A Simple Guide To Life, as presented by conduct.edu.vn, offers practical wisdom for navigating the complexities of modern existence. This guide explores universal principles and offers actionable steps to cultivate a meaningful and fulfilling existence. Discover essential life skills and ethical frameworks to foster both personal well-being and positive societal impact. This comprehensive guide delves into essential life skills, ethical behavior, and responsible conduct, providing resources to navigate personal and professional life with integrity and purpose.
1. The Foundation: Right Understanding
Happiness, success, and security begin with accurately perceiving ourselves and the world. Aligning daily actions with this clear vision is key. Solutions to problems should be sought through cause-and-effect relationships, a principle as true in human behavior as it is in the physical world.
The moral law of kamma forms the foundation for a fruitful life. Kamma is intentional action, driven by morally significant volitions. We must recognize that wholesome deeds generate positive results, while unwholesome deeds yield negative outcomes. A person reaps what they sow; good begets good, and evil begets evil. This inherent retributive power lies within volitional action.
Kamma is cumulative. Deeds not only produce pleasant or painful results, but collectively shape our character. Actions performed in one life are transmitted as dispositions to future lives, forming our character traits.
The power to produce results lies within the action itself, independent of external intervention. Buddhism rejects the existence of a Creator-God. Kamma is neither fate nor predestination, but our own willed actions, capable of generating consequences. Understanding the kammic moral law of cause and effect empowers us to control our actions, promoting our own well-being and that of others.
There are ten unwholesome courses of action (akusala-kammapatha), stemming from greed, hatred, and delusion: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, harsh speech, useless talk, covetousness, ill will, and false views. Conversely, ten bases of merit (puññakiriya-vatthu) arise from detachment, goodwill, and wisdom, generating wholesome kamma: generosity, morality, meditation, reverence, service, transference of merit, rejoicing in the good deeds of others, hearing the Dhamma, expounding the Dhamma, and straightening out one’s views.
Lack of right understanding and ignorance of life’s underlying laws contribute to materialism, even in traditional Buddhist lands. Believing that everything perishes at death leads to a disregard for ethical ideals and long-term consequences. Lives become centered on the pursuit of sensual pleasures, leading people to worship money, chase pleasure, and seek power and fame at the cost of personal integrity.
Ignorance of the law is not an excuse in court, nor is it regarding the moral law of kamma. The law operates regardless of belief, with effects following causes. Just as a child is burned by fire regardless of their understanding, those who violate moral laws face consequences, regardless of their acceptance of kamma.
Kamma is connected to rebirth. Craving (tanha), or selfish desire, prompts life-affirming deeds. Moral energy is never lost. As long as craving and ignorance persist, kamma will find expression at death. The thirst for existence inevitably leads to rebirth.
Buddhism affirms the continuity of individual life while denying a permanent soul. Mind is a flux of mental processes, lacking a persisting core. Yet, this flux continues from life to life, driven by the thirst for more becoming. At death, the dying person’s mind grasps at an object, idea, or feeling connected with past actions, vitalizing a germ of life. This new form, whether human or non-human, aligns with the kamma generated during the deceased’s life. The initial consciousness (patisandhicitta) carries past impressions, characteristics, and tendencies. Thus, death leads to birth, and birth to death, without a transmigrating soul.
The doctrines of kamma and rebirth offer a “middle way,” avoiding the extremes of theism and materialism. They preserve moral accountability without relying on an almighty yet benevolent God. A human being is the visible expression of their past actions, born from past kamma, supported by present kamma, and destined to go where accumulated kamma leads.
Buddhism teaches that humans evolve based on the quality of their kamma, providing a rational basis for morality, instead of divine commandments. There can be regression from the human plane to subhuman realms and progress to heavenly planes. Given the risk of falling to subhuman realms, careful action is crucial. Virtue, based on a righteous code of conduct, protects against regression and ensures spiritual progress.
