Gate 88: Precepts paramita

The precepts pāramitā is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we distantly depart from the hardships of evil worlds, and we teach and guide precept-breaking living beings.
戒度是法明門、遠離惡道難、化破戒衆生故。

In the last essay we considered the first paramita: dana, giving, or offering.  Although for the purposes of dharma study we call out dana as a particular practice, it’s really at the heart of many of our activities.  This time we consider taking and keeping precepts as a paramita, and again, a paramita or perfection is a practice we do thoroughly and completely without any gaps.  This is the way a bodhisattva does it; when we practice the paramitas like bodhisattvas, we ourselves are bodhisattvas.

In Soto Zen, we have six paramitas, and in some ways we can’t really pull them apart; they’re reflections of each other.  Observing precepts is considered a “great gift” (mahadana) to others because it creates an atmosphere of trust, respect and security.  We’re no threat to other beings, their lives or belongings or general well being.  

Okumura Roshi has written and talked extensively on the precepts.  I invite you to investigate his writings in Dharma Eye, his recorded talks on YouTube and resources available from the Dogen Institute.  There are books about the precepts from other Soto Zen teachers out there that are also helpful.

The precepts are a set of ten guidelines for how we live.  Engaging with them is one of the three practices found across the  Buddhist tradition; these are the practices of wisdom, ethics and concetration (prajna, sila and samadhi),  All of elements of the eightfold path fall into these three practices.  Elsewhere in the tradition, keeping the precepts is what we do first, to make it possible to cultivate concetration and then wisdom.  Living in a way that’s based on non-harm allows us ourselves to settle down and practice.  In our particular branch of Mahayana Buddhism, we see that there’s no separation between the three practices.  Keeping precepts allows for the arising of wisdom and concentration, but wisdom and concentration also allow for keeping the precepts so there’s no first, second and third -- they all arise together.

Sometimes we make public vows to uphold precepts and start wearing a rakusu to help support us in that practice, but that’s just one moment in our practice of upholding precepts.  It’s not necessary to participate in a ceremony in order to live by precepts, and in fact we shouldn’t wait for that.  Practicing the precepts is a moment by moment activity starting right now.

Generally there are two essential aspects of sīla or ethical living: right “performance” (c(h)aritta), and right “avoidance” (varitta).  When we consider our actions of body, speech and mind, we have to think about what we’re doing and also about what we’re not doing.  Sila paramita or the perfection of ethics falls into varitta or right avoidance.  The precepts as originally written tell us what not do: don’t kill beings, don’t take their stuff, don’t say nasty things about them behind their backs.  By not doing those things, we’re avoiding unwholesome activity.  However, that’s only half of the story and it’s not enough.  What are we going to do instead?  We also have to engage in right performance (c(h)aritta).  That means actively taking care of our responsibilities to others, taking care of those who depend on us, being respectful to those we should respect, helping beings who need our help, and supporting and encouraging wholesome activity.

Yes, we refrain from causing harm, but we also contribute and cultivate something beneficial.  Otherwise, keeping precepts could simply mean we retreat alone into our caves and only worry about ourselves and not hurting others.  Varitta and charitta remind us that we can’t really cut ourselves off.  We practice not killing, and then there’s room for compassion to arise and manifest.  We practice not stealing, and then there’s room for generosity to arise and manifest.  It's the same for all the rest -- when we refrain from unwholesomeness of body, speech and mind, there’s room for right  action and right speech and right thought to arise.

We might aspire to be wise and compassionate beings, but that’s hard without some specific things we can work on.  We can start by avoiding unwise and uncompassionate action even if we don’t know what to do to cultivate goodness.  We can begin to make peace by not launching attacks even if we can’t bring conflicting sides together today.  We see a lot of suffering around us which we as practitioners might recognise as the breaking of precepts.  As individuals, we can’t stop all that, so we start by working on ourselves and working with our own stuff.  This body and mind is all we have.  How can I practice non-harming so that other beings are not threatened by me?  Sila paramita shows us how to do that.

Investigating precepts and teachings about ethics from the Buddhit perspective is a lifelong activity, and one we can’t do only by reading about them and hearing talks.  We really have to carry them out ourselves with body, speech and mind.  Let's look specifically at what this gate statement is saying about the precepts.

We distantly depart from the hardships of evil worlds.  These evil worlds are the unwholesome circumstances we create right here when we engage in something unskillful.  These aren’t places that are somewhere else.  Distancing ourselves in this case is a matter of cutting off attachment that leads us to do unwholesome things with body, speech and mind.  This is the varitta or right avoidance side of the precepts paramita, avoiding unwholesome activity.  When we look at the causes of our mistakes, we can see that almost invariably it’s attachment to something, like ideas about who we are and what we need in order to be legitimate or happy or whole people.  Sometimes our attachments feel sort of passive: I’ve made some assumption that this is what happiness looks like, or I’ve inherited that from society, so I assume that it’s good to have things or be seen a certain way.  

