A Simple Guide to Life
 Part 2 of an essay by Robert Bogoda which, in clear and simple terms, offers thoughtful advice to help the lay Buddhist lead a householder's life in line with the Buddha's teachings.
4. Obstacles
The following five states are likely to prevent or block the success of our efforts to lead the upright life of a Buddhist lay follower. They are called by the Buddha the five mental hindrances (pañcanivarana) because they close the doors to both spiritual and worldly progress. Although the Buddha originally taught them as the main obstacles to meditation, with a little reflection we can see that they are equally detrimental to success in our mundane undertakings.
1. The first of the five hindrances is sensual craving, obsessive hankering for possessions or for the gratification of the senses. While the lay Buddhist will seek wealth and possessions as an integral part of mundane happiness, he will also be aware of the limits to be observed in their pursuit.He will recognize that if one obtains wealth and position by unjust means, or becomes excessively attached to them, they will become a source of misery and despair rather than of joy and contentment. Money alone cannot solve all our problems. Many people never learn this, and spend their time and energy accumulating wealth and the so-called "good things" it can buy. But in fact, the more they acquire the more they want. Such people can never find happiness. A lay Buddhist must be moderate in all things. Extreme desires -- for riches, the enjoyment of sex, liquor, the ostentatious display of one's success -- are sure signs of internal insecurity, things to be avoided.
2. Ill will or hatred, the second hindrance, is the emotional opposite of desire, yet it is an equally potent obstacle to personal development. Because we are attracted to desirable things, we are repelled by what is undesirable. Like and dislike are the two forces that delude the world, leading people astray into conflict and confusion and drenching the earth with blood. Both are born of ignorance. Desire colors everything in tinsel and drives us to acquire what we want. Hatred colors everything black and drives us to destroy what we suspect is inimical to our interests. The best way to overcome hatred is by cultivating lovingkindness, explained later in this essay.
3. Indolence and mental inertia is the next hindrance, the obstacle to strenuous effort. The lazy person is not inclined to strive for correct understanding or high standards of conduct. He is a drifter or a dreamer, easy prey to the thieves of craving and hatred.
4. Restlessness and worry are twin hindrances very much in evidence today. Restlessness is manifest in the agitation, impatience, thirst for excitement, and unsettled character of our daily existence. Worry is the guilt and remorse that one feels when one broods sadly or regretfully over an evil deed that has been done or a good deed left undone. The best remedy for a lapse or transgression already committed is to decide never to repeat it; the best remedy for neglecting to do good is to do it without delay.
5. The last hindrance is doubt. Doubt is the inability to decide, the lack of resolution that prevents one from making a firm commitment to higher ideals and from pursuing the good with a steady will.
These five hindrances are great handicaps to one's progress. They deprive the mind of understanding and happiness and cause much unnecessary suffering. By cultivating the five cardinal virtues -- confidence, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom -- and by constant effort one can reduce their harmful influence.
5. Relaxation
Modern life is full of stress and strain. Therefore relaxation is a necessary ingredient of happiness. By understanding the causes of stress and by regulating these causes, we can live calmly even in the midst of strenuous activity.
Hard work without tension never killed anyone. Why is it then that some people always work anxiously and feverishly? Generally, such a person is driven by craving, by intense desire. He wants to achieve his goal so eagerly, with such avidity, that he simply cannot rest until he gets it; or he is so fearful of losing something he prizes that he cannot relax and enjoy the present moment; or he is driven by resentment against those who obstruct his thirst; or he is constantly hankering after power, position, and prestige on account of some irrational need to prove his worth to himself and others.
If a person wants to avoid stress and strain, then he will have to train his mind to view everything he encounters -- persons, objects, events, and experiences -- realistically, as transient phenomena, dependently arisen through conditions. He should reflect upon them in terms of the three characteristics -- as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and without a self. Doing so will help to reduce the investment of self-concern in these phenomena, and thereby will reduce the craving and attachment for them. He should also avoid anger, anxiety, and pride -- the thoughts of "me" and "mine" -- since such emotions are productive of stress and strain. When one adopts this attitude to life, one will discover greater detachment, deeper calm, more durable peace of heart even amidst the same situations that previously produced nothing but stress and worry. The key to managing stress is through the disciplining and mastery of the mind.