A true follower accepts kamma as just, recognizing it as the cause of inequalities in health, wealth, and wisdom. They face life’s losses, disappointments, and adversities calmly, knowing they are the result of past misdeeds. When faced with hardship, they will seek to understand the causes and adjust to the situation. They avoid rash actions, despair, or escapism through harmful substances. Such behavior reflects emotional immaturity and ignorance of Buddhist teachings.
For a genuine Buddhist, daily activities in thought, word, and deed are paramount. A proper understanding of kamma and rebirth is essential for sensible living and global well-being.
The Buddha said:
The slayer gets a slayer in his turn;
The conqueror gets one who conquers him;
The abuser wins abuse, the annoyer frets.
Thus by the evolution of the deed,
A man who spoils is spoiled in his turn.
Though we perceive ourselves as individuals, the Buddha taught that we are processes, ever-changing combinations of matter and mind, neither of which remain constant. All components of our being are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and devoid of self. Life is not a being, but a becoming; not a product, but a process. There is no doer, only doing; no thinker, only thinking; no goer, only going.
The Buddha teaches how to end the beginningless cycle of rebirths and suffering. The path involves removing the causes that perpetuate the cycle, primarily craving. Craving drives action (kamma) to satisfy itself, resulting in rebirth.
Craving is a potent mental force latent in all unenlightened beings, caused by ignorance (avijja) of life’s true nature. This ignorance prevents us from seeing that life is an ever-changing process, subject to suffering, and devoid of a self or core. All life bears the marks of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and egolessness (anicca, dukkha, anatta).
The Buddha realized life’s true nature and attained something beyond life and death: a permanent, blissful, deathless reality called Nibbana, the goal of the Buddhist path.
The Buddha’s teachings are summarized in the Four Noble Truths: suffering, its cause (craving), its cessation (Nibbana), and the path to cessation (the Noble Eightfold Path). These are eternal truths, unchanging across time and place.
To avoid unhappiness, we must eliminate the craving that causes it, as everything sought and clung to is impermanent. Whatever arises must perish, and clinging to the perishable leads to suffering. Eliminating craving is a difficult challenge, but it leads to inner perfection and unshakable calm.
We can end suffering by cultivating the Noble Eightfold Path through morality, concentration, and wisdom — sila, samadhi, pañña. Morality purifies conduct, concentration calms the mind, and wisdom arises when the mind is calm, providing clear insight into reality. Wisdom destroys craving, extinguishing the flame of life and winning Nibbana, the deathless, blissful, and real.
The Noble Eightfold Path comprises eight interconnected factors, grouped into three stages:
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Wisdom (pañña)
- Right Understanding: Knowledge of life’s true nature, understanding the Four Noble Truths.
- Right Thought: Thought free from sensuality, ill-will, and aggression.
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Morality (sila)
- Right Speech: Abstinence from falsehood, slander, harsh speech, and useless words.
- Right Action: Abstinence from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct.
- Right Livelihood: Avoiding harmful or exploitative occupations.
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Concentration (samadhi)
- Right Effort: Training the mind to avoid unwholesome and develop wholesome mental states.
- Right Mindfulness: Developing attentiveness and awareness regarding body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena (the “four foundations of mindfulness”).
- Right Concentration: Cultivating one-pointedness of mind.
These factors summarize the Buddha’s teaching and practice, representing the heart of the Buddha-Dhamma. The Dhamma requires practice in daily life. Practical application involves training in morality, concentration, and wisdom, forming the Noble Eightfold Path, the “middle way” to Nibbana.
Monastics and laypeople tread the same path, starting from right understanding and pursuing the same goal, Nibbana. The difference lies in commitment and pace of progress. Whether lay or monastic, practicing the Eightfold Path fosters generosity, goodwill, and wisdom, qualities that weaken and break the fetters of greed, hatred, and delusion, freeing us from rebirth and suffering.
2. The Benefits of Right Understanding
Right understanding forms the foundation for developing a proper sense of values. Without it, vision is dimmed, efforts are misguided, and individual and social development falters. Plans must be based on the Eightfold Path, emphasizing self-effort, self-control, and respect for the individual.
