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[Last updated: 23 September 1993]
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                        THE SECOND PARAMITA
                                 BY
                        Robert Aitken, Roshi

This text addresses some of the most fundamental and delicate religious 
issues. Therefore, it should be read, quoted and analysed in a mindful 
way.

Originally published in MOON MIND CIRCLE, Summer 1987 pp.1-5.

Copyrights (c) by Robert Aitken and Sydney Zen Center
251 Young St., Annandale, Sydney, NSW 2038, Australia.


                               SHILA

Shila is the mnemonic listing of precepts, and by extension it is 
Vinaya, the moral way.  Vinaya is the first of the "Three Baskets" or 
Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon, the others being Sutra and Abhidharma, 
the teachings and the commentaries.  Formally becoming a Buddhist is a 
matter of accepting the precepts in the ceremony called Jukai.  To 
understand how morality and Buddhism go together, it is probably best to 
review the Buddhist teaching itself briefly:

The basic teaching of the Buddha is that there is no abiding self.  Our 
being is made up of and constantly depends upon other people, animals, 
plants, soil, water, air, the planet earth, the other planets, the sun, 
moon and stars.  Our very genes are programmes provided to us by our 
ancestors and from unknown sources back to the earliest green slime and 
before.  Nothing is my own and everything makes me up:  my parents, 
grandparents - the birdsong,  portraits by Rembrandt, the scent of the 
Puakenikeni, and the laughter of a friend.  Also forming my being are 
death in the family, the danger of biological holocaust, 
misunderstandings, and malicious gossip.

This formation that is me, flowing along, eating and adapting and 
adopting, is the same formation that is you, with very small variations 
in our combination of genes and experience that give us our uniqueness.  
This uniqueness is our own personal potential, and we depend upon each 
other for sustenance to fulfill it.

Each centre in our multi-centred universe is dependent in this way.  
Nothing abides and we find that everything is fundamentally 
insubstantial -- shunyata, emptiness.  It is not a vacuum that we 
perceive, but the absence of a fixed self in ourselves and in the 
multitudinous things of the universe.  With this perception, or with an 
understanding that such an experience is possible, we glimpse the 
Dharma:  the peace of the fathomless void and the harmony of the many 
centres as they flow about and through each other - out there and as 
this 'me'.

We also perceive misuse of harmony as habitats are destroyed, nations 
threatened, childlren and spouses abused and friends slandered.

The Ten Grave Precepts, which make up Shila for the Zen student, are ten 
ways to prompt our awareness of the Dharma, the peace and great harmony 
of life and death that is our universe.  They not only prompt our 
awareness, they are expressions of perfection in the Dharma.  Each 
precept is a paramita.

The Ten Grave Precepts.

l.   I take up the way of not killing.  This First Precept echoes the 
first of our Great Vows for All, "Though the many beings are numberless, 
I vow to save them."  The Precept is specific and negative in wording;  
the Vow is universal and positive.  The emphasis in the Precept is upon 
protection and nurturing: the emphasis in the Vow is upon spiritual 
encouragement.  Both are expressions of perfections:  both enhance the 
process of perfection.

Usually, nurturing a specific being is clearly also a matter of saving 
the universe, but sometimes options of abortion, spraying bugs, and 
trapping rats seem to offer ways to keep the world organism thinned and 
healthy.  Such issues can becone agonizingly difficult, and it is 
tempting to make decisions on the basis of persuasive arguments that are 
over-simple and reductive.  They are koans and must be faced with a 
clear sense of proportion.

Decisions about the quantitatively larger issue of war and peace have 
been clarified by the unprecedented technological capacity for killing 
which science has achieved.  There is no longer an argument for a "just 
war", or for "mutually assured deterence".  Incredibly murderous weapons 
are prepared to destroy all human life and almost all animal and plant 
life.  The koan here is how to speak out appropriately and take action 
that is instructive in opposition to such weapons and their so-called 
rationale.

Less obvious, but no less dangerous, is the probability of biological 
disaster through the destruction of forests, meadows, wetlands, lakes, 
rivers, seas, and the air.  I vow to moderate my lifestyle and reduce 
its demands, and to encourage you to do the same, for the protection of 
all beings in their infinite variety.

2.  I take up the way of not stealing.  This and all the subsequent 
Precepts are variants of the first, "Not Killing".  "I take up the way 
of not stealing" means I will respect the order of things - the paramita 
of harmony.

Peasants who occupy unused private land in Central America are 
demonstrating their view of the fundamental order. "We are taking what 
is rightfully ours", they say.  The landlords say they are stealing.  
The question is, which view kills?  Which view gives life?