One can also reduce stress by forming good work habits. One should confine oneself to doing one thing at a time, since attempts to juggle multiple tasks only lead to poor results in all of them. One should keep work and leisure separate. One should work in a relaxed frame of mind, repeatedly reminding oneself during the course of the day that one can accomplish more work and better work if one works calmly and intersperses one's routine with breaks.
The following additional disciplines will also be helpful in combatting stress and tension:
1. Keeping the Five Precepts conscientiously. The feeling of guilt increases stress. By observing the precepts, a person leads a blameless life and thereby enjoys freedom from the nagging sense of guilt that harasses one who violates the basic rules of morality. A guilty conscience is a vexing companion during the day, an uncomfortable bed-fellow at night.
2. Sense control. The mind is constantly attracted to pleasant sense objects and repelled by unpleasant objects. Wandering recklessly among the objective fields, it becomes scattered and distraught. By guarding the sense doors, this wasteful agitation is checked. The mind becomes calm and settled, and as a result one experiences an unblemished happiness.
3. Meditation. Meditation, or bhavana, purifies the mind. As the mind is gradually cleansed, one can see with greater clarity the true nature of life. One then becomes increasingly detached from worldly things and develops an equanimity that cannot be shaken by the fluctuations of fortune.
4. Cultivating the four sublime attitudes. The four sublime attitudes (brahmavihara) are lovingkindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. These are enlightened emotions that reduce the stress and strain of daily life, improve interpersonal relationships at home and in the workplace, promote racial accord and amity, help in the development of an even mind, and increase calm and inner peace.
5. One final piece of practical advice: Time, energy, and funds are limited, while wants are unlimited. Therefore a person must have a sense of priorities. A lay Buddhist, in particular, must be able to discriminate: to know what is really essential to a wholesome life; what is desirable but not urgent; what is trivial and dispensable; and what is detrimental. Having made these distinctions, one must pursue what ranks high in the scale of priorities and eschew what ranks low. This will enable one to avoid unnecessary waste and worry, and help to promote balanced, frugal living.
6. Observing the Five Precepts
The minimal code of ethics followed by a lay Buddhist is the Five Precepts of virtue (pañcasila). These precepts are moral rules voluntarily undertaken to promote the purity of one's own conduct and to avoid causing harm and suffering to others. Evil conduct is harmful to oneself and others and strengthens the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion. To engage in unwholesome activity is not merely a matter of free choice: it is a violation of the cosmic moral law entailing inevitable suffering both in this life and in future existences. The opposite of evil conduct is virtue (sila). Virtue involves the avoidance of immoral deeds by voluntarily accepting ethical principles of restraint. Virtuous action springs from the three wholesome roots of non-attachment, goodwill, and wisdom. By undertaking moral precepts one pledges to regulate one's conduct in accordance with these three virtuous qualities.
The Five Precepts are as follows:
- To abstain from killing living beings;
- To abstain from taking what is not given, i.e., from stealing;
- To abstain from sexual misconduct;
- To abstain from false speech;
- To abstain from intoxicants and harmful drugs.
Following the Five Precepts also implies shunning the five kinds of occupation forbidden to a lay Buddhist: trading in arms, in human beings (i.e., including slavery and prostitution), in flesh (i.e., breeding animals for slaughter), in intoxicants, and in poisons.
Virtue, though formulated negatively in the precepts, is not a mere negative state. To the contrary, it is most decidedly a powerful mental achievement. To observe the precepts conscientiously in one's daily life brings a simultaneous growth in mental purity, skillfulness, and wisdom. Refraining from killing, for example, increases compassion and lovingkindness for all living beings, two of the "sublime attitudes" extolled by the Buddha. Honesty gives courage, generosity, and love of justice. Sexual restraint results in physical strength, vitality, and keenness of the senses. Truthfulness makes for uprightness. Avoiding intoxicants and stupefying drugs promotes clarity of mind. Finally, mindfulness is essential to observing all the precepts, and one's constant effort to maintain the precepts in turn issues in an increase in the clarity of mindfulness.
The habitual practice of the Five Precepts leads to increased self-control and strength of character. The mind that succeeds in controlling desire, even to a slight degree, gains in power. Desire is a force every bit as real as electricity. When desire is uncontrolled, allowed to run riot, it expends itself in the pursuit of things that are harmful to oneself and others. The Buddha's teaching, far from encouraging the proliferation of desire, counsels us in the methods by which we may harness, divert, and sublimate the powerful force of desire and use it for worthy ends.
