The Fourth Noble Truth — Morality (Sīla)

THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH
Morality��
(Sila)
QUESTION
If you wanted to create social harmony and peace, what rules or laws would you
recommend people to follow?�
Try to limit your number to four�or five.
The manner in which the Four Noble Truths were formulated was that of the physicians of
the time� concerning any illness. Firstly, the illness was described and named.� The cause
was then stated.� Then, the prognosis or likely outcome of the disease and finally the
treatment. So if we were following the normal course, we should go onto the Third Noble
Truth, The Truth of the End of Suffering.� But for clarity's sake, we shall instead go on to
the treatment of our dis-ease, the Fourth Noble Truth, in which the Buddha lays down the
Path that leads to the perfect cure for life's sufferings.
This is how it is put, in the first ever talk, the Buddha gave after his Enlightenment - The
Discourse on the Turning of the Wheel of the Law.
These two extremes, O Disciples, should not be practised by one who has gone forth from
the world.� What are these two?�� That which is to do with passions - low, vulgar,
coarse, ignoble and useless.� And that which is to do with mortification - painful, ignoble
and useless. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata has attained the knowledge of
the Middle Path which gives perception� and knowledge and leads to peace, to insight,
enlightenment and Nibbana.
'What, then, is this Middle Path?
It is the Eightfold Noble Path, namely, Right Understanding, Right Intention, Right Speech,
Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
Buddhism is often called the Middle Path or the Middle Way : that between self-indulgence,
governed by desire for pleasure and by the passions, and self-mortification, involving
penances and self torture. The path of self-indulgence is the way of those who believe
happiness is to be found in pleasure.� The path of mortification is the way of those who
believe that the destruction of the physical appetites leads to liberation. The Middle Path
lies between these two in this sense. Bodily appetites are natural to human life.� We need
to eat and our appetite depends on tasty food.� However, once we begin to indulge these
appetites, indulge the delights of taste, caring little for what the body actually needs, our
appetites grow 'coarse and vulgar'. We become gluttons.� This tightrope, distinguishing
between what the body needs as opposed to what the mind greeds, is the Middle Path.�
It helps us to purify the mind of gross appetites and emotions and to establish a peaceful
disposition.� But this Middle Path also suggests a hierarchy, an apex of a triangle which
transcends the two points on either side of the base.� When insight is gained into
Nibbana, then we can say that by destroying the very roots of out discontent, the Path now
completely transcends these two options of indulgence and mortification. Indeed this is one
way of describing the Buddhist 'saint' or Arahat as one who is beyond self-indulgence and
self-mortification.
The Eightfold Noble Path, The Middle Path, is laid out in this order. The first two, Right
Understanding and Right Intention come under the division of Wisdom.� Right Speech,
Right Action and Right Livelihood come under the� division of Morality.� Right Effort,
Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration come under the division of Mental Development.
However, in the later talks, the Buddha turns his presentation around to show how the
theory is put into practice.� There is a passage cropping up time and time again at the end

