2023-07-25 The First Precept, or not to kill the mind of compassion and reverence

6:43PM Jul 30, 2023

Speakers:

Sensei Amala Wrightson

Richard von Sturmer

Keywords:

mindfulness

precepts

violence

compassion

killing

people

life

action

non violence

anger

violent

view

ancestors

nonviolent action

talking

suffering

love

harm

fear

zen teacher

The talk you're about to hear is by Zen teacher, Sensei Amala Wrightson.

Today is the 25th of July 2023. And going to take a little look at some aspects of the first precept - not to kill, but to cherish your life - really want to talk and explore a little bit about non-violence.

And I'll be reading again from a book that I've read before and promised we do more from. It's called "Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet." And it's a posthumous publication of Thich Nhat Hanh. It's got his teachings gathered together and organized in a new format, plus some of his disciples, especially Sister True Dedication.

I settled on this because we did do Jukai about 10 days ago now, and doing it reminded me of how central the precepts are to the practice of Zen. There there's very much not an added extra but but a distillation of, of how a bodhisattva conducts him or herself. Gonna almost look at them as a kind of operating manual. What does true nature in action look like? What does compassionate and wise action look like? Another way of putting it would be what does the Buddha do? Would the Buddha do in a situation we can we can go to the precepts to to investigate that question. We also had a reminder last Thursday morning that New Zealand is no no longer immune to acts of senseless violence. We had the shooting downtown building site to two workers on the building site were cooled solo Moana tall, tall and tupuna silly piano to men in their 40s for others still in hospital now. And the gunman also killed in an exchange of fire with the police met matter matter to read the background to the incident is just coming out slowly as it's investigated. But apparently Martin Reid had attacked somebody the night before the the shootings and threatened to take her out. He's wearing an ankle bracelet and this was on for a previous conviction for domestic violence. This struck me this phrase take her out sounds like something from a game or a cartoon. And we can just wonder what influences he might have had on him or whole set of causes and conditions behind what happened

what produces people who are so dysregulated you could say so toxic? I think here of the statement made by way number six the ancestor of Zen. He said when I am in the wrong I alone am to blame. When others are in the wrong I too am to blame. This is a unique kind of way of of taking responsibility.

The

First for five of our precepts have been reworded in the Order of Interbeing technology enhance community in ways that I think can, can be quite, quite helpful and bring out this, this two sided. Truth, the Truth of, of we we alone are to blame for our

missteps and, and it also at the same time, we, we have a role to play in the missteps of others. And we'll, I'll just read out the, the order event of beings rewording of the precept or not to kill or expansion of it. And it's also of note that they call these not precepts, but mindfulness trainings. The mindfulness training on reverence for life. And, and, sort of true dedication says that these trainings are not a philosophy, but a philosophy, but quite literally a training, something we train towards. Thought she also suggested it can be used as a, an, a kind of the text to meditate on and to bring up to contemplate. So in through this becomes more internalized, but here it is. Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion, and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world. In my thinking, or in my way of life. Very, very important, this is working on our own inner violence as well as that around us. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non discrimination and non attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world. So quite broad quite a steep teaching in terms of really realizing all the aspects of it. It reminds me a little bit of, of have a line that appears in the Jukai, which is the book of koans. On the precepts, which one does is part of the koan curriculum, where it says to refrain from killing the mind of compassion and reverence, to refrain that this is what the spirit of the precept first precept is to refrain from killing the mind of compassion and reverence. This is this is how we cherish life by by cultivating this mind of compassion and reverence guarding it protecting it nurturing it

going to read some passages for this and from this chapter on the rate of reverence for life and comment on some of them.

So just a little bit about and this is from SR two through dedication, without the word for path. She says in spirit in Sanskrit, the word for Perth is Marga. Not some kind of well worn road, but a craggy path winding its way up the mountains in time in the up the mountain. In times like ours, it may be hard to see a path forward, everything is so foggy and uncertain. How can we trust what we see? Which way should we go? As you will discover in this book, mindfulness is a path not at all, is not a tool to get something. Even if that something is relaxation, concentration, peace or awakening is not a means to an end. A means to improve productivity, wealth or success. In true mindfulness, we arrive at the destination every step of the way. That destination is compassion, freedom, awakening, peace and non fear. True mindfulness can never be separated from ethics. If the insight you get from mindfulness is real, it will change how you see the world and how you want to live. And we can we can substitute practice here for mindfulness that our practice is not a tool to get something not a means to an end, but that an end in itself giving rise moment by moment to these qualities that are the the result of practice.