Wrong views lead to a distorted sense of values, driving the blind pursuit of wealth, power, and possessions, the urge to conquer and dominate, ruthless revenge, and conformity to social norms. Right views guide us towards detachment, kindness, generosity, selfless service, wisdom, and understanding. Confusion and moral lunacy can be eased by following the Buddha’s path. Right livelihood and right action help avoid conflicts, enabling peaceful and harmonious societies.
Affluent Western countries may enjoy high standards of living, but their interior lives often lack improvement. Neglect of spiritual values impoverishes inner life. Materialism erodes the spiritual dimension, leading to moral nihilism, evident in increased suicide rates, crime, sexual offenses, alcoholism, and drug abuse. One-sided material development in a pleasure-seeking society is self-destructive. Knowledge and discipline alone are inadequate without moral ideals. Cultivating a proper sense of values makes a society cultured and civilized.
Having right understanding allows us to recognize worldly values as man-made and relative, leading people astray and causing suffering. A Buddha teaches authentic values grounded in timeless truth, including the Four Noble Truths and the principles of kamma and rebirth. Values deviating from these principles are worthless. Those with right view realize the hollowness of wrong views.
Seeing life’s incessant change and suffering, one with right understanding learns to live simply and regulate desire, following the middle way in all matters. Understanding the connection between craving and suffering, one checks desire through simple living. Right understanding reveals that real happiness is an inward state, sought inwardly, independent of external things, though material security is necessary for inner development.
We require only basic physical sustenance: wholesome food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. Complementary mental needs include right knowledge, virtue, sense control, and meditation. These are the basic requisites for a lofty life. Simple living, without superfluous possessions, leads to contentment, peace of mind, and the freedom to pursue higher virtues. Pride and vanity tie us to false goals; the smaller the mind, the greater the pride.
Buddhism upholds the objectivity of moral values, grounding its ethics in the law of cause and effect. Good and bad deeds produce respective fruits regardless of views and wishes. Recognizing this connection, one abstains from wrong actions and adheres to the Five Precepts.
As instability is inherent in life, the unexpected can happen. Therefore, the wise Buddhist controls their feelings. Calamities are faced calmly, without lamenting or despairing. Equanimity amidst fortune’s fluctuations is a benefit of right understanding, understanding that everything results from causes and conditions for which we are responsible. As emotional control grows, irrational fears and worries are discarded. The seeming injustices of life are fully explained by kamma and rebirth. By understanding this law, we recognize that we are the architects of our own destiny.
A further fruit of right understanding is objectivity, free from likes, dislikes, bias, and prejudice. This mental maturity issues in clearer thinking, saner living, reduced susceptibility to media influence, and improved relationships.
One with right understanding can think for themselves, forming their own opinions, facing life’s difficulties with the principles of reality taught by the Buddha. The true Buddhist is not a moral or intellectual coward, prepared to stand alone. While seeking advice when needed, they make their own decisions and have the courage of their convictions.
Right understanding gives us a purpose for living. A lay Buddhist lives purposefully, with both immediate and ultimate aims. True happiness requires a simple but sound philosophy of life, understanding the nature of man and our destiny, giving life direction and meaning, enabling harmony with others and the environment.
3. Creating a Life Plan
Maximizing human potential requires a practical aim and a plan to achieve it. This essay shows how to develop values essential for happiness and success in mundane life and progress towards Nibbana. As laypeople, our immediate objective is to make worldly life a means to success and a stepping-stone to liberation.
To accomplish this, we must organize our lives within the framework of the Noble Eightfold Path, realizing our immediate aims through a realistic life plan, developed according to our powers and circumstances, envisaging a realistic development of innate potential.
At the start, honest self-understanding is required. A workable life plan cannot be built on grandiose delusions about our character and abilities. The more we find out about ourselves, through self-observation and self-examination, the better our chances of self-improvement. We should ask ourselves how generous, kind, even-tempered, considerate, honest, sober, truthful, diligent, energetic, industrious, cautious, patient, tolerant, and tactful we are. These are the qualities of a well-developed Buddhist, qualities we should emulate.
