholesomeness.

The reason is that even though people know they have bad habits,

Without meditation they will lack the depth of motivation to do something about it.

And I will add that although with all I've said up to this point about leaders needing to be the ones to stand up against injustice and take a stand on issues,

With the addition of meditation as part of the practicality of dhamma practice,

You may find that in some cases the best executive choice may be to practice equanimity,

Especially where taking sides in an argument may be counterproductive.

And this may especially be the case when you are about to make some breakthrough in your meditation,

And the best choice you can make for your long-term spiritual furtherment is to give yourself a few moments more of inward focus rather than to go marching out into the world to right everyone's wrongs.

For today,

I would like to finish off with a Jataka story which illustrates the conflict between governance and the transcendental values of those who aspire to the pathway towards Nirvana.

There was a particular lifetime which is related to the 538th Jataka called the Mahanipata or Mukhopaka Jataka,

Where the Bodhisattva is born as Prince Taimya.

His father was the king of Kasi in India.

The father wanted to groom the young prince for kingship from an early age,

So he let the baby lie in his lap when he was in court,

Pronouncing death sentences on criminals brought before him.

Even as a small child,

Since Taimya had already been cultivating perfections for countless lifetimes,

He was able to recall past lives where he too had been a king pronouncing death sentences on others,

And as a result he had suffered the retribution of 20,

000 years in the unfortunate realms.

In order to avoid history repeating itself,

He hatched a plan to avoid being fit for governance.

From that day forth,

He feigned dumbness to avoid having to take the throne.

They tried everything to get this prince to speak,

Including punishment on one hand and temptation on the other.

Everything however failed,

And since the royals did not want someone with a speech impairment to sully its lineage,

They decided to destroy the evidence.

So when Taimya reached the age of 16,

His execution was ordered.

Even this did not cause him to speak up,

As he would prefer to die than to create more bad karma.

Nonetheless,

As his grave was being dug,

He did find his tongue and spoke to the man called Sunanda who was seeking his grave.

He asked Sunanda just to let him go and tell the royal family that the prince was already dead and buried.

Sunanda was overcome by compassion for the prince and released him on the condition that he went and became an ascetic.

Nonetheless,

As an ascetic,

Taimya became well known and his reputation even reached the years of his royal parents.

Later in life,

Both the queen and king visited Taimya's hermitage and upon hearing his preaching,

They decided to renounce the world and become ascetics too.

Not only the royal family,

But also many other citizens of Kasi and three neighboring kingdoms followed their example.

So this is the illustration of how the power of Dharma practice,

Pursuant to the degree of putting one's life on the line,

Can make real differences in life and shows how the Bodhisattva never veered from his intention to attain Buddhahood and Nirvana,

Even when tempted by the comfort of luxury and power of royal governments.

So this session I have introduced to you the blessing number 16 on Dharma practice.

In my next session,

I'll move on to blessing 17,

Which is all about looking after one's extended family,

Which explains how to help a wider society without spiritually burning yourself out.

Hopefully as a result of today's session,

You will be inspired to persevere in your Dharma practice on all levels.

So for today,

This is me,

Pratt Nicholas,

Thaniss Roe,

Signing off for now.

So long folks and stay safe.