Sometimes our attachments feel like things are on fire.  We can feel desperate to have something or desperate when we’re afraid we’re going to lose it.  Even when I know what I’m doing is a problem, my desperation can convince me I’m justified, and then I write a story about how my needs outweigh the wellbeing of others.  It’s how I tell myself I can keep doing this afflicted activity and try to satisfy my craving, even though in the long run it’s harmful to myself and others.  In other words, it causes hardship, our condition in an  “evil world” or unwholesome circumstance.  Because of my greed, anger and ignorance, I do something unwholesome, and that creates a hardship for other beings, and also for me.  The more I do unwholesome things, the easier it gets to make the next mistake and the easier it gets to justify what I’m doing and ignore the suffering it causes.

Traditionally, the five basic unwholesome acts are killing, stealing sexual misconduct, lying and drinking alcohol.  These correspond to the first five precepts.  We could have a long conversation about the use of alcohol, but suffice it to say that the interpretation of that precept has shifted across time and space, and today in Soto Zen our practice with it is aimed at knowing when we’re intoxicated by anything and not perpetuating that unclarity for ourselves or others.  The five most basic unwholesome acts are breaking the first five precepts.  I steal something from you today, and it gets easier to steal from you again tomorrow.  You’re suffering and so am I.  Our job is to see what’s happening and work on breaking that cycle by cultivating wisdom and compassion.

The other five precepts in the complete group of ten could be seen as variations on these first five: not slandering others, not praising self at the expense of others, not begrudging materials or the dharma, not indulging in anger or ill will, and not disparaging the Three Treasures.  

At the last gate I said that when we were being told to teach and guide stingy and greedy human beings, it’s not that we need to seek out particular people who are stingy and greedy and only help them.  I think the point is that we’re all stingy and greedy and our bodhisattva vow says we help everyone because we all need help.  The same thing is going on with this week’s gate statement.  We’re all precept-breaking human beings.  It’s not uncommon for practitioners to be hesitant to take the precepts because they don’t think they can keep from breaking them.  Well, that’s a given -- of course we’re going to break them.  What’s interesting to me is that these folks consider themselves to be special, in this case, especially weak, or especially unworthy, when if they looked around at their sangha friends, they would see and know that none of them are perfect.  It’s interesting how we make ourselves special even in our perceived failings.  We never miss a chance to build ego.  In fact, sometimes I’ve told these folks: yup, you’re not a special case, and I've seen them become shocked and disappointed.  I can just see the ego crumbling (what do you mean I’m not special??) even though it was built on being especially bad.  We want to be good at something, even to be good at being bad!

I also wonder whether the reaction is partly fear that now there’s no excuse for not making the committment to practice.  Now I have to commit to taking precepts and trying to live like a bodhisattva even though I know I’m going to fail, and then I’m going to have to deal with what it feels like to fail, which is uncomfortable to my ego -- maybe more uncomfortable to my ego than deciding I’m too weak to commit in the first place.  Human beings are complicated!

Fortunately for us, our practice has at its core vow and repentance.  We take vows which we can’t possible carry out, but there’s a built-in practice of recognizing that and still carrying on.  The verse goes: All my unwholesome karmic deeds, caused by beginningless greed, anger and ignorance, born of my body, speech and thoughts, now I make complete repentance.  Any time we take precepts or hear them formally, we first recite this verse of repentance.  We acknowledge our human limitations, sort of wash the slate clean and start again.

Not only do our limitations not absolve us from taking the precepts and trying to keep them, they also don’t absolve us of the responsibility for teaching and guiding precepts-breaking human beings.  Of course, that starts with ourselves, but sometimes we can appropriately help others.  In fact, the Brahman Net Sutra, which is an important source of teachings for us on the precepts, says that failure to teach sentient beings is actually commission of a breach:  

A disciple of the Buddha should develop a mind of Great Compassion.  Whenever he enters people’s homes, villages, cities or towns, and sees sentient beings, he should say aloud, “You sentient beings should all take the Three Refuges and receive the Ten [Major Bodhisattva] Precepts.”  

Should he come across cows, pigs, horses, sheep and other kinds of animals, he should concentrate and say aloud, “You are now animals; you should develop the Bodhi Mind.”  A Bodhisattva, wherever he goes, be it climbing a mountain, entering a forest, crossing a river, or walking through a field should help all sentient beings develop the Bodhi Mind. 

If a disciple of the Buddha does not wholeheartedly teach and rescue sentient beings in such a manner, he commits a secondary offense.  

Now, I’d be surprised to see any of us preaching to farm animals, and frankly, in this time and place we’re not going to be well received if we go about evangelizing for the precepts, but I think we can take from this that whenever we have the chance to help somebody get clarity or act in a compassionate way, we should do what we appropriately can.  If we instead choose to ignore unwholesome behavior or suffering, we’re not serving as bodhisattvas.  Even if it’s not always clear what the skillful response is to unwholesome behavior or suffering, we can at least not look away, and we can take care not to get drawn into breaking precepts ourselves.  If we have a chance to model good behavior or make a helpful suggestion, so much the better.