We need to improve ourselves wherever we are weak, practicing a little every day. The more often an action is performed, the easier it becomes, strengthening the tendency to repeat it until it becomes a habit.
Our life plan should cover all main areas of a householder’s life, including occupation, marriage, raising children, retirement, old age, and death. Happiness in lay life consists of finding out what one can do well and doing it. A clear mental picture of a practical aim and a realistic sketch of the steps needed to achieve it will guide us to fulfilling our ideal. We tend to become what we really want to be, provided we act realistically and effectively.
4. Recognizing and Overcoming Obstacles
The following five states are likely to hinder the upright life of a Buddhist lay follower. Called the five mental hindrances (pañcanivarana), they obstruct spiritual and worldly progress. While originally taught as obstacles to meditation, they are detrimental to all endeavors.
- Sensual craving: Obsessive desire for possessions or gratification. While seeking wealth and possessions, the lay Buddhist recognizes the limits. Unjust means or excessive attachment will cause misery. Money alone cannot solve all problems. Many accumulate wealth without finding happiness, wanting more as they acquire more. A lay Buddhist must be moderate in all things, avoiding extreme desires for riches, sex, liquor, or ostentatious displays of success.
- Ill will: Hatred, the emotional opposite of desire, is an obstacle to personal development. Attraction to desirable things causes repulsion to the undesirable. Like and dislike lead to conflict and confusion. Desire drives us to acquire; hatred drives us to destroy. Overcome hatred by cultivating loving-kindness.
- Indolence and mental inertia: An obstacle to strenuous effort. The lazy person avoids understanding or high standards, falling prey to craving and hatred.
- Restlessness and worry: Restlessness manifests as agitation and impatience. Worry is guilt over evil deeds or good deeds left undone. Remedy lapses by resolving to never repeat them and neglecting good by doing it without delay.
- Doubt: Inability to decide, preventing commitment to higher ideals.
These hindrances deprive the mind of understanding and happiness. By cultivating confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom, we can reduce their harmful influence.
5. The Importance of Relaxation
Modern life is full of stress. Relaxation is a necessary ingredient of happiness. By understanding the causes of stress and regulating them, we can live calmly even amidst strenuous activity.
Hard work without tension is not harmful. Anxious, feverish workers are often driven by craving, intensely desiring to achieve their goals. They are unable to rest until they get what they want, fearful of losing what they prize, or driven by resentment or the pursuit of power.
To avoid stress, one must train the mind to view everything realistically, as transient phenomena. Reflecting upon the three characteristics — impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness — will reduce self-concern, craving, and attachment. Anger, anxiety, and pride must be avoided, as they produce stress. Adopting this attitude brings greater detachment and peace of heart. The key to managing stress is mastering the mind.
Good work habits reduce stress. Confine oneself to one task at a time, separating work and leisure. Work in a relaxed frame of mind, reminding oneself to work calmly and take breaks.
Additional disciplines helpful in combating stress:
- Keeping the Five Precepts. Guilt increases stress. Observing the precepts leads to a blameless life, free from guilt.
- Sense control. Guarding the sense doors prevents the mind from wandering and becoming scattered.
- Meditation. Meditation purifies the mind, clarifying the true nature of life, leading to detachment and equanimity.
- Cultivating the four sublime attitudes. Loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity reduce stress, improve relationships, promote accord, and increase inner peace.
Time, energy, and funds are limited, while wants are unlimited. A person must have a sense of priorities, discriminating between what is essential, desirable, trivial, and detrimental. Pursue what ranks high and eschew what ranks low to avoid waste and promote balanced living.
6. The Five Precepts: A Moral Compass
The minimal code of ethics followed by a lay Buddhist is the Five Precepts of virtue (pañcasila). These precepts are moral rules voluntarily undertaken to promote purity of conduct and avoid causing harm and suffering. Evil conduct harms oneself and others, strengthening greed, hatred, and delusion. Engaging in unwholesome activity is a violation of the cosmic moral law, entailing suffering. Virtue involves avoiding immoral deeds by accepting ethical principles of restraint. Virtuous action springs from non-attachment, goodwill, and wisdom.
