This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Introduction

Hello everyone. Hello the 7:00 a.m. Sangha. Good to meet you all in this way. I'm here in the Bay Area, California. And I'm so very happy to be here with you this week, sharing some reflections and teachings of the Buddha.

It really brings a lot of delight for me to see the chat messages flowing through, and just knowing so many of you from all over the world joining in this hour to practice Dharma, to reflect on the Dharma, listen to the Dharma. So fortunate, such a blessing.

I'd like to offer the theme for this week. And this week I would like to offer some reflections around this topic of Sila^[1]. Sila, Samadhi^[2], and Panna^[3] are the three major facets of our practice. And this week I will reflect about Sila from a maybe kind of different orientation. And this orientation is from inside out. From the depths of our being. And I'll say more about this as we go on in this week. [Laughter]

Guided Meditation: Safe and Grounded

And today now we start our meditation with this aspect of how, as we enter into the depth of our being, it's natural to feel the facet of Sila^[4] manifesting from inside out. That it offers a sense of groundedness. It's almost like a ground of our being. And it offers a deep sense of safety for our own hearts and for the hearts of others.

And so with that little bit of preview, we'll go into a meditation together. I'll offer some guidance at the beginning of the meditation, and then we'll sit in silence. So let's begin.

I find myself naturally taking a few long deep breaths. And as I breathe out, gathering, collecting ourselves into the present moment. Gathering and collecting ourselves around sati^[5], mindfulness.

Let yourself register how it feels to be present. Being present feels like this. Being present, so you can know you're sitting or lying down, or in whatever posture you're in right now. Being present, so you can know the multitudes of life moments that begin to flow through. The sensations in the body, movements of the breath, floating thoughts, sense gate contacts. You're inside the experience of being alive and present to your life.

Dropping inside of your own experience. Maybe there is already a deeper kind of intimacy. A kind of aliveness that is otherwise skipped over. You're inside your experience. And so, you can become available to the multitudes from within. Being present and available feels like this.

Maybe there is an easeful relaxation in the body. A sense of openness in the heart. And a spacious mind. Let yourself feel a kind of groundedness within. Maybe the body is grounded, settled on Earth. Maybe the heart and mind is at ease. Grounded.

Let your heart naturally align with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. A kind of orientation for the heart and mind. There is a kind of safety, protection, when our hearts and minds are aligned with the goodness of the Dharma.

Here, in the depths of your being, there is peace. There is kindness. There is aliveness. Whatever comes and goes in the mind stream can be held by peace, kindness, quiet, silence. Here, when we're not acting out the unwholesome tendencies, we can feel the groundedness and safety in our hearts and mind.

Notice any degrees of well-being, peace, and ease. When the mind and heart is not acting out^[6] any unwholesome, unskillful thoughts or mental activities, it's just like a breeze blowing through. We can rest in the groundedness and the safety of our being, unshaken by the winds of our hearts and minds and the winds of the world^[7].

Savoring the goodness of the Triple Gem^[8]. Savoring a practicing community together. May the benefit and goodness that becomes available through our hearts, minds, and bodies ripple out, be shared wide open to all beings. Let all beings, the whole world, feel peace, ease, safety, and well-being.

[Bell]

Dharmette: Sila from inside out (1 of 5): Sila protects

Greetings again. Indeed, so good to be here together. As I mentioned earlier, this week I'll be sharing some reflections around the teachings of Sila: ethical conduct, how we act, behave, and how we live our lives in this world.

I want to offer an orientation around Sila. And this is based on my recent reflections on this teaching. I have this sense that the Buddha taught Sila from inside out. And that is, he knew something deeply within. A deep inner sense of peace, wisdom, compassion, care, and a deep sense of the goodness of the Dharma. He recognizes that when we express ourselves from this deep inner being, it's very natural that we live in an ethical way. We live in a way such that our actions, our speech, and what comes through in our minds are aligned with this inner goodness, inner peace, inner well-being, freedom.

I have this sense that he's not trying to teach Sila as some kind of mandate or dogma that you have to follow. It's not a kind of should or should not. Not a kind of belief, but rather it's natural that when we are aligned with this deeper inner sense, we live, we act, we speak in a way that is aligned with this deeper inner resource. And so this is why I called this series of teachings this week "Sila from Inside Out."

