The second precept: not stealing
from Hoko
Taking people’s stuff is a problem in two ways. One, it’s based on a misunderstanding of the nature of self in the same way that killing is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of self. Two, it makes them unhappy, which goes against our vow if we’re doing it for selfish reasons. Let’s look at these two things.
Greed is one of the three poisonous minds. Desire for something comes up because we think that if we have that thing, we will be satisfied and happy. There are several problems with this kind of attachment. Because everything is impermanent, even if we get what we want, we won’t have it forever. That makes us worry now and grieve later. However, there is nothing we can really grasp, not the self and not somebody else’s possessions that we want. Because there is no fixed self, we can’t solve whatever problems the self has by acquiring things. Nonetheless, we want to get things and use them to benefit ourselves. We can see everything in the world as being here for our use. In order to decide what we want and don’t want, we have to judge and label everything we encounter. Is this pleasant for me, helpful for me, comfortable for me or not? Everything is in relation to ME.
If we can avoid the picking and choosing we can begin to stop feeding the mechanisms of self. Yes, in daily life we have to make choices and we can’t be doormats, but we don’t have to evaluate everything and feed the craving and aversion. What if we could just encounter each thing as it is, for it’s own sake?
The basis for greed, craving, attachment and desire is delusion. It can’t work. It’s based on suffering and just creates more suffering. We have to break the cycle.
Since we’re not separate from anything else, there’s no one doing the stealing, and no object to be stolen that’s separate from us. Thus stealing is not possible in an absolute sense. Okumura Roshi says, "If we truly see that teaching of the reality of emptiness, there is no way to steal. Stealing is only possible when I have the desire to possess something and this thing can be possessed by me. Because of that delusive idea, we steal, but when we really see the reality of emptiness, we are released from our desire to posses something and we see that there is nothing to be possessed. From the absolute point of view, there is nothing to be stolen and nobody who can steal."
That doesn’t mean it’s OK to take someone’s stuff just because the absolute view is that there is no stealing. The teachings say that there is no one to possess anything and no possessions we can grasp and call our own, so it would be easy to argue then that everyone’s stuff is available to anyone else to take and use, but that’s not the whole story. It’s another example of how we don’t live only in the world of form, or only in the world of emptiness, but both at the same time. We have to hold both truths.
The fact is that taking people’s stuff makes them unhappy, which can be the opposite of bodhisattva activity. It doesn’t lead to anyone settling down, ourselves or our victims, and equanimity goes out the window. Yes, we have to hold things lightly and be ready to give them up when it's time for them to move on, but at the same time, as human beings we may have some distress when that happens. If it’s true for ourselves, it’s true for others, and we’re not here to add to people’s suffering.
This constant chasing after the stuff we want and running away from the stuff we don’t want is what keeps us all going around and around on the wheel of samsara. We’re constantly transmigrating between the six realms and between heaven and hell. We get something we want and we’re happy, but if we don’t get it or we lose it, or we get it and it doesn’t meet our expectations, we’re angry and unhappy.
Bodhidharma says that not arousing the thought of gaining is keeping the precept of not stealing. As soon as we understand the nature of self and suffering, we no longer have any impulse to steal. It isn’t that we have to stop ourselves from stealing. The compulsion to do it doesn’t come up.
The clear mind version of this precept is about generosity: rather than coveting and taking, we look outward and see that stealing isn’t necessary and offering and sharing are already happening.
Sawaki Roshi’s expression was “Gaining is delusion, losing is enlightenment.” This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have any possessions, or we should give away everything we have; this practice does not encourage martyrdom. It means that the idea that there is something we can gain that we don’t already have is delusion. Losing the idea that there is something to be given or received, or gained or lost, or stolen, is enlightenment.
In the Bodaisatta Shishobo, Dogen says, "Offering is not being greedy." You may not be out on the street corner giving things away, but not drawing a line between my stuff and your stuff and trying to keep all my stuff for myself and maybe even get more than I already have -- that’s offering, or generosity. In the Kyojukaimon he says, "When mind and its objects are in thusness, the gate of liberation is open." When we really see that there is no separation between mind and objects, there is nothing that is “mine” and “not mine” and we're not constrained by greed. We can keep this precept because stealing is unnecessary.