The Five Precepts are:
- To abstain from killing living beings.
- To abstain from taking what is not given, i.e., from stealing.
- To abstain from sexual misconduct.
- To abstain from false speech.
- To abstain from intoxicants and harmful drugs.
Following the Five Precepts implies avoiding occupations that involve trading in arms, human beings, flesh, intoxicants, and poisons.
Virtue is not merely negative. It is a powerful mental achievement. Observing the precepts brings growth in mental purity, skillfulness, and wisdom. Refraining from killing increases compassion and loving-kindness. Honesty gives courage and justice. Sexual restraint results in physical strength. Truthfulness makes for uprightness. Avoiding intoxicants promotes clarity of mind. Mindfulness is essential to observing the precepts, increasing clarity.
Habitual practice of the Five Precepts increases self-control and strength of character. The mind that controls desire gains in power. Desire is a force that, when uncontrolled, is harmful. The Buddha’s teaching counsels us in harnessing, diverting, and sublimating desire for worthy ends.
Virtue is the first stage in the Noble Eightfold Path, comprising Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. The energy conserved by virtue is used for concentration, which cultivates wisdom.
Observance of the Five Precepts is a voluntary act. The Buddha understood the workings of the universe and proclaimed the moral law of cause and effect: good deeds beget pleasant fruits, evil deeds beget painful fruits. The Five Precepts are guidelines to steer us away from evil and towards beneficial conduct, avoiding misery and building protection and happiness. The closer we live to the Five Precepts, the greater the blessing power of our lives.
7. Mastering Emotions
Emotions are states of deep feeling that motivate action, often associated with instincts. Humans are conditioned by emotions, by likes and dislikes, often biased by self-interest to the point of overwhelming reason.
Emotions arise in response to the evaluation of perceptions, as desirable or undesirable, helpful or threatening. This evaluation prompts emotions such as desire, aversion, or fear. Emotions may be harmful, like lust and anger, or wholesome, like sympathy and compassion. Loving-kindness and compassion ennoble us.
People vary in emotional development, range, and strength. Differences are due to kammic inheritance, temperament, family background, and societal ethos. Whether emotions are repressed, expressed, indulged, or sublimated depends on these factors.
Emotional control is necessary for growth in the Dhamma. Anger spoils happiness and disturbs others’ peace. Instinctive emotions are the raw material of character. Misdirected or repressed emotions cause harm. Redirecting emotional energy towards a worthy object sublimates the emotion. For Buddhists, the attainment of Nibbana can transform our emotional life, evoking and harmonizing energies to guide us towards our ultimate good.
Without deliberate effort, emotions are not under direct control. The Buddhist training aims at mastering the emotions. The first step is observing the Five Precepts, controlling grosser forms of craving and emotion. The next step is training the mind to control emotions as they arise, through mindfulness. Objectively watch emotions that arise, labeling them: “mind with lust,” “mind with anger,” etc. Naming the emotion allows us to let it go. Mindful awareness has no scope for unwholesome thoughts.
This procedure should be adopted with any harmful emotion. Mentally repeating “What am I feeling now?” and answering truthfully can be helpful. Investigate why adverse emotions overwhelmed us to avoid future occurrences.
Persistent practice gradually gains control over harmful emotions, bringing greater harmony internally and externally. The key is adhering to the precepts and being mindful of thoughts and emotions.
8. Guarding Against Bias and Propaganda
Buddhism teaches clear thinking, self-control, self-help, and meditation. While each person has a mind, few use it to think for themselves. Most allow others to do their thinking.
The mind absorbs poison from continuous exposure to suggestions. Mass media has made this mental passivity baneful. Radio, television, and newspapers blare messages, reinforcing the human disposition to accept what we are told. Bombarded by inducements, we no longer think, feel, or act independently, but conform to win approval.
Each time we engage with media, we are subjected to propaganda and social suggestions, deliberately and systematically teaching us to suspend thought. Newspapers command assent through layout, language, and lines of emphasis.
