Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world. Life is precious. It is everywhere, inside us and all
around us; it has so many forms. The First Precept is born from the awareness that
lives everywhere are being destroyed. We see the
suffering caused by the destruction of life, and we
undertake to cultivate compassion and use it as a
source of energy for the protection of people,
animals, plants, and minerals. The First Precept is a
precept of compassion, karuna -- the ability to
remove suffering and transform it. When we see
suffering, compassion is born in us. It is important for us to stay in touch with the
suffering of the world. We need to nourish that
awareness through many means -- sounds, images,
direct contact, visits, and so on -- in order to keep
compassion alive in us. But we must be careful not
to take in too much. Any remedy must be taken in
the proper dosage. We need to stay in touch with
suffering only to the extent that we will not forget, so
that compassion will flow within us and be a source
of energy for our actions. If we use anger at injustice
as the source for our energy, we may do something
harmful, something that we will later regret.
According to Buddhism, compassion is the only
source of energy that is useful and safe. With
compassion, your energy is born from insight; it is
not blind energy. We humans are made entirely of non-human
elements, such as plants, minerals, earth, clouds,
and sunshine. For our practice to be deep and true,
we must include the ecosystem. If the environment
is destroyed, humans will be destroyed, too.
Protecting human life is not possible without also
protecting the lives of animals, plants, and minerals.
The Diamond Sutra teaches us that it is impossible
to distinguish between sentient and non-sentient
beings. This is one of many ancient Buddhist texts
that teach deep ecology. Every Buddhist practitioner
should be a protector of the environment. Minerals
have their own lives, too. In Buddhist monasteries,
we chant, "Both sentient and non- sentient beings
will realize full enlightenment." The First Precept is
the
practice of protecting all lives, including the lives of
minerals. "I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and
not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my
thinking, and in my way of life." We cannot support any act of killing; no killing can
be justified. But not to kill is not enough. We must
also learn ways to prevent others from killing. We
cannot say, "I am not responsible. They did it. My
hands are clean." If you were in Germany during the
time of the Nazis, you could not say, "They did it. I
did not." If, during the Gulf War, you did not say or
do anything to try to stop the killing, you were not
practicing this precept. Even if what you said or did
failed to stop the war, what is important is that you
tried, using your insight and compassion. It is not just by not killing with your body that you
observe the First Precept. If in your thinking you
allow the killing to go on, you also break this
precept. We must be determined not to condone
killing, even in our minds. According to the Buddha,
the mind is the base of all actions. It is most
dangerous to kill in the mind. When you believe, for
example, that yours is the only way for humankind
and that everyone who follows another way is your
enemy, millions of people could be killed because of
that idea. Thinking is at the base of everything. It is important
for us to put an eye of awareness into each of our
thoughts. Without a correct understanding of a
situation or a person, our thoughts can be
misleading and create confusion, despair, anger, or
hatred. Our most important task is to develop correct
insight. If we see deeply into the nature of
interbeing, that all things "inter-are," we will stop
blaming, arguing, and killing, and we will become
friends with everyone. To practice nonviolence, we
must first of all learn ways to deal peacefully with
ourselves. If we create true harmony within
ourselves, we will know how to deal with family,
friends, and associates. When we protest against a war, for example, we
may assume that we are a peaceful person, a
representative of peace, but this might not be true. If
we look deeply, we will observe that the roots of war
are in the unmindful ways we have been living. We
have not sown enough seeds of peace and
understanding in ourselves and others, therefore we
are co-responsible: "Because I have been like this, they are like that." A more holistic approach is the
way of "interbeing": "This is like this, because that is
like that." This is the way of understanding and love.
With this insight, we can see clearly and help our
government see clearly. Then we can go to a
demonstration and say, "This war is unjust,
destructive, and not worthy of our great nation." This
is far more effective than angrily condemning others.
Anger always accelerates the damage. All of us, even pacifists, have pain inside. We feel
angry and frustrated, and we need to find someone
willing to listen to us who is capable of
understanding our suffering. In Buddhist
iconography, there is a bodhisattva named
Avalokitesvara who has one thousand arms and one
thousand hands, and has an eye in the palm of each
hand. One thousand hands represent action, and
the eye in each hand represents understanding.