Taking people’s stuff is a problem in two ways. One, it’s based on a misunderstanding of the nature of self in the same way that killing is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of self. Two, it makes them unhappy, which goes against our vow if we’re doing it for selfish reasons. Let’s look at these two things.
Greed is one of the three poisonous minds. Desire for something comes up because we think that if we have that thing, we will be satisfied and happy. There are several problems with this kind of attachment. Because everything is impermanent, even if we get what we want, we won’t have it forever. That makes us worry now and grieve later. However, there is nothing we can really grasp, not the self and not somebody else’s possessions that we want. Because there is no fixed self, we can’t solve whatever problems the self has by acquiring things. Nonetheless, we want to get things and use them to benefit ourselves. We can see everything in the world as being here for our use. In order to decide what we want and don’t want, we have to judge and label everything we encounter. Is this pleasant for me, helpful for me, comfortable for me or not? Everything is in relation to ME.
If we can avoid the picking and choosing we can begin to stop feeding the mechanisms of self. Yes, in daily life we have to make choices and we can’t be doormats, but we don’t have to evaluate everything and feed the craving and aversion. What if we could just encounter each thing as it is, for it’s own sake?
The basis for greed, craving, attachment and desire is delusion. It can’t work. It’s based on suffering and just creates more suffering. We have to break the cycle.
Since we’re not separate from anything else, there’s no one doing the stealing, and no object to be stolen that’s separate from us. Thus stealing is not possible in an absolute sense. Okumura Roshi says, "If we truly see that teaching of the reality of emptiness, there is no way to steal. Stealing is only possible when I have the desire to possess something and this thing can be possessed by me. Because of that delusive idea, we steal, but when we really see the reality of emptiness, we are released from our desire to posses something and we see that there is nothing to be possessed. From the absolute point of view, there is nothing to be stolen and nobody who can steal."
That doesn’t mean it’s OK to take someone’s stuff just because the absolute view is that there is no stealing. The teachings say that there is no one to possess anything and no possessions we can grasp and call our own, so it would be easy to argue then that everyone’s stuff is available to anyone else to take and use, but that’s not the whole story. It’s another example of how we don’t live only in the world of form, or only in the world of emptiness, but both at the same time. We have to hold both truths.
The fact is that taking people’s stuff makes them unhappy, which can be the opposite of bodhisattva activity. It doesn’t lead to anyone settling down, ourselves or our victims, and equanimity goes out the window. Yes, we have to hold things lightly and be ready to give them up when it's time for them to move on, but at the same time, as human beings we may have some distress when that happens. If it’s true for ourselves, it’s true for others, and we’re not here to add to people’s suffering.
This constant chasing after the stuff we want and running away from the stuff we don’t want is what keeps us all going around and around on the wheel of samsara. We’re constantly transmigrating between the six realms and between heaven and hell. We get something we want and we’re happy, but if we don’t get it or we lose it, or we get it and it doesn’t meet our expectations, we’re angry and unhappy.
Bodhidharma says that not arousing the thought of gaining is keeping the precept of not stealing. As soon as we understand the nature of self and suffering, we no longer have any impulse to steal. It isn’t that we have to stop ourselves from stealing. The compulsion to do it doesn’t come up.
The clear mind version of this precept is about generosity: rather than coveting and taking, we look outward and see that stealing isn’t necessary and offering and sharing are already happening.
Sawaki Roshi’s expression was “Gaining is delusion, losing is enlightenment.” This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have any possessions, or we should give away everything we have; this practice does not encourage martyrdom. It means that the idea that there is something we can gain that we don’t already have is delusion. Losing the idea that there is something to be given or received, or gained or lost, or stolen, is enlightenment.
In the Bodaisatta Shishobo, Dogen says, "Offering is not being greedy." You may not be out on the street corner giving things away, but not drawing a line between my stuff and your stuff and trying to keep all my stuff for myself and maybe even get more than I already have -- that’s offering, or generosity. In the Kyojukaimon he says, "When mind and its objects are in thusness, the gate of liberation is open." When we really see that there is no separation between mind and objects, there is nothing that is “mine” and “not mine” and we're not constrained by greed. We can keep this precept because stealing is unnecessary.
