This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Guided Meditation: Non-Harming Mindfulness; Intro to Buddhist Ethics (1 of 5) Non-Harming. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Guided Meditation: Non-Harming Mindfulness; Dharmette: Intro to Buddhist Ethics (1 of 5) Non-Harming - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on May 27, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Non-Harming Mindfulness

I'll start over again with the welcome to you all and to tell you that I'm happy to be back here doing this morning teaching and meditating with you all. The theme I'd like to, or the reference point I'd like to offer for this meditation is one of the probably one of the most fundamental, if not the fundamental Buddhist principle, which is non-harming. To live with non-harming, but in terms of meditation, to meditate in a way that is non-harming. That meditation itself can be seen as the continual act of non-harming.

In meditation, the chances of harming others are small. As we meditate, maybe we neglect people sometimes and that can be harmful, but the primary person that we're being harmless towards in meditation is ourselves. Part of meditation then is not only a continual act of non-harming but the deepening sensitivity to what non-harming is for ourselves, so that we're orienting ourselves to see and understand all the ways, subtle and not so subtle, that we are self-harming in meditation, and to shift that to a way of meditating that is non-harming.

Many meditators don't think of their meditation with this reference point, but in the course of deepening and deepening their meditation, either consciously or not so consciously, the idea of living with non-harming becomes more and more a theme. In meditation, it can be something as simple as being angry with ourselves because we're not getting concentrated, being critical of ourselves because of what we're thinking or that we're distracted. It can be a striving to want to attain some great attainment, and in that very striving, there's a tension, a stress level that you can feel that it's kind of causing stress, causing harm to ourselves, pain, suffering.

And so, to be very attentive that the way that we come back from the mind wandering off, that we don't jerk the mind back, like a violent tug or something, but we do so in a non-harming way. We gently bring the mind back. We invite the mind back. We settle the mind back, or we invite the attention back to the breathing. So that in some way, we're not causing or adding stress by the way in which we meditate.

Sometimes there's physical discomfort, and to tough it out, to somehow think stoically that "I have to kind of just bear the pain," is a kind of self-harm. Sometimes there's pain that we feel inspired in a very wise way to use to develop our meditation, to develop ourselves, to grow in our capacity for equanimity and self-understanding. And then it might not be a form of self-harm to sit with pain. We're not injuring ourselves with it, but we are learning and growing in a very beneficial way that serves us in many places in our lives.

So for this meditation, reflect as you do it, that how you meditate is a non-harming way. And maybe even better, it's the opposite of harm. It's beneficial, it's conducive to peace, conducive to a deep calm or a kind of delightful sense of confidence in oneself, that no matter how the meditation goes, we're not going to respond in a way that adds stress to our system.

So to gently lower your gaze or close your eyes and to readjust your posture a bit. And gently taking some long, slow, deep breaths. Not too long, not too deep. Comfortably so, and relaxing on the exhale.

And letting your breathing return to normal. And then in a global, simple way, become aware of how you are sitting here. How you are meditating. Is it a peaceful stance, a peaceful way of how you are? Or could you carry with you stress, tensions, maybe even hostilities from the day, from the week, from a lifetime? And if there is, do not be in conflict with that. Not to add stress to it, but let the awareness that knows it be a non-harming awareness that has space to know, to feel, in which the knowing of it all, awareness of it all, is a non-harming awareness, an attitude of being present in a simple, peaceful way that also disconnects in any intentional or active way in which you're participating in what is stressful or harmful.

If you become quieter and quieter inside, so you become more and more sensitive to your inner life, can you feel your way towards an attitude of greater non-harming?

And as we come to the end of this sitting, one way to bring the benefits of meditation into our life is to appreciate any degree of peace, non-harming, non-conflict in which we meditate. The peace in meditation can be very big. It can be contrasted with the lack of it that many people live with in their lives. And then one of the gifts we can bring the world is to become someone who others feel safe with, giving the gift of safety, making ourselves safe for all beings.