Those who exploit the media are small but powerful groups, motivated by self-interest and greed. They often play dominant roles in various walks of life. Among the public, emotion often subordinates reason, and mental inertia makes the conquest of reason easier. By shaping public opinion, a minority controls the majority.
This minority sells something, like commercial advertisements that make us want more goods without bringing happiness. We are told our felicity depends on having technology. Yet, we still feel lacking.
The speed and efficiency of technology in a materialistic society leads to stress and mental breakdown. Those who do not crack find escape routes like drugs, alcohol, and cults. For those who cannot cope, there remains suicide.
How does a Buddhist protect themselves from these influences? As lay Buddhists, we should adopt a critical attitude towards the written and spoken word, applying mindfulness to avoid being swayed by those seeking our favor. Examine topics objectively, then arrive at a decision.
When hearing an opinion, find out who the writer or speaker is, and what interests they represent, including political affiliations, religious leanings, and social background. Never forget that there are at least two sides to any issue. Gather all facts, maintain a calm mind, and prevent sway by preferences and anger. The same principle should be applied to other matters in everyday life.
Understanding kamma and rebirth helps us avoid comparisons. The only meaningful comparison is between who we were and who we are now, physically, intellectually, morally, and financially. If there has been no improvement, remedy deficiencies without delay. Regular stocktaking, revising values, and putting aside pride will lead to a simpler, saner, and happier life.
9. Cultivating Happy Family Life
For the adult, it is natural to love someone of the opposite sex. The lay Buddhist recognizes that there is nothing “sinful” in sex and will not suffer guilt over desire. However, sexual desire must be regulated to avoid harm.
In a successful marriage, partners realize that love is wider than sexual attraction and learn to give without expecting anything in return. Partners should ask themselves what they expect and find out if the prospective partner has the qualities. A trusted friend may offer a correct evaluation. There are dangers in being one’s own marriage broker. One is inclined to endow the prospective partner with lacking qualities. Disillusionment can set in, leading to marital discontent.
Sex is important in married life, but it must be kept in its proper place, as an expression of marital love. Subordinated to personal love, sexuality provides a truly satisfying emotional experience. Beyond sexual compatibility, happy marriage calls for mutual understanding, adjustments, sacrifices, selflessness, tolerance, and patience. Marriage becomes a blessing when viewed as a partnership committed to thinking more of the partnership than of themselves.
Most married couples hope to have children. Children differ, bringing their own kammic inheritance from past lives. This fact indicates the responsibilities and limitations of parents.
The child spends formative years at home, imitating parents. Schools cannot replace parents. Buddhist parents should serve as models, observing the Five Precepts and showing that the Dhamma rules their lives. Parents must be aware of the child’s potential for good and evil, and fulfill their responsibility to develop the potential for good and check the potential for evil.
The Buddha advised parents to guide children, supply their needs, provide education, give them in marriage, and attend to their well-being. Parents must be prepared to forgo their own pleasure to attend to upbringing. Home influence is what matters most in forming the child’s character, outweighing outside influences. Parents should consult a manual on child rearing.
The first five years are crucial in character formation. Balanced growth requires parental love, a stable home, and scope for creative activity. Children learn by imitation. Emotionally mature parents who avoid quarrels will raise children who are morally and psychologically sound. A child brought up with love, understanding, high ideals, and aspirations will have a secure foundation.
Adolescence is a period of stress, when children may rebel against parental authority, calling for love and understanding. Sensible Buddhist parents should be capable of guiding children and helping them adjust to changes. When children ask about sex, parents should answer calmly and briefly. If parents cannot tell the facts of life, they might give them a suitable book. Withholding vital information exposes them to danger.
Without parental control, children incline to delinquency and drugs. Parents should take greater interest, spend more time with children, know how they use their leisure, and know their friends.
As the child reaches maturity, parents should help them choose a career and mate, but respect their wishes. To order the young person about is to invite trouble.
