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The Ethical Heart (1 of 5) Ethical Sensitivity

So, my friends, welcome to the beginning of this series of talks for this week. The topic is an English concept which is often considered very important in Buddhism, but for which, oddly enough, we maybe don't have a good Pali^[1] equivalent—or it's not what we think it is in the Buddhist teachings. And that is the word "ethics."

I'm going to talk a little bit about ethics in Buddhism. It's partly a small response to what's happening in this country and around the world with the fight for justice, and an attempt to understand more deeply how we can respond and how we can be changed by what's happening. Without wanting to be changed, without thinking about how we want to be different so we can be a person, a vehicle, and an instrument of support and betterment for the world, we miss a valuable opportunity.

Today will serve as an introduction to this topic. In English—and it certainly was this way for me when I was young—the word "ethics" by itself often doesn't inspire. It's not a warm and inspiring word for some people; sometimes it's even off-putting. But the adjective "ethical" has very different associations. An "ethical person" seems like someone who is living from goodness and integrity, someone we can trust. Yet someone who just "lives by ethics" can seem removed from themselves, almost as if they are merely living by rules they have to follow.

In Buddhist language, if we apply the word "ethics" to the Buddha, I would say he's less interested in ethics as an abstract concept of moral principles and more interested in the formation and creation of ethical people. His way of understanding people, especially regarding the societal issues and the caste or class system of his time, was to look at their actions. What are they doing? Are they doing actions which are ethical in nature, or are they not? Over and over again, his measure of people was seeing what they would actually do.

Sweeping the Courtyard

There is a little Zen story. In Zen—or I could say in the Buddhism I practice—there are always two things, and maybe only two things: there is meditation, and then there is sweeping the temple courtyard.

But the temple courtyard doesn't end at the gate of the temple. The idea is that in meditation, we wake up. We become sensitive, caring, awake, and free beings. That is one thing. Then, it's doing something for the world: sweeping the world, cleaning the world, and bettering the world. The courtyard doesn't stop at the monastery; the whole world is our courtyard.

This idea of sweeping is such an ordinary activity. I've done a lot of sweeping in monasteries—just an ordinary, wonderful morning activity. Most often, we did it right after meditation in the morning. We would wake up for meditation, sometimes do some morning chanting, and then go out and sweep. It was a wonderful way of being present in the clear, early morning, cool air. Through the physical activity of sweeping, I just kind of entered into that simple, ordinary world. Expanding that simple, ordinary caring into all the issues of our life and the world—caring for social justice in a clear and engaged way—comes directly out of our freedom found in that simplicity.

There's a story from my book, A Monastery Within, that goes like this. The title is "The True Self."

A woman came to the monastery determined to ask the abbess how she could discover her true self. She had assumed many identities over her lifetime, most of them identities others had expected her to have. When she presented her concern, the abbess replied, "Since knowing the true self is so important for you, you should ask this question of someone who has fully penetrated this issue. We have a very learned monk here in the monastery who has read every Buddhist scripture and the many commentaries. He has studied with some of the greatest Buddhist teachers of his age. He has spent years meditating and has deep realization. Come, I will introduce you to him."

The abbess led the woman into the courtyard where a solitary monk was absorbed in sweeping.

"That is him," said the abbess. "When you're interested in the true self, it's important not to be abstract. Don't ask what the true self is; ask him what is his true self."

Shyly, but with great hope, the woman walked up to the monk and said, "What is your true self?"

The monk smiled and continued to sweep.

Going back to the abbess, the woman said, "He didn't answer my question. Quite the opposite."

"He gave you the most precise answer he could at this time," said the abbess. "When he sweeps, his true self is sweeping."

Sīla and Kusala

This is a kind of often-told story^[2] showing that our actions define us, create who we are, or express who we are. Ethics has a lot to do with what we do. On one hand, the word sīla^[3], which is often translated as ethics or virtue in the Buddhist teachings, explicitly refers to what we do. It focuses on actions of body and speech, and ensuring those actions are ethical in nature.

But the Buddha is concerned with more than just body and speech; he is also deeply concerned with the inner life—the mind and the heart. He doesn't call the ethical quality of the inner life sīla. There is an overarching word that actually expresses the English concept of "ethics" much better than sīla does, and that is the word kusala^[4].

Kusala is often translated as wholesomeness or skillfulness. I'll talk more about this word as we go through the week, but this is a key term in the teachings of the Buddha that maps closer to our English idea of the ethical. Rather than asking, "Is it ethical?", the Buddhist approach asks, "Is it kusala? Is it wholesome? Is it skillful?" You get somewhat different connotations and associations with the word "wholesome" than you do with "ethical," and that highlights the difference between Western orientations around ethics and Buddhist ones.

As I've said, the word "ethics" doesn't have a perfect match in the ancient teachings of the Buddha. What is interesting about that is what it implies: not that Buddhists are unethical, but rather that ethics is not treated as an independent topic. It is entirely integrated into the whole path. The Buddhist path is an ethical path, a kusala path, a wholesome path from the beginning to the end.

The development of the path of liberation in Buddhism could equally be called the development of the ethical path, where we become more and more ethical. It isn't that sīla is just the starting point—that you simply get your ethics in order so you can go and practice what's higher. Cultivating an ethical being is an intimate, integral part of every single step along the Eightfold Path to full liberation.

Ethical Sensitivity

Talking about ethics this week is not about focusing on an incidental topic, or "kindergarten Buddhism," or a form of ethics that might feel oppressive. The ethical movement of Buddhism is a liberating opening because it is completely intimate with the path of liberation itself. That's one of the main points I'd like to emphasize here: what we call ethical cultivation in English is inseparable from becoming more liberated and more awake in Buddhism. The two go hand in hand.

As we build on this, we will talk about the fundamental aspects of this ethical path and the principles that support it. Finding our way to becoming an ethical person has a lot to do with using our body as an instrument of knowledge, awareness, and sensitivity. The idea that the body itself is the vehicle for becoming liberated and ethical is an essential part of this practice.

How does that work? What are the challenges and joys of really connecting deeply and using the body as the vehicle for becoming ethical, as opposed to pulling out the law books of Buddhism to see what the rules are?

It's a very different orientation. It is about cultivating ethical sensitivity for living a wholesome life that contributes to the welfare and happiness of all beings. I hope going through this topic will be interesting and valuable for you this week. I'm certainly looking forward to exploring the different perspectives and aspects of this deeply important subject.

Thank you.