Saturday Lecture Series, 9, 23 May 2009

The UWF Buddhist Lecture Series, Part 9
The gift of Dharma excels all other gifts.
—Dhammapada, 354
Lecture Number 9: May 23, 2009
The Noble Eightfold Path: Right Action
Scope: Right Action is abstaining from killing, from stealing, and from sexual misconduct. The principle behind these abstentions is that all sentient beings seek happiness and avoid pain. To kill, steal, or engage in sexual misconduct is to cause a sentient being to suffer.
Outline
I. What is Right Action?
• Abstaining from killing.
• Abstaining from stealing.
• Abstaining from sexual misconduct.

II. Abstaining from killing means no deliberate, intentional killing of any sentient being.

A. By sentient being is meant any living being with consciousness or mind.
1. This includes humans, animals, and insects.
2. Plants may react to stimuli but lack consciousness.

B. Because enlightenment is a possibility for all sentient beings, sentient life is regarded as precious.
1. Killing is killing whether done for sport, for food, for punishment, or for experiment.
2. Buddhism calls a spade a spade.

C. The gravity of the transgression depends on the object, the motive, and the effort.
1. Killing a human being is karmically heavier than killing an animal.
• Killing a spiritual practitioner or a parent or a teacher carries heavier karmic consequences.
• Killing a member of the Sangha will cause the killer to be reborn in the hell realm.
2. The karmic consequence is directly proportional to the motive behind the killing.
• Killing can be motivated by greed, anger, or delusion.
• Of the three, killing driven by anger carries more negative karma.
• When the killing is premeditated, the karmic weight increases.
3. The karmic consequence is directly proportional to the effort involved.

D. The principle of non killing is based on the consideration that all sentient beings love life and fear death.

E. Among all negative karma,
That of killing is the heaviest.
Among all positive karma,
That of releasing life is the highest.
--Nagarjuna, The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom
1. Killing is the heaviest because it deprives the sentient being of a physical body.
• Happiness depends on a sentient being’s being in the physical body.
• To deprive a sentient being of a physical body is to deprive her/him of this opportunity.
2. The taking of another’s life shortens one’s life.
3. The saving of another’s life lengthens one’s life.

F. Charitable work, vegetarianism, etc. are all commendable, but in terms of gaining merit, nothing excels saving the life of a sentient being facing imminent death.

G. Life releasing practice is one method of lengthening one’s life.

H. Compassion, however, must be tempered with wisdom—and common sense.
1. When releasing creatures into the wild, for example, we must make sure they are indigenous to the environment.
2. Common sense also dictates that we do not release fresh water fish into the sea and sea-fish into lakes or rivers.
• Is the sea-fish a coastal or deep-water type?
• Is the fresh water fish a lake or river type?

III. Abstaining from stealing means not appropriating the rightful belonging of another with thievish intent. It also includes withholding from another that which rightfully belongs to her/him.

A. Taking what is not given may take many forms: stealing, robbery, snatching, fraudulence, deceit.
B. The principle is based on the consideration that nobody wants to be robbed.
• To steal from somebody is to deprive him/her of some happiness, i.e., to cause the sentient being to suffer.
• Anything that we think, say, or do that intentionally hurts another sentient being carries karmic weight.

IV. Abstaining from sexual misconduct means no sexual relations with an illicit partner. It includes any act of forced, violent, or coercive sexual union.

A. Any person who is married to another is an illicit partner. This includes any person, although not a legal spouse, who is engaged to another, or a person generally recognized and acknowledged as somebody else’s partner.
B. A woman still under the protection of a parent, relative, or rightful guardian is an illicit partner.
C. Any person forbidden by convention, such as a close relative, or someone under a vow of celibacy, such as a monk or a nun, is an illicit partner.

V. In our next lecture, we shall discuss Right Livelihood.