Virtue is the first stage in the development of the Noble Eightfold Path; as explained above, it comprises the path factors of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. The energy conserved by virtue is then used for the practice of the second stage, concentration of mind, which in turn is the soil for the growth of wisdom.
The observance of the Five Precepts is a voluntary act which each individual must take up on his or her own initiative. The Buddha did not formulate the precepts as commandments, nor did he threaten anyone with punishment for violating them. However, this much has to be said: The Buddha perfectly understood the workings of the universe, and he proclaimed the inviolable moral law of cause and effect: good deeds beget pleasant fruits, evil deeds beget painful fruits. The Five Precepts are the guidelines the Buddha has bequeathed us to steer us away from evil conduct and towards the lines of conduct that will prove most beneficial for ourselves and others. When we mould our actions by the Five Precepts, we are acting in accordance with the Dhamma, avoiding future misery and building up protection and happiness for ourselves and others both here and in the hereafter. Thus the closer we live to the Five Precepts, the greater will be the blessing power of our lives.
7. Controlling the Emotions
An emotion is a state of deep feeling, an "inward stirring" which can act as a motivation for action. Emotions are often associated with the instincts, the inborn tendencies to act in specific ways in specific situations. Human beings are conditioned to a very great extent by their emotions, by their likes and dislikes. Too often their emotions are biased by self-interest and egotism, even to the extent that they overwhelm sense and reason, compelling us to act in ways that, in saner moments, we regard with dismay.
Emotions generally arise in response to the spontaneous evaluation of perceptions. A person evaluates his or her percepts -- of another person, an object, a situation -- as desirable or undesirable, as helpful or as threatening. On the basis of this evaluation an emotion will arise in response to the situation: desire for those things positively evaluated, aversion or fear towards those things seen in a negative light. Emotions may be harmful, such as lust, anger, and fear, or wholesome, such as sympathy and compassion. While desire and aversion are the prototypes of the unwholesome emotions, lovingkindness and compassion are outstanding examples of emotions that ennoble us and elevate human nature.
People vary widely in their emotional development and in the range and strength of their emotions. While one person is passionate and impulsive, another is cool and reflective; while one is quick to anger, another is patient; while one is emotionally impassive, another is capable of running through a wide range of emotions in less time than a finger snap. One important reason for these differences is that each individual brings along a different kammic inheritance of tendencies and character traits from previous lives. Whether emotions are repressed or expressed, indulged in or sublimated, depends on a combination of factors: innate temperament, family background, and the ethos and traditions of the larger society.
We cannot grow in the Dhamma or find happiness without some degree of emotional control. A person who easily gets angry spoils his own happiness and disturbs the peace of mind of others as well. Instinctive emotions are the raw material of character. If an instinctive impulse is misdirected or repressed, much harm and suffering may ensue. But if the energy that is normally channeled into this emotion is redirected towards a worthy object, the force of the emotion will be sublimated in a way that results in great benefit to oneself and to the community. For the Buddhist, the worthiest of all ideals is the attainment of Nibbana; hence it is the quest for this ideal that has the capacity to absorb and transform our emotional life. Such a noble ideal has the power of evoking and harmonizing all our emotional energies so that they guide us towards the realization of our ultimate good.
Without deliberate effort, emotions will not be under the direct control of the will. The Buddhist training aims at mastering the emotions. The first step in gaining such mastery is the observance of the Five Precepts. Practicing the precepts in everyday life will help us to control the grosser forms of craving and emotion. The next step is to train the mind to control the emotions just as they begin to arise. This is accomplished by mindfulness: by objectively watching, with close attention, the emotions that arise and swiftly ascribing a name to them, a mental label thus: "mind with lust," "mind with anger," "mind with jealousy," "mind with sorrow," etc. Once we have named the emotion, we are then in a better position to let it go, without being swept away by it. The moment one calmly registers the fact that one is angry -- when one is aware of the fact that a mind with anger has arisen -- one then ceases to be angry. A mind that is occupied with the wholesome thought of mindful awareness has no scope within it simultaneously for an unwholesome thought of anger.
This same procedure should be adopted with any other harmful emotion that arises. At the start it may prove helpful if, during the course of the day, one mentally repeats to oneself a formula such as: "What am I feeling now?" or "What am I thinking now?" and immediately answers the question thus: "I am feeling angry," or "I am feeling jealous," etc. We should also investigate, even later, when and why anger -- or any other adverse emotion -- overwhelmed us then, and thus avoid such situations and responses in the future.