3.  I take up the way of not misusing sex.  Sexual intercourse is 
misused when it is an addiction rather than the peak experience of love 
between a committed couple.  All the Precepts point to addictive 
behalviour, stealing, lying, using alcohol or drugs, slandering, even 
killing.  Addiction reveals a lack of confidence, a need for something 
from others, the interdependence of all things inverted for just one 
being.  It is no good condemning promiscuity as immoral behaviour, for 
it is only a symptom of general immaturity.  Like anybody else, the 
addict needs guidance to find a way to forget the self.

4.  I take up the way of not speaking falsely.  Speaking falsely is also 
killing, and specifically, killing the Dharmna.  The lie is set up to 
defend the idea of a fixed entity, a self image, a concept, or an 
institution.  I want to be known as warm and compassionate, so I deny 
that I was cruel, even though somebody got hurt.  Sometimes I must lie 
to protect someone or large numbers of people, animals, plants and 
things from getting hurt, or I believe I must.  What is the big picture?  
"Buddha nature pervades the whole universe."  1

5.  I take up the way of not using drink or drugs.  This can be extended 
to anything that clouds the mind:  silly conversation, noisy music, most 
TV programmes.  But Buddhism is not absolute.  A little wine warms my 
bones and relaxes my inhibitions, and casual conversation enhances my 
humanity and the humanity of others.  This Precept is warning against 
addiction and dependency. When I am completely honest at the very source 
of my thoughts, what is the path of the Buddha?

6.  I take up the way of not discussing faults of others.  Again, this 
Precept too deals with an aspect of killing.  More people get hurt by 
gossip than by guns.  The point is that nobody has a fixed character.  
Everyone has tendencies, and those tendencies can be used or misused, 
read or misread. The tendency to be accomodating can be seen negatively 
as passivity, and positively as patience. Encourage the tendency, and it 
will find its own perfection.

7.  I take up the way of not praising myself while abusing others.  The 
reason I praise myself and abuse others is that I seek to justify and 
defend myself as a certain kind of rather superior being.

Actually, I am not superior or inferior.  My actions and words are 
appropriate or inappropriate to the needs of people, animals, plants and 
things, including myself. If I am authoritarian and put myself up and 
others down, then I am not meeting their need to grow and mature or my 
own to listen and learn.  The Buddha Dharma is obscured.  The world 
suffers.

8.  I take up the way of not sparing the Dharma assets. The Dharma 
assets are all phenomena in their precious uniqueness, the 
interdependence of everything in perfect harmony, and the absence of any 
abiding self.  When I am not stingy with the Dharma assets, I conduct 
myself and say things that enhance my own understanding of uniqueness, 
harmony and peace - and understanding on the part of others, so that my 
family members, friends and everyone and everything can maintain their 
path of perfection.  Another way to say this is:  I conduct myself so 
that the original perfection becomes more and more clear to all beings.

9.  I take up the way of not indulging in anger.  You and I have had the 
experience in sesshin of bathing in anger.  Something unreasonably tiny, 
perhaps something you don't even notice, punctures a nasty bubble of 
angry gas, and you sit there playing out scenarios of retribution.  
Perhaps you blame yourself for this condition, but it is needless blame, 
and it only adds to the confusion. Even such a nightmare of anger is not 
a violation of this Precept, because if you are sincere, you return to 
the practice whenever you possibly can.  Anger itself is the field of 
your practice, and you pursue the little puck Mu on that field.

Blake says, "the tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of 
instruction." Kwan-yin hurls a thunderbolt of anger from time to time.  
Indulgence in anger is the addiction, and it rests upon pain.  What is 
it that troubles you?

l0.  I take up the way of not slandering the Three Treasures. The  Three 
Treasures are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.  These are 
variously the Historical Buddha, his teaching, and the fellowship of his 
followers - and realisation, the path to realisation, and the harmony of 
all beings.  Slandering such Treasures is belittling them, and the 
grossest kind of belittling is conceptual analysis that reduces and 
quantifies - obscuring the unknown and unknowable source, the marvellous 
subtlety of the Buddha's words and the words of his great followers, the 
synchronicity and symmetry of experience, and the precious nature and 
aspiration of each individual person, animal or plant.

I take up the Ten Precepts of the disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha, and I 
invite you to join me.

THE TEN GRAVE PRECEPTS.

l.  I take up the way of not killing.
2.  I take up the way of not stealing.
3.  I take up the way of not misusing sex.
4.  I take up the way of not speaking falsely.
5.  I take up the way of not using drink or drugs.
6.  I take up the way of not discussing faults of others.
7.  I take up the way of not praising myself while abusing others.
8.  I take up the way of not sparing the Dharma assets.
9.  I take up the way of not indulging in anger.
l0.  I take up the way of not slandering the Three Treasures.

******************

Notes.

l.  From the classical dedication of sutras, translated by Nakagawa Soen 
Roshi, and used in the Diamond Sangha and at the Zen Center of L. A..

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