So that our capacity to live without harm to ourselves begins to be extended bit by bit to learning how to live without harming anyone else. A non-harming way of life, which gives others the gift of safety.

May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings have the safety where there's room to be happy. May all beings feel the safety that allows them to connect more deeply to the people around them. May all beings be safe from harm and violence and poverty so they can grow into their full potential as a human being. And may we contribute to a peaceful world. May all beings be happy. Thank you.

Dharmette: Intro to Buddhist Ethics (1 of 5) Non-Harming

Hello everyone, and welcome to this Monday morning meditation and teaching. I'm very happy to be back; it's been a while. And I'm happy that you've had some wonderful teachers coming to be here while I was gone.

So I want to turn my attention, for at least the next couple of weeks, to what some people consider to be the foundation of Buddhism. And that is, in English, we would probably say it's ethics and virtue, living a virtuous life. If we think of Buddhism as a pyramid, then virtue and ethics would be the foundation upon which the pyramid is built, like the bottom layer of it—a big, wide, strong base upon which the higher points of the pyramid would go up to a point. The second layer would be meditation or samadhi¹, cultivating ourselves in a wholesome way. And the third would be wisdom, the top of the pyramid. So that wisdom is supported by meditation, spiritual practice, and that spiritual practice is supported by ethics.

Ethics has a lot to do with how we live our lives in relationship to other people. It can be in relationship to ourselves as well, but the interpersonal world we live in is a huge part of a human life. Some people as adults forget this because they've somehow become separated from others, somehow become alienated, sometimes become isolated. But a healthy way of being a human being is to be brought up by adults who care for them, who feed them and clean them as babies, who watch over them and protect them as they grow up. The deep interpersonal world that human beings are dependent on continues into adulthood. If we have children, or there are children in our immediate community, then part of the potential role for the adults is to care for them and help them grow up in ways that are safe and allow them to grow into their full potential.

The interpersonal world of human beings is huge. And so when ethics is at the foundation of Buddhist practice, it is beginning to care for the interpersonal world in a way that then supports our own inner life, so that we're in a good place to meditate and to cultivate wisdom. One of my favorite definitions of wisdom in Buddhism is from the Buddha, that a wise person is someone who avoids harming self, harming others, harming self and others, or harming the whole world. Rather, a wise person considers or focuses on benefiting self, benefiting others, benefiting self and others, and benefiting the whole world. So the fact that this defines or describes a wise person is their care for how to live in the world with self and others, to avoid harming oneself and instead bring the opposite, the benefits, and be concerned with the welfare of the world.

Ethics is a foundation for samadhi, samadhi for wisdom. Wisdom itself then supports further deepening and understanding of the value of ethics, of virtue, of non-harming. So it turns out that in the Buddhist teachings, probably the fundamental principle that lies at the heart of it all is the idea of non-harming. The highest reaches of Buddhist teachings are often held to be in the Four Noble Truths², and those have to do with suffering and the end of suffering. And what we're ending are those ways in which we are responsible for our own suffering, the ways that we contribute to it. So it's not saying that all suffering is caused by oneself, but where we have the most agency, the most capacity to make a difference, is to make a difference so that we don't contribute to our own suffering, we don't add to it, we don't create it. And it turns out that over time, with deep mindfulness, we understand how phenomenally fundamental and pervasive the ways in which clinging and attachment of all kinds cause self-harm, or to say it in the terminology of the Four Noble Truths, causes suffering.

In Buddhism, the fundamental ethical principle is non-harming. So there's a way of understanding that non-harming runs through the whole course of Buddhist teachings, the Buddhist training, the practice of it. And that is a reference point constantly for what we're doing. It might be easier to understand the value of not harming oneself, and the idea of not harming others is a more challenging idea when there are issues of safety involved, and protection, when there are issues of justice involved, that we feel like what's fair or right for us is being threatened.