So with that orientation, I'd like to invite you to also imagine how you might want to behave or live in this world when there is some kind of alignment in this way—this deeper kind of peace, deeper kind of care and love. Even though each of us, you know, may not have the Buddha's kind of inner goodness all the time, when we understand this teaching from this bigger perspective, the significance of it begins to manifest and come alive in a rich and dynamic way.

Without this kind of understanding, sometimes we can't relate to the teachings of Sila. Based on our thinking minds of interpretation—our likes and dislikes, our preferences, our judgments, and our comparisons—that ego part of ourselves can hear this teaching and begin to think, 'Oh, I should do this,' or 'I can never do that.' And we end up beating ourselves up, becoming an inner critic, or we give up. And none of those really help us to be on the Dharma path.

And so my invitation is to imagine some degrees of possibility in each of us. That we are manifesting our lives from this deeper possibility of peace and well-being. And in this way, how we live our lives out in this ethical way can be multidimensional.

This week I'll unfold five different aspects of this. That Sila protects—[Laughter]—protects ourselves and others. Sila purifies. It frees our heart and mind. And Sila cares and harmonizes.

I'll start with Sila being a protective force for ourselves and others. Many of us, as we engage in our Dharma practice through meditation and through a wide range of ways, sooner or later will begin to recognize that some of the wholesome and unwholesome patterns and tendencies in our minds, hearts, and bodies can flow. We can notice how easily sometimes we can act out our frustrations or anger or irritation and become kind of violent towards other creatures, other beings. Or out of fear, we might react in certain ways that are actually harmful to ourselves and to others. I think in our society, so much of overconsumption can also be traced to a deep sense of insecurity or greed. And so this is something that we can begin to recognize for ourselves. This kind of phenomena happens within, and the tendencies exist. And this is not to be taken as something that we use to beat ourselves up. But in the recognition that these patterns exist, it begins to be natural for us to recognize, 'Oh, we want to train ourselves in a way that protects this heart, mind, and body.'

I think the Buddha is a very brilliant teacher. His teachings are really practical and very effective, and yet deeply profound when we take them deep into our hearts. Sometimes an aspect of the training of Sila is through what are called the Five Training Precepts^[9]. That is about not killing living beings, not taking what is not offered freely, refraining from sexual misconduct, refraining from false speech, and refraining from taking drugs and alcohol that intoxicate our minds, making our minds cloudy and unclear. And these things are very practical. You know, it's quite immediate. When I was reflecting on this, I thought that these training precepts are very easy to remember, very easy to recognize, and yet the implications are vast. And this is not the only aspect of the training under the umbrella term of Sila. But these ones are really practical—something that we all can engage in and begin to recognize for ourselves.

Also, many people, myself included, when I first encountered this there was a little kind of aversion in the heart because we don't really like rules or mandates. But over time, what I recognized is that this is a very surface-level interpretation and understanding when we relate to this teaching in this way. It's not based on a deeper recognition of habit patterns that emerge in us. And also sometimes the word precept may have a kind of cultural association and so sometimes they're not very positive, and we can begin to react to that.

On the other hand, when we take this training to our hearts, we can begin to observe the secret power of this teaching. Sometimes it feels like we're wearing a protective layer around us so we're not being harmed. When we're taking this kind of training to heart, often it registers something in our psyche. And when we're acting out^[6:1] a certain kind of habitual energy, this protective layer can come in. We can have this moment right there. Like, 'Oh, wait a minute. I've taken in this training to not cause harm.' You know, maybe it's a curse that you're just about to shout out. But right before that moment—about to curse, about to throw something violently—this protective shield can come. And we can recognize, 'Oh, there is a different choice. We don't have to choose this.' Right there, there can be a difference that is being made.

And so this protective aspect of Sila protects ourselves and others. It also has many other effects that we sometimes just skip over. We don't always recognize when we actually behave aligned with the goodness of the Dharma. And that is, we don't have to carry the burden. The burden of regret. The burden of remorse. And sometimes there is this phrase in the teaching that there is a blameless happiness that begins to emerge in us. Might that be available? Can you notice, oh, with this training, when our hearts and minds are protected, there is a kind of blamelessness in our hearts and minds? There can be a kind of sweet joy and sweet goodness. A kind of blessing.

So I'm going to end today's teaching by offering a chanting from the Mangala Sutta^[10]. And that is: giving, righteous conduct, kindness to others, blameless deeds—this is the highest blessing. May we offer this highest blessing to ourselves, to others, and to everyone in this whole world. Thank you everyone, and I will see you tomorrow.