Hmmm, first I volunteer to organize and work on a big job on Street Prophets, then, as that job suddenly becomes a lower priority, I find myself volunteering to organize and work on a different big job here, to get some stuff done. Spring is here, and my brain seems itching to shake off the lethargy of winter and actually do stuff (my body, less itching, more owey). So it makes sense that today's diary is going to be about doing things. But first, let's spend a moment watching these carpenters in Japan building a new factory old school:
If I'm reading titles and descriptions right, they're building a lumber mill, but my Japanese is horrible. We'll talk about more to do after the flip...
Background
Today we return to the next section of the eightfold path, Right Action. I was having a lot of trouble getting this one out, in part because I had the diary that eventually became last week's Moment of Zen (Schoolhouse) stuck in place like a logjam for months now It can be tough to get dark thoughts out in the open, but if done right, it can be very healthy too. When we keep them in, they can fester and mess with us.
Right action is a tough one for me to get out in it's own right, not only because it cuts deep into our experiences and how we handle them, but because it's where the precepts typically sit, the "rules" of Buddhist behavior, and I've always had a love/hate relationship with rules.
Background — Blue to Orange
Buddhism teaches us that everything we can sense is impermanent, and that includes Street Prophets. Recent events have made it clear that, in part due to the Group feature in the recent software upgrade on Daily Kos, our use of this separate website is more impermanent than we thought. We haven't been given a specific date to move out, but it's coming, and rather than whine about it, we're setting up a Group on Daily Kos that will eventually become the new home of Street Prophets, at some undetermined time in the future.
Starting with this diary until we move out of Street Prophets (Blue), I intend to take any diary I'd normally post on Blue, and cross post it on both Blue and Orange, including of course this Moment of Zen series.
Bear with me though, during this period I might be even slower to respond then usual, as I'm checking comments on both sites (not to mention my night job). Don't feel obligated to mirror your comments on both sites, and don't feel obligated not to, it's all good. There are some differences between the sites (eg. in how videos and pictures are handled) that aren't going to be relevant to most readers and commenters, just people writing diaries or fancy multimedia comments.
There is one difference, however, that is very relevant, and demands I change how I handle this series. In the past my policy was that the previous moments of Zen were not only designed to hopefully be of value to read or reread at any point, but a meaningful place to post questions. If, say, you wanted to ask a question about Right View, I was recommending you ask it either there or here. This will not work on Orange, Daily Kos cuts off the ability to comment after a time, making this unworkable. So the new policy will be to post questions, comments or concerns about old Moments in the most recent Moment diary. If you have something you want to say that you don't want everyone to see, feel free to send me a message via DK4's snazzy-looking message feature.
I will try to ensure that the archives are preserved in some form after the transition.
Dharma Chat — Catching Up
If you're a new reader, Welcome! As you might guess, you've stepped in the middle, don't worry if you're confused, I'm writing these diaries, and they occasionally lose me too. They're not well suited for skimming, take your time, there's no rush...
If you wish to read many past diaries from this series, to "fully" catch up, you can find them here. This diary is discussing the Eightfold Path, Buddhas guidelines on how to approach the moment to free us from the cycle of suffering that we seem trapped in. Specifically, today we're discussing the fourth "spoke" of the eightfold path, Right Action. To read the first three spokes, you could check out:
- Coral — Right View
- Gorilla — Right Intention
- Words — Right Speech
And, of course, feel free to ask any questions below.
Dharma Chat — Right Action
Right Action is also sometimes called Right Conduct, but I sometimes call it Karma Management. Actions have consequences, lots and lots of consequences, and those consequences, that karma, is a large part of what keeps us in the cycle of suffering. Right Action is founded on the understanding that some action will create less suffering than others, making them more skillful, more right.
Four out of the Five Grave Precepts arise from this portion of the eightfold path: Affirm life / Do not kill nor harm; Be giving / Do not steal; Honor the body / Do not misuse sexuality; Proceed clearly / Do not cloud the mind. The other, Manifest truth / Do not lie nor deceive, we discussed in Words.
There are plenty more precepts, more ethical guidelines, in Buddhism, but those are the big five, and the five least likely to change between schools of Buddhism (though the wording changes a lot).
I won't go into two much detail on the first two (Affirm life, Be giving), because they are so straightforward on the surface, and to unfold them to the point where there is something interesting to share would eat the entire diary (so, perhaps another day). I've talked at length about Honor the body / don't misuse sexuality last week, so let's talk about clouding the mind for a moment, and then look at the precepts from a more general point of view.
Dharma Chat — Proceed Clearly
Buddhism is very big on mindfulness, if we aren't mindful, it becomes difficult to ensure that our view is a right view, that our intention is a right intention. If we aren't mindful, we make more mistakes, turning the purest intentions into a source of suffering.
Alcohol is the most common example of something that clouds the mind, a little bit is no big deal, but if I take too much and my eyesight gets messed up (Right View), my inhibitions get weaker (Right Intention), my words get less thoughtful (Right Speech), and my reflexes go out the window (Right Action). If someone keeps drinking too much, they form an addiction, which messes with their mind while sober as well as while drunk. The purest intentions cease to matter if we drive a car into a pedestrian while not realizing how drunk we are.
But this precept is not just about alcohol, or even about drugs in general. We tend to cloud our mind with everything. I'm sure that some people have spent most of their waking hours the past day or so watching 24 hour news programs, not to hear anything new (after the first few reports, there haven't been any new developments, he's still dead, we're still at war), but to escape having to pay attention to their own issues. So we can cloud the mind with news, that doesn't mean don't watch the news, but proceed clearly.
I've spent more time than I probably should have the past month playing a video game, to avoid dealing with stress about my body and my job. I've been clouding my mind. That doesn't mean avoid video games, just proceed clearly.
People have clouded the mind with all sorts of things, with sex, with television, with child rearing, with internet surfing, with exercise, with meditation. If it draws your attention away from the moment, from here and now, it risks clouding your mind. If, on some level, you use it in order to draw your attention away from the moment, you're deliberately clouding the mind.
Wait, did I just say meditation up there? The core practice of my school of Zen Buddhism? Yes, you can cloud your mind with meditation, all you need to do is sit there and not be in the moment, sit there and daydream or fantasize. Even if you are sitting there, in the moment, if you are sitting there while you need to be doing something else instead, you're not properly respecting the moment, if you're sitting there because you need to be doing something else, you're deliberately intoxicating yourself with meditation.
Proceed clearly.
Dharma Chat — Expanding the Precepts
While the subject matter changes, all of the precepts seem to follow a similar pattern. The simplest expression of the pattern I've heard is "Do Good; Don't Do Evil", but I find that too simple. To paraphrase Einstein, "Ideas should be expressed as simply as possible, but no simpler."
How much suffering have you seen arise from the actions of people who were convinced they were good people, doing good and avoiding evil? A disturbing amount to be sure.
I prefer to express it as "Cultivate enlightenment (or merit) and reduce suffering". Truly right actions do both. If you're creating obstacles to enlightenment, if you're increasing suffering, you're probably not practicing Right Action right now. The best thing to do is often to stop, and reevaluate based on your new understanding: what's your view? what's your intention? what has been said? what are you trying to do?
And then proceed clearly...
Next week, I hope to put up a new practice diary, or perhaps elaborate on that mention of "merit" above, we'll see how things go, since I'm spending much of this coming week out of town.
So, what are you doing? How are you doing it? Any questions, concerns, comments? If you're a new reader, feel free to introduce yourself, or you can just lurk, lurkers are good too...