But I like to believe that one of the minimum engagements that Buddhists have in an ethical world, an ethical life, is using non-harming as a reference point to understand themselves and to understand how we can live with others and what works for the welfare and benefit for all beings, both in the short term but also in the long term. Sometimes violence can bring results in the short term, but in the long term causes a tremendous amount of harm that maybe takes generations to rectify.

In the last two weeks that I was teaching here, I taught about these 10 basic human needs: meaning and purpose, agency and autonomy, identity and dignity, community and kinship, and healing and reconciliation. All 10 of those could be understood with the principle, the way of living that involves non-harming, Ahimsa³, at the heart of all of them. And that the purpose and meaning for the Buddha, at the heart of the Buddhist teachings, is a life of non-harming. To have a healthy sense of agency, a healthy sense of autonomy, is a very fertile soil from which a powerful, confident, non-harming way of life can arise. It's often people whose agency and autonomy and freedom is curtailed, frustrated, that feel like they have to harm in order to get what they need and what they want. And so you can analyze all 10 of these from the point of view that non-harming lies, for Buddhism, at the heart of it. Whether you agree with this is another thing, but it's the reference point that I think really makes Buddhist practice come alive, a reference point that really guides Buddhist practice.

This supports mindfulness, really kind of helps us to question ourselves and see ourselves in a deeper and deeper way. We don't have to necessarily agree with the principle of non-harming to use it as a powerful reference point to help us clarify and really understand what does make us operate, what does motivate us, what do we believe. And then we can look at it more deeply. To be respectful of all beings, there's a time also to be respectful of how intense the motivation is for self-protection in people—protecting themselves, protecting their family, protecting their children—that that is what prompts people to be violent, to protect themselves. And what a fundamental human need it is to protect one's family. And so the call for non-violence, a call for non-harming needs to respect the deep instinct we have that is not necessarily greed, hatred, and delusion that leads to acts of violence, but occasionally involves something very deep and fundamentally human. Not to justify it, but to respect how people are. And only through deep respect can we hope to be able to convey to others the value of Ahimsa, the value of non-harming.

And even if we don't believe in it in all circumstances, it is the fundamental principle for how we relate to ourselves if what we want to do is to become free. The spiritual liberation, the liberation of heart that Buddhism champions, that points to the possibility of the profound peace that's possible, is inseparable from a deep affinity, a deep association, a deep realization of the value, the beauty, the wonderfulness, the wholesomeness of living a wise, non-harming life. A wise life that understands deeply how to engage in the world in a way that supports self and others, and can do so so that we're safe for all beings.

One of my favorite, another one of my favorite quotes from the Buddha is his instruction to "make yourself safe for all beings." What a great thing to do, so that no one has to be afraid of us. And what does that take? How do we have to grow? How do we have to develop ourselves? How do we become strong? How do we become skilled in finding our way through this complicated world so that we can provide a sense of safety for all beings that we encounter? It's not an easy task, but it's a worthwhile one. Maybe it's a lifetime task that we're working towards. I think it's a noble task to become safe for all beings.

And how that translates to others, to society around us, maybe that's secondary to how we discover this for ourselves. And meditation and mindfulness is a path to understand the value, not just to understand but to really see, to discover clearly for oneself, to verify for oneself that a non-harming approach to living, a non-harming way of living with our body, with our speech, with our even our thoughts, brings tremendous benefit, tremendous goodness to one who practices it. And to know that so thoroughly for oneself that no one has to convince you, no one has to give you a philosophy or ethical guidance to understand the value of non-harming. It's so obvious from what has developed in your own heart through this practice that we do.

And to support this process, if you're interested, is to use the concept of non-harming not as an admonition, not as something that you should do, but rather as a reference point to help you reflect deeply: "What is happening here? In what way are we harming? Where is the non-harming? What is the wise thing to do here?" in reference to this phenomenal tool, phenomenal teacher that we can carry with us, the teacher of non-harming.

So this week, I'm going to talk about some of these fundamental principles of Buddhist ethics. This is one of them, the most important one today. And that will create the foundation for next week to talk about the precepts. So thank you, and I'm very happy to be back.