Marc Estrin

BUDDHATALK

How different our ideals and our applications! Alan once had a serious interest in Buddhism. He probably still thinks of himself as a Buddhist, perhaps even a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others. Here is a paper he once wrote, for a college religion class, "Buddhatalk: Right Livelihood and the Eightfold Path"(1982). Perhaps he should read it again.

APPENDIX (C). A COURSE THAT MADE AN IMPACT -- FOR A WHILE

Alan Krieger

World Religions 155

Prof. Chuang

Final Project, Spring 1982

BUDDHATALK: RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AND THE EIGHTFOLD PATH

Buddhism. What a vision! How simple its assumptions, how clear its logic, how noble its goal:

Buddhism aims at creating a society where the ruinous struggle for power if renounced; where calm and peace prevail away from conquest and defeat; where the persecution of the innocent is vehemently denounced; where one who conquers oneself is more respected than those who conquer millions by military and economic warfare; where hatred is conquered by kindness and evil by goodness; where enmity, jealousy, ill-will and greed do not infect men’s minds; where compassion is the driving force of action; where all, including the least of living things, are treated with fairness, consideration and love; where life in peace and harmony, in a world of material contentment, is directed towards the highest and noblest aim, the realization of the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana. 

I am about to go out into the world to find a job. As I look in the papers, I am attracted by the prospect of a good starting salary writing for a large corporation. But what effect would I be having? How much destruction would my personal livelihood create? Will my college education have any effect on my choice of job? Buddhism seems to be a context in which no one could even consider working for a defense industry, say, or a legal firm protecting the rich, or in public relations selling unnecessary of polluting devices at the expense of the planet. Will I be able to carry what I have learned in this course into my life? 

The Four Noble Truths

Buddha the prince, having seen sickness, old age and death, left the world of his father to find the true way of life. His first sermon contains the seed thoughts of the rest of his life and work: the Four Noble Truths:

1. That life is suffering.

2. That desire is the cause of all suffering.

3. That the cessation of desire will lead to the cessation of suffering, and

4. That the Noble Eightfold Path is the route which will lead to the goal, the abolition of suffering -- Nirvana.

The Eightfold Path is traditionally presented in the following way:

Wisdom -- Panna

1. Right Understanding

2. Right Thought

Ethical Conduct, Morality -- Sila

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood

Mental Discipline -- Samadhi

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness

8. Right Concentration

What is interesting about this arrangement is that this is not the order in which the path is to be walked. While on the one hand each of the elements supports all the others, mental discipline creating wisdom, wisdom leading to mental discipline, wisdom and mental discipline giving birth to an ethical life, an ethical life creating the conditions for mental discipline and wisdom -- still, the Buddha, a master teacher, had a pedagogy in mind: “There is a beginning, elementary level in the educational strategy of Buddhism. The Buddha exhorted his disciples ‘first to establish themselves in virtue before entering on the path of meditation and wisdom.’”

The Buddha’s exposition of the Dhamma was methodical. He would not talk of the Four Noble Truths, the essence of his teaching, to everyone he met. When he knew that a person was not mature enough to grasp the deeper doctrine, he would instruct him only on the simpler side of the Dhamma in a progressive manner: he would speak to him of charitable giving, dana, of virtue of moral habits, sila, of the heavens....These are the simpler aspects of the teaching....The practice of dana and sila according to Buddhism is instrumental in causing a good rebirth, i.e., a rebirth in a good state of existence, but it does not bring about release from suffering, cessation from becoming -- Nirvana. When the Master knew that a person’s mind was ready, pliable, void of hindrances, uplifted, pleased, only then did he explain to him the Dhamma which the Enlightened Ones themselves have discovered, the Dhamma

 peculiar to them: dukkha (suffering), its arising, its ceasing, and the path.

The beginning of the path, as taught by the Buddha, centered around the third, fourth, and fifth steps, the area of moral and ethical conduct -- right speech, right action and right livelihood -- and this is a very important point for me. At this time of my life, I am in need of concrete advice; the more abstract notions of right understanding and right thought, the more intrusive practices of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration -- all these can follow. This have I heard: get your foot in the door. There is a beginning at which to begin, and the question of right livelihood comes up right away.

But there is a problem. The moral foundation on which the Buddha’s teaching is built is formulated at the “Five Precepts”:

1. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from harming living things.

2. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from taking what is not given.

3. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from a misuse of the senses.

4. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from wrong speech.

5. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from taking drugs or drinks which tend to cloud the mind.

Anyone who is serious about embracing Buddhism -- even a lay person like me -- is invited to take upon himself these rules of training to aid his search for harmony and happiness. “There is no lawgiver, there are no commandments, but there is an appeal to common sense and to social order” in constructing an outer life. But this kid from the Bronx does not exactly embrace -- at least explicitly -- the Five Precepts. Especially the last. And maybe the first if you count the cockroaches in our apartment as living things. So now what?

One useful thing is the almost literal echo of the first four Precepts in the Ten Commandments:

-- Thou shalt not kill.

-- Thou shalt not steal.

-- Thou shalt not commit adultery.

-- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

The first prohibition is fairly absolute, even in America under Ronald Reagan. The second is widely honored. The third is as solid and as fragile as the institution of marriage itself. And the fourth is generally honored -- except in government. So there is some basis of commonality, some shared starting point. And since I already subscribe to these notions -- even in theory -- I’m already committed to Right Action, which

aims at promoting moral, honorable and peaceful conduct. It admonishes us that we should abstain from destroying life, from stealing, from dishonest dealings, from illegitimate sexual intercourse, and that we should also help others to lead a peaceful and honorable life in the right way.

The precept about wrong speech is simply the negative formulation of the “Right Speech” of the Eightfold Path, which

means abstention 1) from telling lies, 2) from backbiting and slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups of people, 3) from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious and abusive language, and 4) from idle, useless and foolish babble and gossip. When one abstains from these forms of wrong and harmful speech one naturally has to speak the truth, has to use words that are friendly and benevolent, pleasant and gently, meaningful and useful. One should not speak carelessly: speech should be at the right time and place. If one cannot say something useful, one should keep “noble silence”.

This leaves us, then, with only Right Livelihood unspoken for, the third and last member of the Morality group. Right Livelihood is generally understood by Buddhists to mean

that one should abstain from making one’s living through a profession that brings harm to others, such as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks, poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc, and should live by a profession which is honorable, blameless and innocent of harm to others.

Though Buddha mentioned only five categories, there are, as we know, many more wrong ways of earning a living. Buddha was addressing Indian society in the sixth century B.C.E., which consisted for the most part, even as it does today, of farmers, herdsmen and traders. But one can clearly see here that Buddhism is strongly opposed to any kind of war, when it lays down that trade in arms and lethal weapons is an evil and unjust means of livelihood.

Right Livelihood, the fifth factor of the path

requires us to stop and consider how and why we are spending our working hours. It requires us to take time to think out and find some means of occupation which will be conducive to our own growth and development and which will, if possible, be beneficial to others. If a job helps us in our search for an understanding both of ourselves and of the world around us then it is, for us, samma ajiva -- no matter how futile and crazy it may seem to our friends and neighbors.

And certainly, in our culture, my quest for “Right Livelihood” might seem futile and crazy. Why cut myself off from a high-paying career to work in social or human services? And even if I were to base my decisions on ethical reasons, a little thought easily indicates the jungle of problems raised by any thorough-going attempt to practice samma ajiva -- Right Livelihood:

1. whether one can support, by working at all, paying taxes and accepting benefits, a government which is engaged in warfare, or actively preparing for it;

2. whether, in the name of the relief of human suffering, one can engage in medical research that involves sacrificing the lives of countless animals: and more subtly, whether one can prescribe, sell -- or even use -- those drugs which have been discovered and tested by means of such experiments;

3. whether one has the right to destroy disease-bearing insects, or work in the preparation of materials for that purpose;

4. whether the third and fourth precepts -- Right Speech, Right Action -- would prohibit one from working in advertising or mass production.

If, embracing the principle of Right Livelihood, I should decide against one job, how many jobs would be left for me in this country, at this time?

And so we see that ethics alone -- the beginning of the path -- must call for reinforcements. And they are readily at hand. “Sow a thought,” someone has said, “and you reap a deed.” Stepping back into the sphere of Right Action, I find two central and critical concepts.

Metta and Karuna

“Cultivate, Rahula,”, Buddha said to his son, “the meditation on metta (lovingkindness); for by cultivating 

metta, ill-will is banished. Cultivate, Rahula, the meditation on karuna (compassion); for by cultivating 

karuna, harm and cruelty are banished.”

Metta has no exact English equivalent. Friendliness, benevolence, good-will, universal love, lovingkindness are some of its renderings. “Metta is the wish for the welfare and happiness of all beings, making no restrictions whatever. It has the characteristics of a benevolent friend. Its direct enemy is ill-will (hatred), while the indirect or masked enemy is carnal love or selfish affectionate desire....”

Karuna, compassion, is defined as “the quality which makes the heart of the good man tremble and quiver at the distress of others,” “the quality that rouses tender feelings in the good man at the sight of others’ suffering.”

Compassion cannot be cultivated by one who is obsessed with thoughts of selfishness. It is the self-sacrificing man who fills his heart with pure thoughts of pity and wishes to help and serve others. The selfish cannot be of real service to others; for their selfish motives prevent them from doing good. No sooner do they become selfish and self-possessed than they fail to soften their hearts. Hard-heartedness is overcome by pity, by sympathy. If you remove 

karuna from the teachings of the Buddha you remove the heart of Buddhism; for all virtues, all goodness and righteousness have karuna as their basis, as their matrix. All the virtues...that a bodhisattva or one bent on enlightenment cultivate are initiated by compassion. Compassion should be guided by understanding and understanding by compassion. They go hand in hand and are the back-bone of Buddhism.

Here is the next stage of instruction, the Buddhist version of the Golden Rule: “As I am, so are they.” How much more thorough and persuasive it is than our more familiar western version -- “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How small and slippery “doing” seems as compared to “being”. One who truly could incorporate this simple saying would live continually in “The Four Sublime States”; unbounded loving kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha).