Okay, just skipping forward here, but this passages is headed, do you love yourself yet

if you don't respect yourself, it will be difficult to love and respect others or the earth when you're caught and the idea that this body is you, or this mind is you, you under missed estimate your value. But when you can free yourself from the notion of self and see your body and mind as a stream of being of all your ancestors, you'll begin to treat your body and mind with more respect. And this is a lovely, a lovely term here you can see your body and mind as a stream of being of all your ancestors.

So often we can have very, very rigid ideas about ourselves and our deficits. And, and good points and these can become very set. That if we if we start to see that actually our mind and body are quite fluid, this can be very liberating. You may feel that you don't deserve love. But everyone needs love even the Buddha. Without love we cannot survive. So we shouldn't discriminate against ourselves. You need love. You deserve it. Everyone deserves love. For ancestors, your ancestors in you all need love. So why deprive them of love. They are still alive in every cell of your body. Perhaps in their lifetime they did not get enough love. But now we have a chance to offer them love by loving and taking care of ourselves. And we can understand the way that we that we return the love of appearance and grandparents and ancestors is by loving people now here paying it forward

you are one of the wonders of life. Even if you believe otherwise. Even if you despise yourself or think of the Think of yourself as nothing but suffering. The maple tree out side is also a wonder and so as the orange you are about to peel and you who are about to peel the orange and eat it. You are also a wonder it is only your anger fear and complexes that prevents you from seeing it. You are as wondrous is the sunshine and the blue sky. Match to read was a wonder.

Someone, many people probably had contributed to his not being able to see this

he continues, it is possible to train ourselves to be able to breathe in and out mindfully, and recognize the many good things that have transmitted been transmitted to us. The seeds of compassion, understanding love and forgiveness. We can have confidence in ourselves because we can see our ancestors in us. There is democracy today because our ancestors fought hard for it. We have beautiful series, large literature, music, philosophy and wisdom. Because our ancestors have created them. Your ancestors are there in you. If they can do it, you can do it. You believe in yourself and you trust that you can continue what they could not do in their lifetime. He starts off this paragraph saying it's possible to train ourselves to be able to breathe in and out mindfully perhaps the outcome would have been different if magic Reed had learned how to breathe how to work with very strong powerful being gripped by by these emotions. Anger specifically I wonder what what he knew of his tupuna and how that might have might have changed things we don't know.

In this is SR true dedication speaking.

She's talking here about about how we, how we integrate mindfulness into our lives. She says. When I was working in London as a young journalist for BBC News, I had already begun studying with Tay at Plum Village. Tay as the as the term used, I guess a little bit like, like Sensei, or Roshi. When talking about Signet, Han. She didn't she says, I asked a nun how I could keep my practice going. When I got back to the city. And she told me I needed to create islands of mindfulness in my day. She recommended I get off the bus early and we'll walk more of the distance to work. You just need to choose a stretch to walk and mindfulness. It won't get wed any minutes to your day, and it will keep your energy of mindfulness alive. I chose a shortcut through a churchyard and every day crossing the street and stepping through the gate. I entered a realm of full awareness. I could hear the traffic see the trees, listen to the birds feel the pulse of the metropolis, in followed every single step and breathe. Sometimes if my thoughts were overtaking me, I'd pull up short stop right there. Take a deep breath and recalibrate the pace. I have never felt so close to the soul of the city, as I did in those few moments of crossing the churchyard. One of today's close friends and students is a remarkable Zen teacher, Dr. Larry wood ward. He writes about the healing power of being with his wonders in his recent book, America's racial Dharma record, sorry, America's racial karma. An invitation to heal. And this is him talking. When I'm in the natural world outside. I am moved by the experience of being not judged and I unharmed by the politics of my skin. I hold a friend told a friend recently that I have never been disrespected or intentionally caused to suffer by a tree or a rock. I touch the wonders of life daily and in doing so I nourish my heart and mind with the flow of beauty vastness and gratitude as they rebalance wellness and my nervous system. Again, if Matthew Reed had been able to, to walk down to the waterfront and just experience the sea lapping against the peers if he'd been able to breathe, and stop and breathe, it's possible that lives could have been saved.

