DukkhaGirl tackles the Five Precepts

DukkhaGirl.com edited by Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What privilege to claim dukkha!

This is a short essay on my thoughts asking, “Why follow Buddhism’s Five Precepts?” What use are they, and can we really follow an ethical code of conduct without “fixating”?

At our small zendo the teacher decided to ask each of us to give a talk during practice sessions on alternating weeks. It became usual for him, on each following week, to comment on a student’s discourse from the previous week.

Feedback such as this can be useful but, unfortunately, people can also construe such feedback as criticism — especially when delivered in front of the entire group.

One member receiving feedback felt criticized, vulnerable — and angry — so decided to be direct about his feelings. He, unfortunately, expressed them not as a private discussion with a teacher but instead as an unexpected and uncomfortable confrontation in front of the whole group.

It did not go well as it finished with him shouting, “Hai!” and storming out, never to return. If you think Zen groups are harmonious, peaceful, conflict-free zones, well, how much do you really know?

But I found it interesting asking, What was it in my fellow sangha member’s talk that had prompted the inflammatory comment?

(I note that the teacher’s comment hadn’t really even registered in my mind as criticism or inflammatory until the conflict arose).

I can’t remember the teacher’s exact words. I just recall being perplexed that the subject being criticized was Buddhism’s Five Precepts.

I had regarded a precepts practice as an integral part of Buddhism. I was fond of reading books like The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh and Waking Up to What You Do by Diane Ezzin Rizzetto and was quite focused on following these precepts myself.

So I later asked our teacher what his concern had been about dwelling on precepts during a talk. While I can’t give an exact quote of what he said, I remember the gist of it: People tend to make precepts into a thing and get fixated on them.

The Complete Book of Buddha's Lists: Explained

Okay, I can relate to that. People do get hung up on rules [and rituals] and codes. In any tradition where there are lists or rules, or things that appear to be lists of rules, some people will fixate on them, and turn them into an in-group or out-group thing.

I’ve met people who had the “You’re not Buddhist if you do this thing or don’t do that thing” mentality. I’ve met people who wouldn’t study with a particular well-known teacher, for instance, because he wasn’t a vegetarian. (It’s totally our prerogative to steer clear of a teacher if we don’t feel comfortable with his or her behavior).

On the other side of this, I’ve met some Buddhists who like to go out for a beer or who have a wine collection [they call medicinal when they have no interest in grape juice full of resveratrol].

(I’m talking specifically about Buddhism as lay practitioners in the West practice it, generally, and in the US in particular — because many Buddhist laypeople in Asian countries neither meditate nor follow precepts but instead follow a devotional-type path.

But I think Americans who are drawn to Buddhism are attracted to the idea of its authentic practices and sometimes approach it, at least initially, as a sort of self-help path).

The problem with precepts when we follow them in a dogmatic sort of way — when we fixate on them and make them into a “thing” — is that they sometimes make us into Buddh@ssholes.

A teacher — I think it was Ram Dass, and excuse me if I misquote him here — said something like, “My family hates it when I’m a Buddhist, but they love it when I’m a buddha.”

In my opinion, the precepts are a tool that, when used in a particular way, can help us come a bit closer to being a buddha instead of an -ist.

In the West many of us are familiar with the Judeo-Christian tradition with its Ten Commandments. And we tend to see any lists of rules that way — as set in stone. Of course, many people who hang lists of these commands in their homes don’t follow them indeed or even in spirit.

Who is the mysterious "DukkhaGirl"?

In various Buddhist traditions I’ve encountered, even within subsets of the same sects — different Zen groups, for instance — there may be a vast difference in the emphasis put on the practice of precepts.

Most will have some sort of lay ordination ceremony that involves “taking the precepts.” Still, there seem to be differences in what it means and how stringently practitioners are supposed to follow them.

Though the Five Precepts seem simple on the surface, they’re open to vastly different interpretations.

What, for instance, is an intoxicant? [Something that occasions heedlessness, where "heedlessness" is defined as the breaking of the preceding precepts we would not otherwise be breaking were it not for being intoxicated.]

Is beer an intoxicant or does it become one only if we drink to excess? Is caffeine an intoxicant [Note 1]?

If one reads Thich Nhat Hanh, one will note that he includes watching TV in the realm of intoxicants and eschews any alcohol use, noting that one drink might not be wrong — but one never knows if it will lead to a larger pattern of alcoholism in the long run.

And what about the precept not to kill? Does it only mean that we don’t do the killing? Does it mean we need to be vegetarian [2]? What if pests are overrunning our house and we’ve exhausted all humane methods?

So of what use are the precepts? Is not following them to the letter just cherry picking [nit picking]? Where is the balance? How can we hold them without turning them into dogma or a “thing?”

While on the one hand, I can agree with what my teacher said [3] about people’s tendency to fixate, I think it’s wrong to throw the [baby out with the bathwater] whole thing out entirely. Plenty of good reasons for them exists.

Of course, one reason the [monastic] precepts developed was to keep order within a sangha, a monastic or lay spiritual community.

If members of a sangha agreed not to misuse sexuality, to not gossip about each other, to not steal from each other, and not to take intoxicants — which can be a cause of slipping up with the other precepts — the sangha might avoid some of the problems that generally tend to plague human groups.

Even outside the sangha, following the precepts can maximize benefits and minimize harm to others.

Another reason for the precepts, of course, is training the mind. It isn’t a stretch, for instance, to imagine that alcohol might get in the way of meditation practice.

But the way I’ve found the precepts to be most helpful in my own life [4] is in the aspect of self-knowledge and self-confrontation. More