Unitarian Universalist
Meeting of
“The Buddhist Fourth Step: Right Action”
Rev. Kathy Duhon
Practice: Beginning
and Ending the Day
The eightfold path of Buddhism,
which is also called “The Truth of Magga”, is a discipline which the Buddha taught for
attaining liberation from suffering. In
my past sermons in this series, I have talked about the first three steps on
this path, and they included first, Right View, also called right
Understanding, second, Right Intentions or Right Thoughts, and third, Right
Speech. Today we have arrived at the
fourth step along the path, Right Action, also called Right Conduct, which is
in the area of ethics, of how to live a holy life, a good life.
The beginning, basic right action is
ahimsa, nonviolence, or causing no
harm, which Hinduism also teaches, and which you may remember that Mahatma Gandhi
popularized in his campaigns for peace.
Teachings about doing no harm, especially
the five Buddhist precepts, can sound a little like the 10 Commandments of
Judaism. The five precepts are: don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t transgress
sexually, don’t lie, and don’t become intoxicated. In other words, don’t hurt yourself or others
– that is the beginning of right action.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, think about the “don’t kill”
precept. When we eat, many of us are
taking in killed animals, and there are even some plants that give their whole
lives for our food. When we drive, we
are mowing down many insects, and on these summer evenings, maybe we are even
swatting a few. Years ago, my Mom tried
to shoo mosquitoes away by pointing her finger at them and explaining to them
that she didn’t want them to bite her. And
“don’t steal” is bigger than how the legal system defines it: instead of not taking what does not belong to
us, we should not take what is not freely given to us. We should not greedily take the earth’s
resources, which we do so often, including the energy to run many conveniences
in our lives. We should not use so much
of everything that we cause others suffering because they do not have
enough. Simple
precepts, and also not simple.
The teaching of right action is not
only about what “not to do”. Buddhism is
about compassion as much as it is about anything, and right action involves
compassion, peacemaking, working to reduce the suffering of others. Right action is not just doing – it involves
reflecting upon what to do so as to cultivate virtue in our lives, to grow a
generous and open spirit which reaches out to the world with compassion. With right action, we use our compassion to
make the ethical decisions that make this world a better place.
I have a suspicion that in simpler
times, even in simpler societies around the world today, taking right action has
been a simpler matter, most of the time.
If you want to live, and if you live in a society that hovers close to
the edge of existence, then gathering wood and caring for the garden and
drawing water are all clear choices for right action. These basic actions for survival take up much
of the day for some – right action is often simply what helps oneself and
others to live and thrive. And yes,
always there has been room for other ethical decisions in the course of even
the simplest, barest life, and so precepts like these have been helpful, and
the call to compassion has been important.
Yet today, at least in this corner
of the world, the mix of time for choice-making is vastly different. We don’t spend the greater part of the day
with the clear right action choices that keep us alive and thriving – our
abundance is so great that our actions are mostly unrelated to our basic
existence. The choices we have are multitude. Where and how do we shop, and what media do
we use, and how do we shape our relationships?
Ect. Is our choice of how we spend our large
amount of leisure time involved with right action, with compassion? The next time you engage in sports, or watch TV,
or text message, or listen to downloaded music, will you consider whether these
are “right actions”, choices that further compassion? Tomorrow I can choose to weed the garden or
talk to a friend or read a book or do the laundry or go to the beach or attend
a social justice meeting, and quite a few more possibilities for my day off, but
I may not be able to choose to do all of these.
So how do I decide what are the right actions? With reflection, with compassion in mind, and
with the sense that right action is possible.
In our age of a multitude of
choices, perhaps there are always many right actions, but what can happen for
folks is “no action”, and that might be
good – a restfulness, a return to being-ness – but sometimes it is the opposite
of right action to take no action. To
become overwhelmed and retreat from helping reduce the suffering of the world
is not right action. As our own Edward
Everett Hale said, “I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not
refuse to do the something that I can do.”
Buddhism reminds us that right
action is behavior that is not harmful, that is helpful, and that this is
do-able. There are no large, complicated
codes of good and bad behavior. There is
no such thing as being a “bad person”.
Unskillful, yes, and sometimes someone is acting in an undesirable way,
but the person will likely learn through this experience with karma, for wrong
action messes up our lives. In Buddhism,
there is the sense that right action is always presenting itself to us, if we
would but pay attention, be mindful, of ourselves, and of how the world around
us is, and then compassion is natural.
The reading from Rinpoche
was playful about our actions, comparing them to children at play. We should view our actions with delight, he
said, like grandparents watching their grandchildren. Right action is not a dire, serious matter,
but a joyful part of the path.
Each time I plan a service I am
making many choices, hoping to do the right action which will bring a teaching,
a wisdom, an inspiration forward to live and thrive
amongst us. With reflection and with compassion,
for example, I chose to have us laugh with the Jewish Buddhist sayings, although
that was a choice I considered carefully, for I believe that Jews and Buddhists
would both delight in this. And the Zen
story about the monk who steals brings us closer to understanding the precepts,
as well as compassion. We have heard
from Thich Nhat Hanh and the Buddha, and from other wise teachers. The music has been simple and sweet, played
by dear ones, and the time for sharing our love with each other and the world
has, as always, been an integral and sacred part of our service.
I hope I have chosen some right
actions for this service, although I might have more wisely chosen other right
actions. And you have chosen a
right action, I do believe, of being here together in blessed, beloved
community. What a joy. As Buddha is believed to have said, “Do not
do anything harmful; do only what is good; purify and train your own mind: This is the teaching of the Buddha; this is
the path to enlightenment.” So may we blessed
be.
Practice: Beginning
and Ending the Day
This practice is about noticing our
actions so that we can always improve our ability to choose the right
action. I have taken it from the
teaching of a Buddhist lama, Surya Das, but honestly, it sounds quite similar to a practice I
read years ago that Mother Theresa did.
When you wake in the morning, start
by being intentional that this day you will practice loving-kindness and
compassion. Resolve to let go of the
negative and open your heart to the positive, knowing that you can choose right
action.
When you lie down at night, reflect
on the day and remember what you did and what you left undone. Recognize your choices and assess them. Then let go of the harmful actions, and
rejoice in the good works of yourself and others. And rest in peace.