Buddhist Morality

Buddhist ethical conduct including the Five Precepts (Pañcasikkhāpada), and Eightfold Ethical Conduct (Aṭṭhasīla).
Cormac Brown
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Re: Buddhist Morality

Post by Cormac Brown »

Khan Singh wrote:Hi everyone.

I've learned that, in the Mahayana tradition, Buddhist morality simply conformed to the particular culture, which seems to have something to do with the strong influence of Confucianism in China. It seems to me that, because of this, Western liberalism has greatly influenced the Mahayana traditions in the West, even seeking to undo moral views customs from Christianity that share much in common with Buddhism, generally.

My question is, where does Theravada Buddhism derive its morality from and could it be said to be somewhat more conservative and family oriented for lay people?
The five precepts are derived from the Buddha's direct insight into the workings of kamma, and from his compassionate wish that all beings avoid the negative consequences that come from transgressing them:
MN 4 trans. Ven. Thanissaro

"When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I saw — by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human — beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma: 'These beings — who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech & mind, who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. But these beings — who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech, & mind, who did not revile noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the good destinations, in the heavenly world.' Thus — by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human — I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma.

"This was the second knowledge I attained in the second watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose — as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute.
As he explains elsewhere, "good conduct" is keeping the five precepts (in all situations, no matter what) and "bad conduct" is breaking them. It should be obvious from this that any more "liberal" interpretation of Buddhist morality is simply one lacking in wisdom and compassion.
“I in the present who am a worthy one, rightly self-awakened, am a
teacher of action, a teacher of activity, a teacher of persistence. But the
worthless man Makkhali contradicts even me, (saying,) ‘There is no
action. There is no activity. There is no persistence.’ "
AN 3.138, trans. Ven. Thanissaro
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Aloka
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Re: Buddhist Morality

Post by Aloka »

Cormac Brown wrote: "good conduct" is keeping the five precepts (in all situations, no matter what) and "bad conduct" is breaking them. It should be obvious from this that any more "liberal" interpretation of Buddhist morality is simply one lacking in wisdom and compassion.

I think its worth remembering that the lay precepts are training rules and not the ten commandments - and also that "wisdom and compassion" are expansive, all-embracing qualities that we aspire to.


:anjali:
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robertk
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Re: Buddhist Morality

Post by robertk »

Aloka wrote:
Cormac Brown wrote: "good conduct" is keeping the five precepts (in all situations, no matter what) and "bad conduct" is breaking them. It should be obvious from this that any more "liberal" interpretation of Buddhist morality is simply one lacking in wisdom and compassion.

I think its worth remembering that the lay precepts are training rules and not the ten commandments - and also that "wisdom and compassion" are expansive, all-embracing qualities that we aspire to.


:anjali:
http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh171-p.html#T37" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
For laymen, nicca-sila means ajivatthamaka sila. [37] That sila must be properly and faithfully kept. If because they are puthujjanas (worldlings) they break the sila, it can be re-established immediately by renewing the undertaking to keep the sila for the rest of their lives. If, on a future occasion, the sila is again broken, it can again be similarly cleansed, and every time this cleansing occurs, the person concerned again becomes endowed with sila. The effort is not difficult. Whenever nicca-sila is broken, it should be immediately re-established. In these days, persons endowed with sila abound in large numbers.
daverupa
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Re: Buddhist Morality

Post by daverupa »

Well, I can understand the devotional motive of "officially" going for refuge & taking five precepts (perhaps via chanting) in front of monastics, but it sounds like magic rituals, doesn't it, when the ritual itself is seen as cleansing something?

Maybe I'm just misreading things, but 're-establishing' a precept is simply a renewed commitment to the practice, not something requiring large hats or bells or anything like that.

---

As to the OP, as Ben says
Ben wrote:You'll find Buddhist morality is based on the pre-existing concept of ahimsa (harmlessness).
Udana 5.1 puts it this way:
Having gone around in all directions with the mind,
There is surely no one found who is loved more than oneself.

“In the same way others each love themselves,
Therefore one who cares for himself should not harm another.”
But the reason wholesome morality can be a liberative Buddhist morality is because of the motive for undertaking that morality.
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
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