Next section is headed the art of non violence. The word for non violence in Sanskrit is a Ahimsa it means not harming, not causing harm to life, to ourselves and to others. The word non violence may give the impression that you're not very active that you're passive. But that's not true. To live peacefully, with non violence is an art. And we have to learn how to do it. non violence is not a strategy, a skill or a tactic to arrive at some kind of goal. It is the kind of action or response that springs from understanding and compassion. As long as you have understanding and compassion in your heart, everything you do will be nonviolent. He's talking here about deep understanding and compassion, imperturbable understanding and compassion. That as soon as you become dogmatic about being non violent, you will no longer non violent. The spirit of non violence should be intelligence. A police officer can carry a gun with non violence because of the use their calm and compassion to solve difficult situations. They don't need to use the gun. They may look as though they're ready to use violence, but their heart and mind can be non violent, it is possible to arrest handcuffed and handcuff and imprison a criminal with compassion. And also even from the Mahayana point of view, is it possible that we uphold the precepts by killing someone? And the sort of situation that we saw on Thursday? Was it exactly one of those where you have somebody who's shooting people, then in that situation, the modus Mahayana view? Is that that that one can shoot somebody and still uphold the precept? Of course, what what is crucial here is what is going on in the person's mind? Who does the shooting? And that's where the training comes in how, how the police are trained to deal with that situation? Are they they filled with fear and aggression? Or can they can they come to it with a with a mind of compassion of doing the least harm possible?

technolon goes on to say that sometimes non action is violence, if you allow others to kill and destroy, although you are not doing anything, you are also implicit in that violence. So violence can be action or non action. There's a very powerful film called the show, which is about I think it's about eight hours long. But one of the questions they ask is asked was about the trains that took the many, many millions to of the Europe, Jews, to the outfits and the other camps, and how it was that so many people saw these trains but did nothing about it. Non action as violence. Nonviolent action is also long term action. In the realm of education, agriculture and art you can enjoy. You can introduce nonviolent thinking, nonviolent action, helping people remove discrimination as a fundamental action of non violence. Because violence comes from discrimination from hatred, fear and anger. Long term action, one of the problems we we come up against again and again, in, in New Zealand politics is the shortness of electoral cycle, and how parties get caught up in, in presenting solutions, short term long term solutions and their long term ones can be, can be lost. This has been an effort to develop a wrap around response to young offenders, with all the different agencies all cooperating to try and change the behavior and the attitude of some of these young offenders. And for about 80% of them there is in the time so far, they haven't reoffended today for about an hour. Richard and I went to a tea and afternoon tea, in which the Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Cipollone was present, along with Priyanka Radhakrishnan, our MP for this area among Akia. And they were talking about this, these programs that are being rolled out in different parts first in South Auckland, and in West Auckland, and now central Auckland, and the effects that they're having. But this is not visible to most people. And people want to see punishment they want to see CIT quick change when these, these these kids. It's not it's not been a quick process that has gotten them to where they are. So it takes it takes patience and it takes will to stick with these programs which are not going to have quick results, but will will least give these kids the chance to change.

Discrimination itself is a kind of violence. When you discriminate you don't give the other person a chance you don't include them. And so inclusiveness and tolerance are very important in the practice of non violence. You respect the life and dignity of each person, helping people transform discrimination, hatred, fear and anger before they become action. This is nonviolent action, and it's something you can begin doing right now. Don't wait to be confronted by a difficult situation to decide whether to act violently or non violently.

non violence can never be absolute. We can only say that we should be as non violent as we can think this is an important point. We we do as much as we can hitting in that direction. But for instance just trying to avoid killing, killing insects. We know that they're just in, in food gathering and preparation there's going to be killing there is inherent in life itself. This

goes on to talk about the military. When we think of the military we think that what military the military does is only violent, but there are many ways of conducting an army protecting a town and stopping an invasion. There are more violent ways and less violent ways. You can always choose. Perhaps it's not possible to be 100% non violent, but 80% non violent is better than 10%. Don't ask for the absolute you cannot be perfect. You do your best. That is what's needed. What is important is that you're determined to go in the direction of understanding and compassion. non violence is like a North Star. We have only to do our best. And that is good enough north star in the sense that something we navigate by but we never actually reach it, we don't touch it. But we head that way we orient ourselves that way.