Wise Buddhist parents will limit family size to give their children the best. In developing countries, this eliminates poverty. Buddhism is not opposed to population control, except by means of abortion. With dwindling resources, Buddhist parents should recognize the need for family limitation.
It is the duty of the state to popularize family limitation. Production centered on the population at large, using appropriate technology, with just distribution and family planning, will increase wealth and improve the quality of life.
Moral and spiritual edification should accompany physical and emotional development. Parents should teach the essentials of the Buddha-Dhamma, explain kamma and rebirth, instruct them in proper conduct, and clarify reasons for practicing virtue. Children should be taken to the temple and enrolled in Dhamma school. The Dhamma guides us in how to live this life. It is the art of happiness here and now, and the path to deliverance in the hereafter.
Materialism is eroding traditional values. Young people brought up to discover the value of the Dhamma are unlikely to be led astray.
10. The Power of Benevolence
The desire to do good is cultivated by practicing the four “sublime attitudes” (brahmavihara): loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), altruistic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha). These qualities remove mental defilements and bring forth virtues, elevating us to a divine-like stature, breaking barriers, and building solid bridges.
- Metta is goodwill, universal love, a feeling of friendliness and heartfelt concern. Its mark is a benevolent attitude, promoting the welfare of others. Metta subdues hatred. The Buddha said:
Hatreds do not cease through hatreds
Anywhere at anytime.
Through love alone do they cease:
This is an eternal law.
In this nuclear era, metta is the only effective answer to violence.
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Karuna is compassion, sympathy, pity, and mercy. Its characteristic is sympathy for all who suffer, arousing the desire to relieve pain. Karuna eliminates callousness and prompts selfless service.
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Mudita is altruistic joy, the desire to see others rejoice, sharing their happiness. It complements karuna, sharing joy while karuna shares sorrow. Mudita is the antidote to envy, promoting social concord.
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Upekkha is equanimity, establishing a balanced mind in an unbalanced world. It looks upon all beings impartially, as heirs to the results of their actions.
Constant cultivation of these virtues transforms our attitudes. They should be the foundation of Buddhist social action, and of individual and collective peace. Buddhist social welfare work may take many forms, but the most essential is the spirit in which it is performed, subordinating the private good to the whole. Action should spring from genuine love, untouched by condescension, a sheer manifestation of the brotherhood of all humans.
The four sublime attitudes should be cultivated by every true follower, conveying a universal message that transforms us into universal human beings.
11. Freeing the Mind Through Meditation
Mind occupies the pre-eminent place in Buddhism, as everything arises in the mind as a thought. A well-trained mind is a treasure. Examining and cleansing the mind uncovers happiness. Real happiness is a quality of the mind, sought and found in the mind. The Buddha taught that non-attachment to pleasures is greater happiness than worldly enjoyment. Nibbana is the highest happiness, relief from suffering, attained by freeing the mind from defilements.
Worldlings believe enjoyment is the only happiness, forgetting that it arises from gratifying desire, fading when the object is obtained. Multiplying desires does not make it permanent. Sensual pursuit ends in restlessness.
Buddhist mental culture aims to gain intuitive knowledge of existence through meditation, resulting in detachment. Meditation leads the mind to the sorrowless state of Nibbana. The cause of rebirth is ignorance of life’s true nature. Meditation dissolves delusions and frees us from craving.
There are two kinds of meditation: development of tranquility (samatha-bhavana), emphasizing concentration, and development of insight (vipassana-bhavana), emphasizing wisdom. These correspond to the concentration and wisdom groups of the Noble Eightfold Path. Concentration is not an end in itself, but a basis for wisdom.
Training the mind is not easy. We have long relished sense pleasures, raged with anger, and vacillated with doubt. The untrained mind wanders. To overcome disturbances, the Buddha taught five methods of expelling distracting thoughts:
- Develop a good thought opposed to the distracting one.
- Reflect on the evil consequences of distracting thoughts.
- Turn the mind away and fix it on a beneficial idea.
- Trace the cause of the evil thought and reflect on whether it will serve any useful purpose.
