posted 8 Jul 2012, 23:26 by Akasharaja Bruton
These were presented at Dharma Day on Saturday 7 July 2012 and occasioned some lively discussion. As these notes were just that - notes - they are rather terse, feel free to contact me if you would like further clarification! Akasharaja
1. If you can choose the skilful option, do: if you are aware of having a choice but don’t choose the skilful, at least dwell in the discomfort of knowing you’re being unskilful. This discomfort shows that your ethical sensibility – your shraddha, or confidence-trust in the Dharma – is alive and well.
2. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Don’t rationalise or seek to justify unskilful behaviour.
3. Be prepared to fail gracefully – try to fail better next time!
4. Be careful what you say! Speech is a very immediate expression of mental states and one that can be fairly easily controlled with a little effort. Sticking to skilful speech has a strong, positively conditioning effect on the mind.
5. Watch your ethical habits (samskaras). We all tend to respond in predictable ways to certain situations because we have become conditioned to do so. Once you are aware of your habits you can start to work on them. This will be easier if you can do what comes in the next point
6. Open yourself up to your spiritual friends. Once you have built up confidence and trust in your Dharma friendships, open up your ethical life to scrutiny. Your friends may be better placed to see your samskaras than you are. Once you have reached a certain level of commitment, there shouldn’t be any off-limits corners in your ethical life!
7. Don’t take your mental states too seriously. All things pass!
8. Don’t compartmentalise your life. Don’t make Buddhism one of the things you do along with a whole load of other things or just at certain times. The Dharma should underpin everything else you do. You can never be an off-duty Buddhist!
9. Don’t try to bargain with Samsara – that is, to assume that, if you arrange your life in a certain way, you can make conditioned existence work for you. As Yama, the lord of impermanence, holds the wheel of life in his grip, impermanence, insubstantiality and unsatisfactoriness will this side of insight one day have their way with you!
10. Related to this is the importance of not just aiming at a nice life. Beware of complacency!
11. Recall your own mortality. Think about your own inevitable death.
12. Aim high. Stream entry is possible in this life.
13. Cultivate pleasure in the Dharma. Joy is the key to spiritual progress.
14. Cultivate a Dharmic view. Life is full of lessons for us as long as we correctly understand what happens to us.
15. Transfer your merits. Remember that the Dharma life is not led just for your own sake!