Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness

by Jampa Tegchok

  When these disturbing emotions aren’t manifest in our minds we can create constructive karma, but this, too, originates with I-grasping and results in rebirth in samsara — albeit a higher rebirth as a human or celestial being. In either case, as long as we are under the influence of ignorance, we will continue to take rebirth in cyclic existence. In this way, wandering in cyclic existence is caused by not realizing emptiness.

  If we allow ignorance and afflictions free rein in our minds, we are not even able to help ourselves, let alone others. A sutra explains that sentient beings wander in cyclic existence because they do not understand the three doors of liberation — emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. These three come down to the two, the selflessness of persons and of phenomena, and those two come down to one, the door of emptiness.

  125.Therefore, as long as you have not understood

  this Dharma that destroys the I-grasping,

  devote yourself to the Dharma

  of generosity, ethical conduct, and fortitude.

  Exert Yourself to Have Higher Rebirths Until You Realize Selflessness

  Until you can eradicate the view of a personal identity by generating the wisdom realizing emptiness, train in the practices of generosity, ethical conduct, and fortitude. These three practices include the sixteen causes of higher rebirth that Nagarjuna spoke about earlier. In that way, you will be able to have a series of fortunate rebirths during which you can accumulate merit and wisdom and eventually attain liberation or awakening.

  126.King, if you undertake deeds that begin with Dharma,

  have Dharma in the middle and Dharma at the end,

  you will not be harmed

  in this world or the next.

  127.Through Dharma you attain fame and pleasure,

  you have no fear now or at death;

  and in the next world, you will have great joy —

  so always devote yourself to the Dharma.

  The Advantages of Training in the Cause

  Before acting with your body, speech, or mind, cultivate a virtuous motivation. In all your actions have Dharma in your mind by maintaining that positive motivation, and when completing an action, have Dharma at the end by dedicating the merit for the awakening of yourself and all others. By doing so, you will not experience harm in this life or future lives.

  You will also gain five benefits: (1) by acting with integrity and kindness, you will have a good reputation; (2) due to not acting in destructive ways, you won’t be overwhelmed with remorse and regret and will have a happy mind; (3) by practicing nonviolence, in this life you will be free of fear and neither human beings nor spirits will have reason to harm you; (4) at the time of death you will die peacefully, free from fear of an unfortunate rebirth; and (5) in this life and in future lives your happiness will continue to expand. Therefore, always maintain a virtuous attitude before, during, and at the completion of all actions. If you practice like this, you will begin to experience these results in this life.

  128.Dharma is the highest policy;

  Dharma pleases the world;

  and if the world is pleased,

  you will not be deceived here or hereafter.

  General Training in the Holy Way

  Between the two, the way of Dharma and the way of the world, choose the way of Dharma because it is holy — it originates from a positive mental state and brings benefit to ourselves and others. On an individual level, practicing Dharma leads us to a higher rebirth, while on a broader level, it enables the king or anyone in a leadership position to be successful. For people in positions of leadership or authority, Dharma is the highest policy, because leaders set the tone for a group’s behavior by acting as an example. They can give citizens, followers, employees, and friends Dharma advice, which helps them to solve their problems nonviolently. This enables the members of the group to avoid backbiting, harsh speech, lying, and gossip, which fracture their harmony and prevent the group from attaining its goals. Also, by acting according to the Dharma, leaders are honest, fair, and impartially care for the welfare of everyone concerned. In this way, the people of the world will be happy and the people in the kingdom, country, workplace, monastery, or family will abide harmoniously. By engaging our body, speech, and mind in virtuous actions, we will not have enemies in this life or fall to an unfortunate rebirth in the next.

  129.But a policy that proceeds without Dharma

  will not please the world.

  And if the world is not pleased,

  you will not be happy here or hereafter.

  130.A useless [political] theory

  is one that intends to deceive others.

  It is harsh and a path to bad rebirths —

  how could the unwise make such a theory useful?

  131.Since it will just [deceive] oneself

  for many thousands of rebirths,

  how could one intent on deceiving others

  be a true statesman at all?

  Abandon Following Bad Political Treatises and Their Harmful Policies

  Some treatises on the formation of government policy are pernicious. Advocating violent and malicious policies that disturb harmony and create ill will in society, such theories permit or encourage cheating or lying to the populace, taking advantage of the poor or infirm, and discriminating against certain groups. For example, in the king’s time some treatises encourage animal sacrifice — they state that killing animals and offering their blood and flesh to the gods will bring happiness and that both the animals and those performing the sacrifice will have fortunate rebirths. Another treatise says that when brahmins are destitute, it is suitable for them to steal others’ possessions, while other treatises say that women are just like a highway that everyone has the right to travel on — that they are available for anyone who wants to have sex with them. In modern times, this could apply to political treatises advocating fascist, totalitarian, or racist policies.