of the Discourses.� We have to remember those were the days before cassette recorders,
videos and even books.� News travelled by word of mouth and slowly.� As the Buddha
wondered around the area of India north of the Ganges,� he had to constantly repeat the
message.� All discourses have some nuance to add to the teaching, but many of them end
with what must have been one of his most well known formula.
'Such is morality, such is mental development, such is wisdom.�
Mental development when based on morality is rich in result and of great effect.� Wisdom,
based on mental development, is rich in result and great in effect.'
In the Buddha's understanding, morality is the key to further development, so we shall
concentrate on the meaning of morality and� its importance. Here we will deal with the
negative side.� Positive morality, virtue, will be dealt in the next talk.
Morality these days is still something of a dirty word with heavy Victorian overtones.�
Behind this sits the notion of an angry deity who judges and punishes every
transgression.� To understand Buddhist morality, we have to keep in mind that first
there is no such concept of a punishing or rewarding god.� And secondly, that morality is
bound up with the Law of Cause and Effect, Kamma, which states that what is wholesome
produces wholesomeness and what is unwholesome produces unwholesomeness.� So on
one level, morality is about our actions in the world, realising that our actions are producing
effects all the time.� If this is so we need to know what sort of action brings about a good
result and happy, peaceful situations and what sort of action brings about painful situations,
unhappy results. On another level, morality is about our state of mind within. According to
the law of Kamma, it is our wills that produce our states of mind.� It is by willing to think
about and� so to produce acts of generosity and compassion that loving states of mind
arise.� It is by willing to think about my personal benefit at the expense of others that
brings about the selfish, jealous, anxious states of mind.
On one level, then, the moral laws in Buddhism are about creating a peaceful and caring
society. They are the basis for real social harmony. On the other hand, they are laws of
mental health which when followed create a mind full of compassion, joy and peace.
The simplest formulation made by the Buddha is recorded in the discourses in verse:
Cease from harm.
Do good.
Purify the mind.
This is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
We can call these three, the Primary Precepts.� The first is the negative morality - what
we ought not to do by way of harm to ourselves others. The second is the positive morality
- what we ought to do for our own benefit and the benefit of all beings.� The third is to
do with clearing out all negative tendencies in the mind and replacing them with positive
attitudes.
So what is the Buddha's formulation of 'Cease from evil' in detail? What are those thoughts,
words and actions which produce unwholesome states? They are known as the Ten Wrong
Actions and they are split into three divisions: wrong thought, wrong speech and wrong
action.
Wrong thought takes up the first three of the ten: avarice, ill will and wrong views.�
Avarice is to do with all those fantasies and mental projects we indulge that have their
motivation in greed.� Self-indulgent, lustful, selfish thoughts.� Fantasies of wealth, fame
and power.� It's the mentality of accumulation, of acquisition.� Ill will includes all those
thoughts based on hatred, from jealousy to anger, from grudge to revenge.�� Wrong
views here means our tendency to indulge in what is harmful, kidding ourselves that it isn't
so.� It means especially not to understand or know of the law of Kamma. In this negative
morality, this means� that unskilful behaviour necessarily brings unhappy results.� It

includes the conceit that our opinions are always right even when they are obviously getting
us into trouble.� It demands we check all our opinions in� the light of our own experience
and the experience of others.� The kernel of wrong view in terms of the Ten Wrong Actions
is to believe that since we have got away with some unskilful behaviour, that that's the end
of the story.
Wrong Speech takes up the next four of the Wrong Actions.� The first is lying, saying
anything untrue. For those of finer conscience, it includes what is often euphemistically
called exaggeration.� The second is malicious talk which only furthers backbiting and
disharmony. Slander often joins together lying and malicious talk.� The third is coarse
speech, the use of four letter words and so on.� We need to ask what sort of mental state
lies behind the use of such words.� Finally useless talk, idle gossip. Again we are looking at
the state of mind indulged in, the whingeing, complaining, bored, empty, rattling mind.
There is a quaint story attached to one of the verses spoken by the Buddha in the
Dhammapada, a collection of the Buddhas sayings.� A certain Tambadathika had been the
king's executioner for forty-five years.� He had retired and had asked one of the Buddhas
chief disciples, Sariputta, to receive alms food at his home. Sariputta was one of the two
chief disciples of the Buddha.� He was known as the General of the Dhamma.� After he
had eaten, the Elder gave a talk about the Dhamma, but he could see that Tambadathika
was very agitated and unable to concentrate.� Tambadathika explained that memories of
all the deaths he had caused as executioner was the reason for his agitation.� Sariputtta
asked him if he was the one who had decided they had to be executed.� He said that had
been the king's work and that he himself had never wanted to kill anyone.� He had done so
because he was ordered to.� He had had no option.� Sariputta told him that if that were
so, he was not guilty of murder as such since it had never been his intention to execute the
condemned. Tambadathika� was greatly relieved in his heart.� That same afternoon, it
seems, he was accidently killed by a cow.� When the Buddha heard of this, he said that
although Tambadathika had followed an unwholesome profession, because of the Dhamma
he had heard, he had been reborn in a place where he would be able to handle the results
of his actions much better.� Then he uttered this verse concerning the teaching of the
Dhamma:
Better than an thousand words that are senseless
And unconnected with the realisation of Nibbana,
Is a single word of sense
If upon hearing it, one is calmed.
These days, this concept of useless talk is very much overlooked.� If we examine our
media: the TV programmes, the serials and soap operas, the newspapers,� so much of it is
filling our minds with hogwash.� Don't you think?
Finally there's wrong action, the final three.� The first is not to kill any living being and
it also includes not doing them any harm.� The second is not to steal which is phrased
as 'not taking what is not freely given'. The third is sensual misconduct such as gluttony,
drunkenness and� self-indulgent sexuality.� These days the whole area of sexuality is very
confused. There are fundamental Christian sects for whom sex is a bad thing in itself. And
there is the libertine view that their personal freedom to satisfy any desire means virtually a
right to have sex on demand.��
In traditional Buddhist countries, sexual activity is seen as something limited within the
bonds of marriage.� In the west, since there is no consensus, it is best left to the individual
to decide what is unskilful and what is skilful in such behaviour.� These are some of the
questions that a Buddhist perspective would want to ask.� What is the reason for the
sexual pleasure?� Is it just for self-indulgence?� Is there any real affection involved in
the relationship?� Is it just habitual?� Are the factors of reproduction being taken into