By patient and persistent practice we can gradually gain control over our harmful emotions. The discipline and effort involved is worthwhile, for it will bring greater harmony internally -- in one's own mind -- and externally, in one's relations with others. The key to such control is firm adherence to the basic precepts of morality and, above all, mindfulness of one's own thoughts and emotions.
8. Beware of Bias and Propaganda
Buddhism teaches the need for clear thinking, self-control, self-help, and meditation. Although each human being is endowed with a mind, very few of us use that mind to think for ourselves. The great majority of people today allow others to do their thinking for them.
The mind absorbs a great deal of poison from the outer environment by continuous exposure to suggestions from others. This mental passivity has become especially baneful with the development of the mass media. Radio, television, and newspapers, pulp journals and tabloids, blare their messages at us every minute of the day, and their power of penetration is reinforced by the ingrained human disposition to accept what we are told and to comply with what we are urged to do. Bombarded left and right by ten thousand inducements, we no longer think our own thoughts, feel our own emotions, or initiate our own actions; instead, we think as others want us to think, feel as others want us to feel, act in ways that will win the approval of our peers and superiors. The pull of the crowd has become irresistible.
Every time we open a newspaper, turn on the radio, or sit down before the television set, we are immediately subjected to propaganda, advertising, and subtle social suggestions. This is done daily, deliberately and systematically. All these media are teaching us to suspend our capacity for thought, or if we are to think at all, to think as they would like us to think. Newspapers, for instance, seek to command assent not only by their editorials and opinion columns, but by their layout, language, and lines of emphasis.
Those who exploit the media in this manner are generally small but powerful groups: the owners and sponsors of the media, advertising agencies, the masters of commerce. Such people are motivated primarily by self-interest, greed for wealth and power, a sense of self-importance. Often they play dominant roles in various walks of life, including politics, business, law, medicine, and education. Among the general public the role of reason tends to be subordinate to that of emotion, while mental inertia and indifference make the conquest of reason easier. Hence, by shaping public opinion through the manipulation of the media, a small minority is able to control the majority.
Those who comprise this small but powerful minority all have something to sell. Commercial advertisements make us want more and more goods that bring us no real happiness, no real peace of mind. We are told that our felicity depends on having a radio, television, video player, stereo set, and computer games. Yet, however much we deck ourselves with all these instruments of diversion, we still feel our lives painfully lacking.
The speed, power, and efficiency of all these technological and social developments within a purely materialistic society such as ours has led to a rising incidence of stress disease and mental breakdown. Those who do not crack under pressure find other escape routes, such as drugs, alcohol, and psychotic cults, while for those who cannot cope at all there remains the last resort: suicide, which has reached alarming proportions in our midst.
How then is a Buddhist to protect himself or herself from the baneful influences to which we are everywhere exposed in the modern world? As lay Buddhists we should always adopt a critical attitude towards the written and spoken word and should always apply mindfulness to protect ourselves from being emotionally swayed by those who seek to win our favor. We should stand back from the topic under review and examine it objectively from all angles. Only after appraising the alternatives should we arrive at a decision or evaluation.
When we hear a particular opinion being voiced, we should make an effort to find out who the writer or speaker is, what interests he or she represents, including political affiliations, religious leanings, and social background. We should also never forget that there are at least two sides to any issue, and that we are more likely to arrive at a correct stand if we first give unbiased consideration to both sides. Before arriving at a conclusion, one should gather all the relevant facts, maintain a calm mind free from emotional excitation, and prevent oneself from being swayed by preferences and anger, praise and blame. The same principle of objective thinking should also be applied to other matters in everyday life.
If we properly understand the working of kamma and rebirth, we will recognize that no one can be alike, and thus we will also avoid drawing comparisons; for this is a world of comparisons as well as of propaganda. The only meaningful comparison that one should make is between the person that one was a month ago, a year ago, or a decade ago, and the person that one is now: physically, intellectually, morally, and financially. If there has been no improvement, or insufficient improvement, one should inquire why this is so and remedy one's deficiencies without delay. If this annual stocktaking is done regularly, it will be most beneficial. Putting aside pride and prejudice, revising one's values and outlook, one will then lead a simpler, saner, and happier life.
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