  Misguided people who formulate such treatises say that these various behaviors are good policy, even though in fact they harm others. Some directly harm people’s lives, others their possessions, bodies, or minds. None are appropriate methods for the wise to gain what they desire. When you enact these policies you deceive yourself, because although you desire happiness, for many thousands of rebirths you will suffer through one rebirth after the other in the lower realms. If you involve others in such nonvirtue, although you say you’re working for their benefit, you deceive them because they also will be reborn in the lower realms. How could someone intent on deceiving others be a true statesman?

  It is simple, really — those actions are nonvirtuous. Whatever way you look at it — whether you consider the ripening result, the environmental result, the causally concordant results similar to the experience or to the behavior, or even the results in this life — only suffering comes from these actions. Harming others brings harm and trouble upon yourself. When you understand the gravity of the ten paths of nonvirtue you have followed, you have reason to feel sorrow and regret. That being the case, turn away from such policies and from the treatises that teach them.

  Non-harm and nonviolence are basic tenets of Buddhism. They are guidelines we promise to follow when we take refuge in the Dharma. Regarding somebody who generates ill will and harms others, the Buddha said, “I am not their guide, and they are not my followers.”

  The buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ heartfelt wish, which is echoed in a verse we often recite, is “May sentient beings be happy, may they be free of suffering.” This is the reason they worked so hard to become buddhas and bodhisattvas, and it is what they spend all their time trying to bring about. If we harm a single sentient being, we contradict the heartfelt wish of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and interfere with their work. If we are malicious or harm sentient beings, even if we make vast prayers and incredible offerings to the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the ten directions, they will not be happy in the least. On the other hand, establishing policies that encourage tolerance and compassio
nate action makes society more peaceful and encourages citizens to reach out to benefit each other. It creates the causes for well-being now and in the future, and it pleases holy beings.

  132.If you wish to make your foes unhappy,

  do away with your faults and enhance your good qualities.

  That way you will gain great benefit,

  and your enemies will also be displeased.

  Dharma Policies Are Best

  In situations when someone is doing great harm and you have the ability to stop them, if you generate a virtuous motivation and intercede, this will benefit you and will displease the enemy. Even though the enemy will be unhappy, you will actually benefit him by preventing him from creating destructive karma.

  We become better people when we make effort to abandon our faults and enhance our good qualities. In addition to benefiting ourselves, our actions will benefit others, which pleases them. They will admire us and we will have more ability to influence them in a virtuous direction. That will make our enemies unhappy, because other people will be more attracted to us and will follow our ways rather than theirs.

  133.Be generous, speak gently, be beneficent;

  act with the same intention that you wish from others;

  through these [actions], bring together the world,

  and also sustain the Dharma.

  Training in the Four Means of Attracting Others

  The four means of attracting others are ways to care for others by influencing them to go in a good direction and ripening their mindstreams. To guide the minds of others to the Dharma, attract them by (1) being generous and giving them material support. In addition, practice the generosity of fearlessness by protecting them from danger and the generosity of love by offering emotional support and counseling. By making others happy in these ways, they will be friendly and attracted to you, which gives you the opportunity to (2) speak in a pleasant way to them about the Dharma by instructing them in the causes for higher rebirth and highest good. Then, (3) be beneficent by encouraging others to practice the Dharma and implement the teachings you have given them, and (4) act in a way that accords with what you have instructed them to do. In other words, practice what you preach and tame your own body, speech, and mind.

  With kindness as your motivation, guide others to the Dharma. Because you embody the four ways of attracting others, on the worldly level sentient beings will practice the sixteen factors leading to higher rebirth and on the ultimate level they will create the causes for liberation and awakening. In this way, ripen the mindstreams of others.

  134.A single truth [uttered] by kings

  makes [their subjects] have firm trust in them.

  Likewise, one falsehood on their part

  is the best way to lose that trust.

  135.[To speak] the truth is [to speak in a manner] that is not deceptive;

  it is not what is in fact distorted by an intention.

  [A statement] is true by being of benefit to others;

  the other [kind of statement] is false since it is not beneficial.

  Training in Truth

  While Nagarjuna is directly addressing the king as a leader, his advice also applies to us because we are in leadership roles in smaller groups such as at our work place, in our family, in sports teams, and among our group of friends. A mind that wishes to deceive others leads us to speak falsely, to trick others into believing what is not true. Speaking truthfully stems from a mind that respects others and wants to benefit them. Among the four nonvirtues of speech, lying is the heaviest and most destructive.

