BEHAVIOUR IN DAILY LIFE

"Do not commit any unwholesome actions, Accumulate virtuous deeds, Tame and train your own mind."Shakyamuni Buddha

WHY LEAD A SPIRITUAL LIFE?

Once the Buddha addressed his diciples thus: "Monks, it may be that ascetics belonging to other sects will ask you what is the purpose of leading a spiritual life under the Buddha.?" The monks remained silent. Then the Buddha himself gave the answer: "You should answer them: it is to understand things that should be fully understood that we lead a spiritual life under the Buddha. So what things should be fully understood? They are the five aggregates of clinging: material form, feeling, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness." From this incident we can see that the path laid down by the Buddha is essentially a path of understanding. The understanding aimed at is not merely conceptual knowledge or a collection of information. Rather, it is an insight into the true nature of our existence. This understanding brings liberation, the release of the mind from all bonds and fetters and issues in the cessation of suffering (Dukkha). The Buddha offers us the teachings (Dhamma) as a search light that we can focus on our own experience, in order to understand it in correct perspective. To understand our experience or our existence, involves two steps:
We have to look into the makeup of our being to see what our existence consists of, we have to take it apart mentally, to see how it works, then put it together again and see how it holds together.
We have to examine our experience in order to discover its most pervasive features, the universal characteristics of phenomena.
From: The True Nature of Existence - By Bhikkhu Bodhi (slightly edited)
COMMON SENSE
The basis of Buddhist practice is not merely sitting in silent meditation, but common sense. If we behave arrogant and selfish, what can we expect from the people around us? A nice explanation from Taming the Mind by Thubten Chodron:
"After your morning meditation, have breakfast. Greeting your family in the morning is also part of Dharma practice. Many people are grumpy in the morning. They sit at the breakfast table, pouring over the newspaper or reading the back of the cereal box for the umpteenth time. When their bright-eyed children greet them, they grunt and, without looking up, keep reading. When their partner asks them a question, they don't respond, or they glance at them for a moment with a look that says, "Don't bother me." Later, they wonder why they have problems in the family! .... It's easy to bark orders at your children, "Get up!" "Brush your teeth!" "Why are you wearing that? It looks terrible! Change clothes!" "Stop playing around and eat breakfast." "Hurry up and get to school. You're late." Many children will react as unruly subordinates when treated in this way. But if you greet your children with love and firmly help them navigate everything in their morning routine, they'll be happier and so will you."
His Holiness the Dalai Lama from A Policy of Kindness:
When we practice, initially, as a basis we control ourselves, stopping the bad actions which hurt others as much as we can. This is defensive. After that, when we develop certain qualifications, then as an active goal we should help others. In the first stage, sometimes we need isolation while pursuing our own inner development; however, after you have some confidence, some strength, you must remain with, contact, and serve society in any field -- health, education, politics, or whatever.
There are people who call themselves religious-minded, trying to show this by dressing in a peculiar manner, maintaining a peculiar way of life, and isolating themselves from the rest of society. That is wrong. A scripture of mind-purification (mind-training) says, "Transform your inner viewpoint, but leave your external appearance as it is." This is important. Because the very purpose of practicing the Great Vehicle is service for others, you should not isolate yourselves from society. In order to serve, in order to help, you must remain in society.
ETHICS AND VOWS
Many of us may be hesitant to read about ethics and morality, but according to Buddhism, our lack of self-control is the very thing that leads to our problems. Hopefully, the large amount of rules and vows will not stop you to investigate what they are all about; they should not just be accepted and followed, they must be understood and then you may automatically find yourself living according to them.
The main practice in Buddhism evolves around transformation of one's own mind. The main means to accomplish this is via meditation as one needs to know the 'enemy' inside before one can efficiently subdue it. However, without the causes for positive results in terms of karma, spiritual progress is impossible. For example, you may plan to do a meditation retreat, but you fall sick instead because of some negative karma ripening, and no retreat will happen at all. Hence, the practice of ethics and positive behaviour prevents us from creating negative karma and will enable our spiritual progress.
Ethical behaviour is said to be at the basis of any spiritual path. A life filled with killing, stealing and lying is certainly not very conducive to inner peace and the generation of compassion. The Buddha explained the 8-Fold Noble Path (correct thought, speech, actions, livelihood, understanding, effort, mindfulness and concentration) as a guideline to proper conduct. If you desire to achieve Buddhahood in order to help all others, then you can also try the practices of a Bodhisattva: the 6 Perfections ( the perfection of giving, ethics, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom).
In other pages of this website more details can be found on the various sets of Buddhist vows (see the pages on Refuge, Sangha, Compassion, Mahayana Precepts and Tantra). Vows are intended to keep ones' mind focussed on mindfulness of our mental and physical actions. Moreover, keeping to vows creates a large store of positive energy (karma) which allows progress on the spiritual path. For example, if one does not kill without having taken a vow, one simply does not create any karma. However, when one has taken a vow not to kill, one accumulates positive karma 24 hours a day, as long as one does not kill.
The bottom line for all these practices is to control our mind and intentions; to change our behaviour into not harming others, but helping them instead.
"Conquer the angry man by love. Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness. Conquer the miser with generosity. Conquer the liar with truth." The Buddha (The Dhammapada)

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