And these are not easy decisions to make. For instance, the very, very disheartening to hear that the the Ukrainian government is is now using these cluster weapons because what they are doing in using them and they obviously think it's necessary from a military point of view, but what they're doing is they're be quitting blown off limbs and injuries to their own children. Because that's the terrible thing about these munitions is they leave all these bomblets unexploded bomblets in the soil, and then they get they get found often with horrible consequences.

violence and war do not always involve weapons. Every time you have a thought that is full of anger and misunderstanding, that is also war. War can manifest through our way of thinking, speaking and acting. We may be living at war, fighting with ourselves and those around us, without even knowing it. There. There may be a few moments of ceasefire, but most moments are war of war. Don't transform yourself into a battlefield. Suppressing or resisting your feelings can also be a kind of psychological violence, in Buddhism. In meditation, we trained to be there for our suffering, anger, hatred, or despair. Allow the energy of mindfulness, mindfulness to gently embrace and penetrate whatever feeling is there. You allow it to be you embrace it, and you help it transform. Then all of us, sooner or later have to deal with with a kind of inner violence

if not, if not hatred, then aversion, strong aversion. aversion to our own minds, we often don't like ourselves or despairing of ourselves

even an economic system can be very violent. Although you don't see guns and bombs, it is still utterly violent because there's a kind of prison that prevents people from being included it's some material came from the Salvation Army told us the other day and it mentioned in one of its pamphlets that one in five children are now in a family that relies on welfare. one and five and of course, that welfare is not actually enough to cover the living costs completely. It's certainly a kind of violence or an even describe it as kind of torment to be expecting people to raise their families without enough to do so enough money to do so. The

suffering in that in being set up for failure really. Because there are many organ organizations staffed with with compassionate people who are very much trying to make up for this deficit. But it's, it's it's a violent situation.

He goes on the little bit a little bit later to talk about the time, his time in before he left Vietnam, and how he for a while, considered joining them. The Marxists, the freedom fighters, because he was he was impressed by their, their their passion and their willingness to die for their cause into they they wanted the one to three improvement in their in their country. But the more he looked, the more he saw that he really wasn't wanting to go the route down the route of, of violent revolution, because he might have to end up killing people harming people. He says, the principle of not harming or killing is very important. You try to help to save others because you have compassion in your heart. Compassion is a powerful energy that allows us to do anything we can to help reduce the suffering around us in engaged action, you don't have to die to get your message across, you have to be alive in order to continue. We can get sent to prison, we can protest. But even if our protest is very strong, we can we have to remember that protesting may not be able to remove the fear, the anger, and the craving in those we are protesting against a very important point, real protests is to help them wake up and take a new direction direction to do this is real action. We can do it by setting an example. Even if we know if we're very right in our cause, create a line with realities as much as we can be. If the people that we're fighting against are coming out of a place of fear and anger and craving, then there's only so much change that will happen. That's that's where training and meditation comes in. Because if we can, if we can train ourselves, liberate our minds, then we can offer that that liberation to others. Still, of course, they have to be ready to take it up. But there is that dimension of it. And often this is done by setting an example. Not what we say but what we do and how we do it. The types of communities that create we create together places of have relative peace and non harm non violence is he gives various examples of this, to consume in a way that protects the planet, to speak and listen in a way that transforms anger and division. To live simply. This is a radical way of peacemaking, you embody good health for yourself and for the world and live in such a way that proves a future can be possible.

There's always the danger that violence will harden people's attitudes. You see this in relation to the the youth crime wave, that it just most people should push us into a more a more punitive and extreme position.