  Speaking the truth causes others to trust the leader and have confidence in her decisions. This enables her to be able to enact policies that will benefit them and they will follow those policies. However, if a leader tells even one lie, the followers will be skeptical and mistrustful of her words, motives, and behavior. Even when she tells the truth in the future they won’t believe her. Thus it’s essential to speak truthfully, especially when you are in a position of authority or leadership. Politicians and businesspeople who lie, engage in fear mongering, misappropriate funds, and so on destroy the fabric of trust that a healthy society depends on.

  We may think that small lies are unimportant or even beneficial if they help us get our way or accomplish a project. I knew a young boy who thought telling the truth was foolish because when he told the truth to his teacher, the teacher would scold him for playing rather than studying, whereas when he told a few little lies the teacher would praise him and give him a sweet. Lying definitely harms us as well as others — it destroys trust in relationships. Once damaged, trust is hard to restore. Nagarjuna is pointing out to the king as well as to us, his readers, that we lie all too often. If you have a habit of telling lies, even little ones, give it up.

  When you speak only the truth, engage in a path of truth, and always act on the basis of truth, then even if temporarily things may not go very well for you, in the long term you will get a true result. From truth comes truth. Travelling a true path, you will reach a true result. Even if you have other faults people will trust you, and trust is the basis of all good relationships.

  To speak the truth is to speak in a manner that is not deceptive — in other words, do not try to make someone believe something that is counter to the facts. In addition to being factual, truthful speech has another important element: it must not harm another person or be spoken with the intention to harm someone. Our intention must be to benefit others in the long term. To tell a hunter where to find deer harms not only the deer but also the hunter — for he creates destructive karma by killing. A true statement must benefit others, and it must be told with a motivation to benefit. Saying what is factually accurate with the intention that others suffer is not truthful speech.

  136.A single, shining act of generosity

  hides the flaws of a king;

  likewise, an instance of greed

  will contradict all of his good qualities.

  Training in Generosity

  Just as speaking the truth engenders trust in others that allows them to overlook some of your small faults, being generous diminishes the significance of your faults. On the other hand, being stingy even once will cause people to overlook your good qualities; they will only remember your self-centeredness and unwillingness to share.

  In the Precious Garland, Nagarjuna repeatedly encourages us to be generous. Chandrakirti also praises generosity in the Supplement, saying that so much human misery is due to not having the requisites for life — food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. Conversely, when people have what they need, much suffering is eliminated. Thus, for those of us who aspire to be bodhisattvas who benefit the world, it is good to start with practicing generosity to those in need.

  Generosity causes the giver to have much happiness while in cyclic existence — even the temporal happiness of those who are extremely selfish comes from their being generous in previous lives. If they realized the important role that the karmic seeds of generosity play in their lives, they would become more generous in this life.

  If you have a habit of frequently giving to a lot of people, there is the likelihood that emanations of buddhas and bodhisattvas are among those who receive your gifts. Having received your offering, they make dedication prayers for your benefit. By the combined power of your generosity and the bodhisattvas’ prayers and dedications, the imprint — a potential for liberation — is placed on your mindstream. Milarepa said that a person giving a little food or other requisites to a great meditator could augur their simultaneous awakening. This occurs because the donor actively provides the conditions for the meditator to gain realizations of the path and the meditator makes special dedication prayers for the donor’s benefit.

  137.It is profound to be tranquil;

  and for its profundity, tranquility is highly respected.

  From respect come glory and authority.

  Therefore, devote yourself to tranquility.

  Training in Tranquility
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  Tranquility or peacefulness is the result of being conscientious of your physical, verbal, and mental actions and pacifying disturbing or superfluous actions of body, speech, and mind. To become more tranquil inside yourself, practice “binding the doors of the senses.” Physically this means being careful where you go and not letting your senses wander. We all know that just looking here and there and going to places where people indulge in sense pleasures can easily incite our afflictions. Keep yourself balanced by eating and sleeping an appropriate amount, not indulging in more than you need, and not being harshly ascetic.

  Verbally, peace entails being mindful of your speech — specifically, abandoning the four verbal nonvirtues and practicing their opposites. Avoid talking casually or recklessly for no particular purpose. While you may not have a harmful intention, talking about all sorts of unworthy topics when a lot of people are around can make others restless or resentful, or incite their craving. This occurs because those around you take what you say seriously.

  Similarly, take care not to use your speech to create disharmony or to further dissension among those who are not in harmony. Sometimes you may be unconsciously jealous and thus make small remarks that make people suspicious or disrespectful of each other. These comments can later blow up into a huge argument with each party defending itself and attacking the other.

  If you say only what is necessary and to the point, people will pay attention when you speak and will respect your words. If you speak kindly, without swearing or ridiculing others, they will listen to you. This is the meaning of having authority.

  Mentally, don’t let the mind wander or dwell on memories and daydreams. Don’t spend hours planning the future or worrying about events that may never happen; instead focus the mind on what is meaningful.