Now, according to traditional cosmology, we’re not alone in the work of encouraging folks to live by precepts.  Each of the five precepts has five guardian spirits, so there are twenty-five total guardian spirits for those who follow them.  If you keep the precepts of not killing, then you have a deity protecting you and warding off evil spirits, another one protecting your six sense-gates, one harmonizing your internal organs, one protecting your blood, and one protecting your hands and fingers.  My conclusion is that if you don’t cause harm to someone else’s body by killing, your body will be protected as well by these five spirits.

If you keep the precept of not stealing, one protects your coming and going so travels are peaceful, one protects your food and drink, 
- one protects your sleep so you sleep peacefully and awaken joyfully, one protects you from poisonous insects, and one protects you from mist and dew.  I conclude that if you don’t create misfortune for someone else by stealing, then your life will also go along smoothly; you can eat and sleep and go about your business without trouble.

If you abstain from sexual misconduct, one protects you from quarrels, one protects the house from ghosts that bring plague, one protects you from legal issues or harassment by officials, one protects the house from evil from all directions, one keeps the house peaceful or guards the house.  If you don’t disrupt someone else’s home situation by committing sexual misconduct, then your own house and home will also be peaceful and protected from harm.

If you keep the precept of not speaking falsehood, one protects you from harassment by ghosts from tombs, one drives evil from your door, one protects you from harm by foreign ghosts and spirits, one protects you from fire, and one protects you from theft.  If you don’t drink alcohol, one protects you from tigers and wolves when you enter the forest, one prevents casualties, one prevents harm from evil birds and foxes, one protects you from evil dogs and mice, and one protects you from the officials of the underworld.

Whether or not you’d like to think that 25 spirits are looking out for you when you keep these five precepts, there is this teaching that when we observe the precepts paramita, we’re creating conditions where others may be less likely to harm us, at least.  In that way we may help keep others from breaking precepts as well.  Overall, the basis of this paramita is do no harm.  If we’re not breaking precepts, we’re no threat to others.  We depart from or take ourselves out of unwholesome, unhealthy situations and circumstances and we don’t create new hardships for ourselves or others.  We might even have a positive influence on the people around us, and if we’re actively engaging in wholesome action, we can really turn things around.

Now as we know, in Soto Zen the precepts aren’t just a concrete list of dos and don’ts.  That’s why it’s not always easy to know what to do in any given situation.  What exactly does it mean to keep or break a precept?

Manzan Dohaku (1636-1714) wrote a text in the late 17th century called Zenkaiketsu, or Secrets of the Zen Precepts.  You may recall that Manzan was the leader of a movement to restore the authenticity of dharma transmission within Sotoshu.  In this text he says, “Anything that benefits living beings is not a fault for bodhisattvas.”  He’s making the point that sometimes breaking the precept is necessary to help others.  The tradition is full of stories about people appearing to radically break a precept but showing by the end that actually it was the more ethical option.  Sometimes breaking one of the ten grave precepts IS the way to uphold the third pure precept of benefitting living beings, but this is very hard to do and very hard to see.  Manzan says they were able to do it because “they were capable of understanding the bodhisattva mind-ground.”

He goes on to say, “Our view should not be limited to seeing only the breaking of the precepts. . . . With the fleshly eyes, these cases may not look like maintaining standards of conduct (the first pure precept), but illumining with the Dharma eye, there is not even a hairsbreadth of violating standards of conduct. All of this is embracing and sustaining good qualities (the second pure precept) and benefiting living beings right where they abide (the third pure precept). If one doesn’t have true right view, how can one understand the signs of protecting and maintaining?”

Dharma illumination includes not only our own self awareness about how we get stuck or hijacked and fall into unwholesome action.  It also includes an ability to see so broadly, to see the way Buddha sees, that we know when to do the unexpected.  The way Manzan describes it is with phrases like “Their compassion for protecting life exceeds common sense,” or “Their faith in the Three Treasures exceeds common sense.”  I don’t think he’s saying they’re being irrational or unreasonable.  I think he’s saying they don’t see the world in a common way -- they see with a Dharma eye.  Their commitment to protecting beings and revering Buddha, dharma and sangha is greater than their rigid clinging to a rulebook and they have the practice maturity to know when to throw it out.

This gate statement is asking us to consider what benefitting ourselves and others really means, how we concretely live lives of non-harming, and how we help others to do the same.

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Questions for reflection and discussion:

• ​Where do questions of right performance and right avoidance show up in your practice?  How do you consider what to do and what not to do?
• Think about a time when you tried to justify unwholesome action and how that made it easier to commit further unwholesome action.  What was the outcome?  If your outlook changed as a result, how did it change?
• If you've taken precepts, what reservations did you have before the ceremony?  How did you resolve them (if indeed you did)?
• How do you think your practice helps others from committing unwholesome actions?