The Precept on Intoxicants

By Sarah Breckenridge:

I’d like to share some thoughts about my work during our recent practice period with the precept on refraining from intoxicants. I like the way that this precept is described by Reb Anderson in his book Being Upright:

The precept of not intoxicating the mind or body of self or others is for all of us who have difficulty remaining upright in the midst of our suffering. It encourages us to trust being upright, instead of using intoxicants, as the best way to deal with our restlessness, anxiety, and pain. In the turbulence of our changing lives, with their waves of pain and pleasure, it is difficult to be quiet and still. But as Dogen says, “Here is the place; here the way unfolds.” Without any tampering or manipulations of what is happening, the way of freedom from suffering unfolds here.

The word upright reminds me of a metaphor shared by my former Zen teacher Darlene Cohen.  She described our practice as somewhat like having a staff as we cross a stream with rapid current.  We use it to plant in the stream bed, amidst the swirling waters, offering something to lean against, and to keep steady while going on, moving it step by step to create steadiness for crossing through the turbulence.  I think using an intoxicant, whether it’s actually a mind altering substance or a habit that takes us away from being fully aware of what’s going on inside or outside of us, is like sitting on the bank and not entering the stream, or like entering the stream without the staff, likely to lose our footing.  In my life, the bigger challenge for me is to break the habit of sitting on the bank, avoiding the things that are new or intimidating, unpleasant or scary.  Working with this precept was a very helpful and hopeful practice.  I did try to enter the stream and use the staff of my intention and awareness and to enter some new territory.  It wasn’t as difficult as imagined.

I had a thought about the practice of intentional focus yesterday as I was doing my morning routine in the bathroom. I thought of something really simple, the color red, and then noticed the red things in my bathroom.  There were only three visible, but when I really looked at them with extra attention, they were more vibrantly red, and I felt that sensation of omg, how can red be so wondrous and beautiful.   Very strange, like looking at a painting.

So I thought I would work with the other precepts, and see what I can discover, going one at a time.  It won’t be as simple as looking at red things, but I expect it will be a good way to start the new year.  Here is where I’m beginning in January:

  Life is not to kill.

  Let the buddha seed grow

  and succeed to the life of wisdom

  of the buddha taking no life.

  Life is not killed.

  —Dogen, Essay on Teaching and Conferring the Precepts 

The Precept on Giving Freely

By Armin Baier

In working with the Second Precept, “I vow not to steal,” I was moved by contemporary reframings of this vow that challenge me in ways I had not considered.  One of the most poignant to me was the discussion of this precept in Diane Eshin Rizzetto’s book, Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion.  She reframes the precept this way: I take up the way of taking only what is freely given and giving freely of all that I can.  I this way, she allows us to understand that giving is an essential part of the vow   I have come to see that this makes sense to me in practice.

As I was preparing to give a dharma talk on the precept, a cartoon in the New Yorker showed up in my phone strikingly on point. The cartoon depicts two young gentlemen who seem well-heeled and enjoying their lives of trendy leisure.  One man is saying with apparent astonishment to the other, “So you’re saying that just a little bit of giving will distract from the relentless taking?” 

Even if I don’t share too much in common with these characters,  I know there is a distinction I can make every day between giving freely and giving with conditions, giving in order to get something, or to justify my taking.  As I practice with this precept, I am increasingly aware that my truly giving freely to others has a distinct feel to it, an opening of myself.   My giving to others, doing for others, loses a kind of weight it would have if I do it only from obligation or with resentment.  It has a Zazen aspect to it:  Instead of angrily washing the dishes my husband left in the sink, I’m just doing the dishes.  I’m not even necessarily giving this to him as a gift in that moment, I’m just “giving freely.”

The ability to make that shift isn’t constant.  Sometimes it feels like the last thing I’m willing to do.  But it is also informed by another way of experiencing this moment of giving. There is a slogan in the Alanon 12-Step program that has new meaning for me:  Give Time Time.  Time doesn’t have to be just a scarce commodity that I can’t get enough of.  I can also give my attention to time, be with what is in time.  If I am rushing to take my dog outside in the few minutes between work sessions, I can notice my rushing and shift to just being with my dog, outside, for that couple of minutes.  That is a form of giving freely that I had never noticed in that way before.

The Precept on Not Killing

By Susan Suntree

Here are some excerpts from my recent talk on the Precept of Not Killing.

Long ago I vowed to follow my root teacher, Robert Aitken's model of carrying out the cockroach, which I attempt to emulate even as I falter. And if I do not "carry it out," I consciously make a decision to kill. And to express appreciation for the life I've taken.

***

Not Killing is a vow taken by we humans who, with every heartbeat, every cell division, every act of digestion, are in constant motion and evolution as is the very nature of our cosmos. Not killing is impossible. Breathing, walking, drinking water all kill some life form.  Even so, that fact does not alter my responsibility to avoid dishing out suffering. And killing causes suffering. Old Man cockroach runs like crazy to find safety from me. The plants send chemical signals to warn of invading insects or other blights. Life is hell bent on Living!

This precept is appropriately placed at the top of the list because it cautions against inflicting suffering by my taking what is not offered, my giving or withholding my words, treasure, ideas, my body to others in ways that generate suffering. Yet suffering is the First Noble Truth. There is no escaping being implicated in receiving or offering suffering. Suffering is not personal. And so we turn toward the Precepts for guidance, though how to enact them is not defined.

What is a killing:  Is abortion killing? Yes, no, maybe. Is self-defense killing acceptable? Yes, no, maybe. Is there a "Good" War? Are forms of agriculture like intense use of pesticides and monoculture, clear cutting, mining especially open pit mining, fossil fuel extraction, factory fishing and farming -- killing? Does my pension's portfolio in these kinds of actions make me a killer?

Should I be vegan or vegetarian? In my research, the question of what to eat came up more than any other. Not killing human beings seems to be widely accepted (though what about the fact that over 50% of my Federal taxes go toward war, not to speak of the billions in fossil fuel subsidies Thus we are all implicated in killing ourselves and every other being!). In my research of the First Precept, I found many approaches to eating or not eating animals. For example: One should eat whatever is placed in your alms bowl, whatever is served, whatever is killed though not specifically killed for you. Don't eat exotic species, organ meat etc.

***

There is no life without death and no death without life. We are all food. Eating is a sacrament; we eat and are eaten as part of the great web of life. Perhaps the point of the vow Not To Kill is to urge me to intimately understand this.

It seems to me that the foundational teaching of Not Killing, and all of the precepts we have considered, is to deeply cultivate the practice of kindness. Thich Nhat Hanh named his version of the precept of not killing “Reverence for Life”:

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect lives of people, animals, plants and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any killing in the world, my thinking, and in my way of life.

The False Speech Precept

By: Bob Zeglovitch

In our Practice Period on the precepts, we have been encouraged to consider writing the precepts in a way that reflects how we are working with them. My formulation of the precept on not speaking falsely is:

I vow to avoid deception of myself and others, through body, speech and thought. I vow to cultivate humility so that I do not rashly proclaim what I take to be truth, without proper reflection and care and without listening to other viewpoints that might help me better understand the truth of the situation. I vow to cultivate the courage to speak the truth as clearly and kindly as I can and to recognize when I am holding back out of fear.