When you understand a situation or a person, any
action you do will help and will not cause more
suffering. When you have an eye in your hand, you
will know how to practice true nonviolence. To practice nonviolence, first of all we have to
practice it within ourselves. In each of us, there is a
certain amount of violence and a certain amount of
nonviolence. Depending on our state of being, our
response to things will be more or less nonviolent.
Even if we take pride in being vegetarian, for
example, we have to acknowledge that the water in
which we boil our vegetables contains many tiny
microorganisms. We cannot be completely
nonviolent, but by being vegetarian, we are going in
the direction of nonviolence. If we want to head
north, we can use the North Star to guide us, but it is
impossible to arrive at the North Star. Our effort is
only to proceed in that direction. Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even army
generals. They may, for example, conduct their
operations in ways that avoid killing innocent people.
To help soldiers move in the nonviolent direction, we
have to be in touch with them. If we divide reality
into two camps -- the violent and the nonviolent --
and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the
world will never have peace. We will always blame
and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars
and social injustice, without recognizing the degree
of violence in ourselves. We must work on ourselves
and also work with those we condemn if we want to
have a real impact. It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some
people as enemies, even those who act violently.
We have to approach them with love in our hearts
and do our best to help them move in a direction of
nonviolence. If we work for peace out of anger, we
will never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never
come about through non-peaceful means.
Most important is to become nonviolence, so that
when a situation presents itself, we will not create
more suffering. To practice nonviolence, we need
gentleness, loving kindness, compassion, joy, and
equanimity directed to our bodies, our feelings, and
other people. With mindfulness -- the practice of
peace -- we can begin by working to transform the
wars in ourselves. There are techniques for doing
this. Conscious breathing is one. Every time we feel
upset, we can stop what we are doing, refrain from
saying anything, and breathe in and out several
times, aware of each in-breath and each out-breath.
If we are still upset, we can go for walking
meditation, mindful of each slow step and each
breath we take. By cultivating peace within, we bring
about peace in society. It depends on us. To
practice peace in ourselves is to minimize the
numbers of wars between this and that feeling, or
this and that perception, and we can then have real
peace with others as well, including the members of
our own family. I am often asked, "What if you are practicing
nonviolence and someone breaks into your house
and tries to kidnap your daughter or kill your
husband? What should you do? Should you still act
in a nonviolent way?" The answer depends on your
state of being. If you are prepared, you may react
calmly and intelligently, in the most nonviolent way
possible. But to be ready to react with intelligence
and nonviolence, you have to train yourself in
advance. It may take ten years, or longer. If you wait
until the time of crisis to ask the question, it will be
too late. A this-or-that kind of answer would be
superficial. At that crucial moment, even if you know
that nonviolence is better than violence, if your
understanding is only intellectual and not in your
whole being, you will not act nonviolently. The fear
and anger in you will prevent you from acting in the
most nonviolent way. We have to look deeply every day to practice this
precept well. Every time we buy or consume
something, we may be condoning some form of
killing. While practicing the protection of humans, animals,
plants, and minerals, we know that we are protecting
ourselves. We feel in permanent and loving touch
with all species on Earth. We are protected by the
mindfulness and the loving kindness of the Buddha
and many generations of Sanghas who also practice
this precept. This energy of loving kindness brings
us the feeling of safety, health, and joy, and this
becomes real the moment we make the decision to
receive and practice the First Precept. Feeling compassion is not enough. We have to learn
to express it. That is why love must go together with understanding. Understanding and insight show us
how to act. Our real enemy is forgetfulness. If we nourish
mindfulness every day and water the seeds of peace
in ourselves and those around us, we become alive,
and we can help ourselves and others realize peace
and compassion.
Life is so precious, yet in our daily lives we are
usually carried away by our forgetfulness, anger,
and worries, lost in the past, unable to touch life in
the present moment. When we are truly alive,
everything we do or touch is a miracle. To practice
mindfulness is to return to life in the present
moment. The practice of the First Precept is a
celebration of reverence for life. When we
appreciate and honor the beauty of life, we will do
everything in our power to protect all life. by Thich Nhat Hanh In his book entitled "For a Future to be Possible" |