And that goes means more harm to the very ones who are being punished or oppressed. The laws, the laws, this repressive laws just perpetuate the cycle of harm. Next session section is headed up not taking sides

it talks about his own organization during the war, which was already of course once war has started A huge polarization. That's that's really what war is when when people the people's ability to, to communicate and to deal with the conflict is broken down. He says during the War, Vietnam War, there was a lot of fear, anger and fanaticism. The communists wanted to destroy the anti communists, and the anti communists wanted to destroy the communists. We imported foreign ideologies and weapons. And soon brothers were killing brothers. The two blocks were being supported by International armies, money's money and weapons. Each side was convinced that their view was the best. And they were ready to die for their view. In good describes how his organization decided and made it made a conscious decision to not take sides. And they got punished for that. He says that at least when you're you take sides you have the protection of the side you take. But when you take you when you don't take sides, you're you're literally in some cases shot by both sides. His organization's called the School of youth for social service. And they did in fact get attacked from by the both the communists and the anti communists. He tells a story of one one night when armed men broke into the compact the compound and took five of the social workers. And they took them to the banks of the Saigon River, and ask them any questions. And when they can, they can was confirmed that they were members of the school of youth for social service. They said, We are sorry, we received orders to shoot you. And they will though all five of them were shot on the spot. One fell into the river and survived. And he was the one who came back to tell the tale of what had happened. We kill each other because we do not know who we really are. In order to kill someone. First of all, you have to give them a label the label of enemy. Only if we see someone as our enemy, can we shoot them without hesitation. But as long as we still see their a person and other human beings being we can never pull the trigger. And so behind violence and killing is the idea that the other person is evil, that there is no goodness left in them. Our view is clouded by hatred, we believe the other side to be a villain. And yet that villain is only a view an idea. In Buddhism, the sort of insight is, first of all, to cut off the view, the label, in this case that a person or a group of people is evil. These These labels are dangerous. They have to be cut off. Views can destroy human beings, they can destroy love. And then he says Our enemy is not other people. Our enemy is hatred, violence, discrimination and fear. We saw we saw the way views can polarize people during the pandemic. People know that even even in our Sangha, we lost members because of our position, whether they were people feeling that we couldn't live with the restrictions on and of people having to be vaccinated for that time when there was a requirement, and also people who felt we didn't do enough in response to anti Vax positions. So very painful. In the case of the School of youth for social service, after this incident, they put it out that they that they did not see the killers as the enemy. They this they made this very clear. And apparently after this they were no longer attacked. So some some things I'm missing seem to have gotten got through to the to their attackers, about where they were coming from.

He says many people misunderstood us, yet we still continued with our path, because we had faith in ourselves and our values. include faith in our values. We had learned the truth that the root of suffering and violence is intolerance, dogmatism and attachment to views. In such a situation it is very important to not be attached to views, doctrines or ideologies, including Buddhist ones. This is very radical, it is the lion's roar. This is the sutra that we just studied. The three Sundays, the Diamond Sutra, this was one of the teachings of the sutra is even the Dharma you can become attached to him and we've got to release that that attachment somewhere in his writings, take not Han says that he would rather see have seen Buddhism wiped out in Vietnam than to have fought for it violently.

Time is up just finish off with one little story and and going back to our presets, and this is a good sister true dedication. She tells the story of somebody called Sherry Maples who was a student of taking out hands and she was a police officer in Madison Wisconsin. And she says to Trudy get dedication says she was sharp, strong and formidable with bright eyes that were at once fierce and tenderly compassionate as only a bodhisattvas can be. Sherry was a truth teller and a fierce fearless spirit. In her life and action. She demonstrated that with a strong personal spiritual practice and a community to take refuge in, it is possible to realize far more than we ever thought possible. Sherry's first retreat with Tay was transformative. She loved the meditation, she loved the spirit of community, and was determined to continue her practice when she went home. But the practice of non violence and non killing seemed irreconcilable with her job. She carried a gun for a living. When she asked Tay about it, the response was, who else would we want to see have carry a gun, but somebody who could do it mindfully. Compassion can be gentle and compassion can be fierce. And as cherry learned from teh wisdom is knowing when to employ the gentle compassion of understanding and when to employ the fierce compassion of good boundaries. Sherry became a real police police officer. And over the course of her career, took her insights further working to change and shift the culture around racial profiling, militarization and police standards for using deadly force. So another encouraging story. So to finish with just to repeat this mindfulness training one more time, and then we'll recite the Four Vows. Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion, and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others killed, and not to support any act of killing in this world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non discrimination, and non attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself, and in the world. Now, recite the Four Vows all beings without number five to liberate.

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