- Struggle directly with the evil thought to crush it.
Meditation is a continual effort to pull the mind back. With practice, one can keep the mind focused steadily for longer periods. Eventually efforts will culminate in one-pointedness of mind, samadhi.
With samadhi, the meditator contemplates existence, beginning vipassana-bhavana. The meditator investigates the “five aggregates,” seeing that the body and mind consist of fleeting factors. There is no substantial self. As the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of the five aggregates become manifest, one realizes that nothing conditioned is worth clinging to. This is pañña, wisdom.
With the development of wisdom, ignorance ceases. Craving and kamma, the fuel for becoming, are exhausted. The flame of existence burns out. Such a person who has reached the goal passes away, no longer takes rebirth. He has attained Nibbana, the Deathless.
12. Mindfulness of Breathing: A Practical Meditation
Mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) is an excellent meditation subject for busy laypeople, practiced safely by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Adopt a seated meditation posture, sit comfortably in full lotus, half-lotus, cross-legged, or on a chair. The torso should be erect but not stiff; the hands should be placed one over the other on the lap; and the feet should rest on the floor.
Breathe calmly and naturally, mentally following the whole breath in and out. Fix attention on the nostrils, where the breath is felt most distinctly.
As observation proceeds, one concentrates more deeply, feeling light in body and mind, very calm and peaceful. When strong calm is established, one may turn attention towards vipassana, aiming to gain insight into the true nature of existence, leading to Nibbana.
Apart from ultimate benefits, mindfulness of breathing has immediate value. It promotes detachment and objectivity, allowing mental distance to make wise decisions. Regular practice brings concentration, self-control, improved mindfulness, and healthy living.
13. Facing Death with Equanimity
Death is certain, yet how many plan for it? All humans must die. The body disintegrates. The only thing that remains with us is our kamma. Our deeds continue, bringing a new life until all craving is extinguished. We evolve according to kamma.
The materialistic view that a human is a biological result that terminates in death is inadequate. Heredity cannot explain why twins exhibit different characteristics. Moreover, science struggles accounting for infant prodigies.
A Buddhist plans for death and trains to face it with equanimity. The best plan is a virtuous life. The devoted Buddhist observes the Five Precepts, performs kind acts, and lessens greed and hate. A blameless life is solace at death.
In preparing for death, a householder should fulfill obligations to family and religion, leaving behind income, making a will, planning funeral arrangements, and providing funds for virtuous monks.
The Buddha taught lay followers to reflect on death: “Death is certain, life is uncertain.” This reminds us to put our house in order without delay. The world would be happier if people heeded this call.
14. Becoming a Good Buddhist
This essay helps the Buddhist lay follower understand the Buddha’s teachings as they bear on daily life. Constant practice builds these principles into character.
A lay follower must keep the Five Precepts, developing virtue. Cultivation of the mind is crucial. One must be mindful of unwholesome states and know how to deal with them. One should cultivate the mind through meditation for tranquility and insight.
Our society is a reflection of our minds. If it has become corrupt, it is because people have drifted into corrupt states of mind. One individual may not change society, but each can transform their own mind by observing the Five Precepts, being mindful, cleansing the mind, cultivating the four sublime states, meditating daily, and listening to discourses. These guidelines reap peace of mind.
A good Buddhist seeks opportunities to do deeds of mercy and charity, helping those less fortunate. When giving, one should give with discrimination: viceyya danam databbam.
A good Buddhist should review the day’s happenings, seeing if they have strayed from the teachings. Methodical reading on the Dhamma will put life into perspective. Read a daily discourse, such as the Maha-Mangala Sutta, or recite verses of the Dhammapada. Doing so clarifies thinking and recalls values.
The Buddha’s teachings consist of virtue, concentration, and wisdom. Practicing these will ensure the flourishing of the Buddha-Dhamma.
By following these guidelines, a good Buddhist will grow in all aspects of the Dhamma, molding their personality and disciplining the will, conducing to the best interest of oneself, and helping to make one’s life a blessing for others as well.
May you and I and all other beings be well and happy.
