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The Ethical Heart (5 of 5) The Roots of Ethics

So, again, greetings. This morning will be the last of the five talks on the general principles of early Buddhist ethics. Yesterday, I talked about the ten unskillful and ten skillful actions that the Buddha was very concerned about—how we act and live in the world. We want our actions, our behavior, and our relationship to other people to be skillful or wholesome. At least nine of those ten skillful actions have to do with our relationship to others in the world.

What is wholesome or skillful is to avoid killing and harming other beings, to avoid stealing, and to avoid hurting people through our sexuality and sexual behavior. It means avoiding lying, divisive or malicious speech, harsh speech, and pointless speech. It also includes avoiding being avaricious—meaning wanting the things of other people—and avoiding ill will. Those nine are all about how we are in relationship to other people. The Buddha put tremendous emphasis on this importance: to behave and act in ways that avoid harm and provide good for other people, to live for the welfare of others.

These ten skillful and unskillful actions are said to have roots. It is a plant metaphor: with some plants, if you just cut them off at the surface of the ground, the roots will sprout more. But if you uproot them, they do not grow anymore. The unskillful actions in the world, the Buddha said, always have one of three roots, and those are the roots that we want to uproot. Those roots are greed, hatred, and delusion. You will find Theravadan Buddhist teachers repeat these three over and over again. After a while, we get familiar with it, and it can almost feel like a bit too much to keep saying the same thing over and over again. I apologize for that, but it is so central to this tradition because those three are seen to be the psychological roots for all the ways in which we intentionally, consciously, and knowingly cause harm in the world. The idea is to live without causing harm. Therefore, greed, hatred, and delusion have a central role in the teachings of the Buddha: seeing how they work, becoming free of them, and being liberated from them.

There is a famous chapter in the Connected Discourses of the Buddha that, in Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation, is called the chapter on the unconditioned. It gives a whole series of 44 synonyms. I have heard Dharma teachers recite these synonyms as if they are all talking about Nibbana^[1] or liberation. The text is the same except these specific words change. These words are inspiring, and for some people, to settle back and just hear them can be quite moving: truth, the far shore, the un-aging, the stable, the unmanifest, the un-proliferated, the peaceful, the deathless, the sublime, the auspicious, the secure, the destruction of craving, the wonderful, the amazing, the un-ailing, Nibbana, the unafflicted, purity, freedom, the island, the shelter, the asylum, the refuge.

Great words. But when they are listed just as synonyms for Nibbana, we actually miss what the central teaching is in this chapter. They are not exactly synonyms for Nibbana. What they are synonyms for is something else, and we can see this with the very first one: the unconditioned. The first time this word appears, the text asks, "What is the unconditioned?" The Buddha says, "The unconditioned is the destruction of greed, hatred, and delusion. This is called the unconditioned." So, all those synonyms are being explained as synonyms for the destruction of greed, hatred, and delusion, more so than of each other. The emphasis, over and over again, is the destruction and the end of greed, hatred, and delusion. In fact, I think the most common definition for enlightenment is the ending of greed, hatred, and delusion.

Because greed, hatred, and delusion are the roots for unskillful, unethical behavior (what we would call akusala^[2]), the destruction of greed, hatred, and delusion has an ethical component. It is an ethical realization because the source, the motivation, and the impulse to be unethical are eliminated. In this way, enlightenment is indistinguishable from becoming completely ethical, in the sense of intentionally and consciously avoiding causing harm to anybody else. This is one of the themes for this week: how much what we would call ethics in English, and what we might call liberation in Buddhism, really should be seen as one and the same. They are inseparable.

To see how deep this is in the Buddha's teaching, I will read a passage. There is a very famous part of the liturgy in Theravada Buddhism that monastics chant every day about the Dharma: "The Dharma is visible here and now, immediate, inviting to be seen, onward leading, and to be personally realized by the wise." What does this mean specifically? The Buddha said: "When you know there is greed, hatred, or delusion within you, and when you know there is no greed, hatred, and delusion within you, then you know the Dharma that is visible here and now, immediate, inviting to be seen for oneself, onward leading, and to be personally realized by the wise."

The heart of the Dharma—what it really is when you want to know it for yourself—is not a metaphysical truth, a cosmic truth, a transcendent truth, or some reified state of consciousness. He is defining it here: you really know the Dharma when you know your own greed, hatred, and delusion. Hopefully, you see it with a beautiful mind, a beautiful awareness. And then you know when it is absent. You know that it is possible to have a mind and a heart that does not have greed, hate, and delusion. If you really know that in a deep way, then you know the Dharma. Then you know what is onward leading, and that you can move in this direction to mature and develop this wonderful capacity. In this way, the Buddha is giving priority to personal, empirical experience over any kind of teachings relied on through faith, texts, or teachers. You become your own teacher, discovering this through the sensitivity, mindfulness, and awareness to really know and feel greed, hate, and delusion.

I keep emphasizing this ethical sensitivity because we can actually feel the impact greed, hate, and delusion have on our system. To quote the Buddha, these unwholesome roots are suffering in this very life. They come with fixation, despair, and fever. He emphasizes that people who have the three unwholesome roots are injuring themselves, bringing harm, suffering, and discomfort to oneself. He shared this poem: "Greed, hatred, and delusion arisen from within oneself injure the person, as its own fruit destroys the reed." Apparently, there was a reed plant in ancient India where, when the fruit matured, it sapped the nutrients from the rest of the plant, and it died.

Sensing the dukkha^[3]—the pain of greed, hate, and delusion—is very important because it gives us the clue for how to be free. It gives us a sense that this is not what we want to do. The Buddha called it a thorn that we pull out of the heart. The absence of greed, hate, and delusion—a mind and heart that does not have it—is beautiful. The word kalyana^[4], sometimes translated into English as beauty, is associated with being virtuous or ethical. Even though "ethics" is not a word the Buddha used, he did talk about kalyana in terms of virtue, living an ethical life, and living by the precepts.

This motivation to live an ethical life in Buddhism arises from the inside out. We feel, sense, and experience what is really happening within, seeing how unskillful, unhealthy, and unethical behavior arises from ways we injure ourselves. The absence of it arises from what is actually nourishing and supportive, what is beautiful. This is why mindfulness is such an important quality. By being in the present moment, noticing what is here, and paying attention, we can become our own teacher and coach for what in English we call an ethical life, and what in Buddhism we call a life that doesn't cause harm in the world. It is a life concerned for the welfare and happiness of self, of others, and for the whole world. This is the definition of a wise, spiritually mature person in Buddhism. May it be so. Thank you for being here this week.

Announcements

We are going to transition now for those of you who want to go to Zoom to have a community meeting, a little bit more interaction, questions, or discussion with me. During this half hour together, we can do Zoom breakout groups with about five people. You will find the Zoom link at the very beginning of the YouTube chat. It is also on the IMC calendar for this event today, and in the "What's New" section at the far bottom right-hand side of the homepage. There is a password to get into the Zoom room: "metta," m-e-t-t-a. I will also put the link at the bottom of the chat in a moment.