Buddha’s very first piece of advice – before any talk about meditation – you’re going to read about a little list of ten don’ts, and the first seven are to do with actions of body and speech: he exhorts us not to kill any being, don’t take the ungiven, don’t cheat on your partner, don’t lie, don’t bad-mouth behind backs, don’t abuse people, and don’t rabbit on about nothing. The other three are the mind.
But Buddha’s not telling you what to do, he’s suggesting like a good doctor, “Well, at least refrain from these few things, Robina.”
And you ask, “Why, doctor?” And he’ll say, “You know what, sweetie pie, because they’ll cause you suffering.” Yes, they’re actions that harm others, but the first reason he gives for suggesting we don’t do them is because they’ll harm oneself. This surprises us.
Basically it’s advice from a kind doctor who’s observed that everything you do will produce the person you become: anything you do that’s negative will produce a suffering person and suffering experiences, and anything you do that’s called virtuous will produce a happy person and happy experiences. This is the essence of karma: simple.
So bare-bones minimum – forget nirvana, forget bodhichitta, forget buddhahood – for our own benefit, in order to prevent our own future suffering and bring us our own future happiness: at least refrain from the heavy-duty negative actions.
But we hear it as punitive: “Don’t kill, and if you do you’re naughty and you’ll get punished.” That’s how we hear it because we have this neurotic view of punishment and reward.
That’s the thing. If you ask Jesus, “What is a negative action?” he will say, “It’s what God said not to do.” It’s God’s law, in other words. He’s got a list of ten don’ts as well – he and Buddha sound like they’re brothers!
But there’s a huge difference. You ask Buddha, “What is a negative action?” and he’ll say, “Have you noticed people don’t like getting killed?” In other words, it’s a natural law: it’s negative because it harms others – it’s got nothing to do with the fact that Buddha says it.
But his first point, the very first piece of advice, is to refrain from it because it’ll harm oneself. It’s for our sake: it’s self-compassion, self-respect. But we don’t think like this, or even if we sort of vaguely do, we don’t really articulate it like this. It doesn’t appear to us that we create ourselves, we don’t feel like that. The view of ego doesn’t let us see that, we’re blind to it.
We are very convinced we’re a product of the outside world: “It’s not fair, I didn’t ask to get born,” we say. “It’s not my fault,” we say. Ego wants to get off the hook, it’s very instinctive – we know this, we see this.
To start abiding by the laws of karma happily, to choose to do that, with delight, for our own benefit, takes a while. And it’s our call, no one’s forcing. It’s to our own advantage, we’re the beneficiary. These first stages of practice are solely for our own benefit – they’re nothing to do with being kind to others yet. The main energy behind all the first stages of practice is, “Back off, leave sentient beings alone, and at least don’t harm them.” And you’re the beneficiary!
And, of course, as Lama Zopa says, as a byproduct “the rats and roaches will have a party, they’ll be so happy, because you’ll leave them in peace!” But it’s not the main purpose yet: you don’t stop killing because of compassion yet. You can if you’re that developed, but you’ve got to first get to have the compassion for yourself.
That’s how we’d say it: you will not want to kill or steal or lie or badmouth, not to mention being jealous and depressed and angry – they’re even harder to control – because you’re sick of the suffering: the present suffering and you certainly do not want suffering in the future. It’s kindness to yourself: that’s how we have to consciously, intentionally think about it.
And actually until we can think this way, we won’t be able to have real compassion for others.