account? The fundamental guiding principle is that of not doing harm.� No matter how
important sexual pleasure may have become for us in our culture, we need to investigate
and see what is the outcome of all this sexual activity.� What is the effect both within
the mind and between people? We need to be quite truthful about it to ourselves.� We
need to be prepared to change if our experience and understanding asks for a change in
behaviour.� It is surprising, for instance, how many smokers until fairly recently would
still say that the link between tobacco and cancer is not yet proved conclusively.� Surely a
warning signal should be enough, but such is the dependency, the craving, that people will
kid themselves along� - even to death!
These Ten Wrong Actions give us in some detail what the Buddha meant by Right Speech
and Right Action in the Noble Eightfold Path.� There is also included here part of Right
Intention.� And all of it naturally is included in Right Livelihood.� It is interesting that
the Buddha was all too aware of how much our jobs and work dominate our lives, how
they affect our minds and social relationships.� Wrong Livelihood is really an extension of
Wrong Speech and Wrong Action, but it did give the Buddha the opportunity to pinpoint
some trades which he said ought not to be practised.� They will not come as any surprise
to you.� Dealing in arms and lethal weapons; dealing in animal slaughter; dealing in
human beings (these days we might consider slave wages); making and selling intoxicating
beverages (we can include here the whole drug trade); and finally dealing in poisons
(including chemical and germ warfare of today).� If we end up doing such work, it is
good to refer to the story of Tambadathika so that we are not worried by false guilts and
anxieties.� If we find ourselves doing any job of work which we come to realise is harmful
and we wish to leave, it is good to take into account all the consequences of such a move,
such as effect upon income and family.� It may mean we have to stay on in such work
until other opportunities arise. Our search for other occupation must be vigourous, mind.�
And in the meantime we can take solace in the fact that our intentions are no longer to do
harm.� This takes patience.� It means accepting one's karma, one's actual situation. It's
of little help to take a lofty moralistic position, which, of course, is what people outside the
situation often do. The relief lies in the fact that once we have left such unwholesome work,
upon the leaving, no more unwholesome kamma is being created.
�May the Teachings of the Buddha shed light into your life!
May you quickly attain the Supreme Goal!
SUMMARY
THREE PRIMARY PRECEPTS ��������
Cease from harm.
Do good.
Purify the Mind.
This is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
THE TEN WRONG ACTIONS ��������
Wrong Thought: ����������
Avarice�������������������������� ��������
Ill will
Wrong View
Wrong Speech:���� �������
Falsehood
Slander
Coarse/Harsh Speech
Useless Talk

Wrong Action:���� ��������
Killing
Stealing
Sensual Misconduct
WRONG LIVELIHOOD
Dealing in Arms and Leathal Weapons
Dealing in Animals for Slaughter
Dealing in Human Beings
Making or Selling Intoxicating Beverages
Dealing in Poisons
LAY BUDDHISTS TRAINING RULES���� pancasila
I undertake the training rule to refrain from:
harming any living being
taking what is not freely given
misusing the senses
wrong speech
taking drugs or drinks that tend to cloud the mind