Buddhist Ethics

• Kamma (Karma)

  The principle at the centre of Buddhist ethics, the idea that the motive behind people's actions leads to happiness or suffering
• Types of actions

  • Skilful (good, ethical actions motivated by compassion, understanding, generosity)
  • Unskilful (bad, unethical actions motivated by hatred, ignorance, craving)
• Repeatedly performing skilful or unskilful actions

  Leads to habits that cause happiness or suffering
• Kamma and rebirth

  A person's actions in this life will impact their happiness and suffering in future lives, as their kamma continues with them into rebirth
• Six realms of rebirth

  • Human realm
  • Other realms (e.g. god realm, animal realm, hell realm)
• Compassion (Karuna)

  Being concerned for the suffering of others and wanting to relieve their suffering
• Karuna is one of the four sublime states (qualities all Buddhists should develop)
• Showing compassion

  • Supporting ROKPA charity to help children access education and families out of poverty
• Loving-kindness (Metta)

  A desire for others to be happy and free from suffering
• Metta vs Karuna

  • Metta is a general desire for all to be happy, Karuna is the desire to relieve the suffering of a specific person
• Loving-kindness meditation

  Developing metta towards yourself, a good friend, a neutral person, a difficult person, and all beings
• Tenzin Gyatso (the Dalai Lama): 'When cultivating loving-kindness, it is important to start by taking a specific individual as a focus of our meditation, and we then extend the scope of our concern further and further, to eventually encompass and embrace all sentient beings.'
• Loving-kindness meditation

  • It is a form of Buddhist meditation
  • It helps the meditator develop an attitude of metta, firstly towards themselves and then towards everyone else in the world
  • It often consists of five steps involving showing loving-kindness towards yourself, a good friend, a 'neutral' person, a 'difficult' person, and all four of these people, gradually followed by everyone else in the world
• How to practice loving-kindness meditation

  1. The meditator visualises or imagines one of these people looking happy

  2. They might reflect on the positive qualities of the person and any acts of kindness they have done

  3. They may say phrases such as, "May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful"

  4. Then they will apply these phrases to others
• The Five Moral Precepts

  • Not to cause harm
  • Not to speak untruth
  • Not to take what is not given
  • Not to go to another's wife
  • Not to supply oneself with drinking liquor and intoxicants
• Following the Five Moral Precepts

  • The most important precept is the first one - not to cause harm
  • The other precepts are all ways to follow this one precept
  • Buddhists need to be sensitive in applying these precepts, and will sometimes need to balance one precept against another
  • These are guidelines for good living, not strict rules
  • Buddhists do not believe in a god who will punish them if they don't follow the precepts
  • The Buddhist belief in Kamma means that a person's intentions are the most important thing: it is important to act out of compassion (karuna) and metta (loving-kindness)
  • Practising the Five Moral Precepts will help Buddhists overcome the Three Poisons
• The Six Perfections

  • Generosity or giving
  • Morality
  • Patience
  • Energy
  • Meditation
  • Wisdom
• Generosity or giving

  • Giving without expecting anything in return
  • There are 3 main types of giving: giving material goods like food or money, giving protection from fear, and giving the Dhamma (teaching it to people)
• Morality means following the Five Moral Precepts, and there are 5 extra precepts in Mahayana Buddhism
• Patience

  • A Bodhisattva embodies patience
  • All Mahayana Buddhists should aim to have patience and tolerance
  • They will try to show patience to those who treat them with anger or behave unskilfully towards them
• Energy

  • This is about mental energy
  • It takes a lot of energy and mental strength to strive for enlightenment through meditation, studying and practising the Dhamma over a long time
• Meditation

  • Meditation is important for the development of wisdom and all virtues
  • By meditating on qualities like generosity, Buddhists try to achieve the Six Perfections in their lives
• Wisdom

  Buddhists aim to gain wisdom through practising the other five perfections
• How to develop the Six Perfections

  1. Meditation

  2. Studying the Buddha's teachings

  3. Living morally and ethically to develop a full understanding of the nature of reality
• Buddhists work throughout their lives to develop the Six Perfections and use these methods to help them
• Jealousy is not one of the Six Perfections in the Mahayana tradition