Metta and karuna are the touchstones that can infallibly guide all decisions concerning Right Livelihood. From here we can spin back to the metaphysical convictions of the Four Noble Truths, and the Wisdom categories of the Path. “The disease is Self: the only treatment must be recognition of the evils that come from the different forms of egoism, and the way to their elimination through knowledge of the fact that there is really no such thing as the self.”

An action is “good” or “bad” according to the manner in which it affects others. All criteria other than this must be misleading. An action which causes mental or physical pain to another being cannot by any interpretation be a good one. The sum total of suffering throughout the realms of sentient existence is so tremendous that no one should consider himself justified in increasing it by one iota. There is in fact one, and only one, root cause of actions which produce distress to others, and that is self-interest....Where there is the idea of self there exists the possibility of the arising of evil.

“So what if I don’t take that job with GE?” I ask myself. “Someone will take it instead of me, and the nuclear weapons will still get built.” The doctrine of Right Thought provides a clear answer to this objection:

Of necessity, man’s deeds must be determined by what he knows; and in most cases what he knows is pitifully little. It is for this reason that Buddhism does not concern itself with ultimate effects, but solely with the intention behind the willed act.... In all moral problems there is essentially only one question: Am i acting out of self-interest at the expense of another or not? To be able to answer that question without bias requires self-knowledge. Self knowledge is developed by meditation. Therefore the two should grow together.

And so now we are led ineluctably into the Samadhi section of the Path -- Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration -- work on oneself, shining the light inwards to infinity. We can see the great circle, the three groups of Wisdom, Ethics and Mental Discipline as a powerful flywheel driving Being higher and deeper. “The interplay of doctrine and discipline...or knowledge and conduct...constitute a single process of growth. ‘As hand washes hand and foot washes foot, so does conduct purify wisdom and wisdom conduct.’”

For all its metaphysics, the practice of Buddhism is extraordinarily simple: “not to harm others under any circumstances, and to help others as much as possible.” The Dalai Lama points to the ease and naturalness with which this teaching is available:

I think the essence of Buddhism is kindness, compassion. This is the essence of every religion, but particularly in Mahayana Buddhism. I think this is very important and everybody can practice it without deeper faith. Simply you are a human being; everybody appreciates kindness. In fact when we grow up, we grow up in the kindness of our parents and without that sort of kindness we cannot exist. This is very clear because today you find that children who are not brought up within the love of their parents, or where there is a disruption in the family, are later on psychologically affected.

We come back again to the question of leading with ethical behavior. Religious understanding and faith, according to the Dalai Lama, are NOT prerequisites to compassionate, loving behavior.

The development of a kind heart, or feeling of closeness for all human beings, does not involve any kind of the religiosity we normally associate with it. It is not just for people who believe in religion; it is for everyone, irrespective of race, religion or of any political affiliation. It is for anybody who considers himself first and foremost a member of the human family and who sees things in larger terms....The simple fact that every living being has the same right to and the same desire for happiness and not suffering, and the consideration that you as one individual are only life unit compared with the multitude of others in their ceaseless quest for happiness. Viewed thus, individual happiness ceases to be a conscious self-seeking effort; it automatically becomes a by-product, but by no means inferior in quality or quantity, of the whole process of loving and serving others.

Out of this simple and clear position comes a principled stance about war. “The Buddha placed great stress on the importance of not killing, and of choosing nonviolent means of resolving conflicts within and between nations....The traditional spirit of Buddhism is one of tolerance, nonviolence, and compromise.” The root cause of war arises from the ego-instinct, from a false understanding of Self in each individual. Political creeds, race antagonisms and patriotism are secondary, more superficial phenomena. The disease, once again, and always, is self.

The people cry aloud for peace with their tongues, while their ego-instinct craves for self-expression in conflict. Buddhism is the only teaching which attempts to curb this ego-instinct at its source, or which even sees the necessity for doing so; other religions are content to canalise it and provide an alternative to its cruder manifestations; the self is not subjugated, but merely harnessed to a higher motive, and that motive in itself may be (and usually is) diverted to the cause of war when occasion arises.

War is the condensation and face of suffering -- the First Noble Truth. And in it we see so clearly the Second Noble Truth:

The enemy of the whole world is lust, craving, or thirst through which all evils come to living beings. It is caused by the senses, wealth and property and by the wish to defeat others and conquer countries, but also attachment to ideals and ideas, to views, opinions and beliefs...which often lead to calamity and destruction and bring untold suffering to whole nations, in fact to the whole world.

Right Understanding and Thought, Right Speech and Action, Right Effort, Mindfulness and Concentration. The consequence? Right Livelihood, a world of humans working for others and thus for themselves. “Sow a thought, someone has said, and you reap a deed. Sow a deed, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny -- for character is destiny.” I hope this class in World Religions, and particularly Buddhism, will continue to enlighten me and guide me in my life choices.

A+ Excellent paper. You seem to be able to integrate academic work with real personal meaning. You may perhaps want to take your study of Buddhism further into practice, and begin sitting meditation, alone, or with a group. See me if you want to talk further about this. It was a pleasure to read your work. 

M.C. Chuang