Human Values and Human Worth | Ajahn Maha Boowa

Human Values And Human Worth
by Ajahn Maha Boowa
Dhamma is something very profound. If the world did not have Dhamma as water to put out its fires, it would be a very difficult place – an impossible place – to live. Dhamma is something that the heart can hold to, something that nourishes the heart, enabling people to be good and to find peace. The religion, the aspect of Dhamma we can describe to one another, is simply the good and right teaching of the Buddha, which can guide societies and nations as well as individuals, like our families and ourselves. It’s unequalled in producing good and noble qualities in the hearts of people everywhere. Any home, any family, any individual without the religion, without moral virtue to protect and train the heart, is sure to be constantly troubled and restless, lacking any sense of well-being and equilibrium. Quarrels tend to flare up in families like this and then spread out into society – to the neighborhood and the workplace. Our inability to get along with one another comes, for the most part, from going against the principles of morality, which are correct, noble and good.
In particular, when a husband and wife have trouble getting along with each other, it’s because one or the other has gone beyond the bounds of two principles taught by the Buddha: contentment with one’s possessions while not infringing on those of others, and fewness of wants. In other words, if you have one spouse, don’t try to have two, because once you have two, they’re bound to become archrivals.
What sort of “fewness of wants” do we mean here? I remember several years back, on the front pages of the newspapers – and it was really disturbing to see – a top government official made an announcement telling monks that the two principles of contentment and fewness of wants shouldn’t be taught to people because both of these principles were acting as a deadweight on the nation’s economy, which the government was trying to develop at the time. According to him, these two principles were at odds with economic prosperity. This was many years back, but I haven’t forgotten it – because it was something disturbing that was hard to forget. Actually, these two principles don’t mean
at all what he thought they did. They’re principles that people in general, lay as well as ordained, should put into practice in line with their position in life. There’s no word, no phrase of the Dhamma at odds with the progress of the world. In fact, the Dhamma gives the world nothing but support and protec- tion.
For a monk – a son of the Buddha – these two principles mean that he shouldn’t be greedy for the four necessities of life: 1) Clothing, which comes from the generosity of lay people; 2) Food. No matter what kind of food it is, a monk can’t acquire it on his own. He has to depend on others to look after his needs in this area, from the day of his ordination to his last day as a monk;
3) Shelter; and 4) Medicine.
 
All of these requisites are provided in good faith by people in general. A monk shouldn’t be greedy for them, because that would go against the basic principles of the Dhamma taught by the Buddha. A monk should be modest in his needs. This is the proper way for him to act – in keeping with the fact that he depends on other people to look after his needs – so that he won’t be too great a burden on people of good faith. A monk shouldn’t clutter his mind with concern for material necessities, which are simply means to keep the body go- ing so that he can comfortably perform his duties as a contemplative.
As for lay people, the principle of fewness of wants means being content with one’s family life. One husband should have one wife. One wife should have one husband. One husband should have only one wife – not two or three, which would act like a fire spreading to consume himself and his family. This is what it means to have fewness of wants – not being greedy for thrills that would stoke fire in the home and not dabbling in the many desires that added together wage war with one another.
A husband and wife should be honest with each other. Loyal and commit- ted. Faithful to each other at all times and in all places, they should keep no se- crets from each other but be open and above-board with pure and loyal hearts. If one of them has to work outside the home or be away for the night, he or
she should go with a clean heart and clean hands, and come back without the blemish of any stains. If one of them has to go away on business, no matter how far, it should be done in such a way that the one at home needn’t worry or be troubled that the one going away is doing anything wrong and neglecting the principle of fewness of wants by sleeping with someone outside the legitimate account. Worries like these are worse than a hundred spirits returning from the dead to grab a person’s entrails and squeeze them to bits. If a husband or wife must go away for a long time, it should be for reasons that aim at maintaining the family in happiness and joy.
When a husband and wife are faithful to each other in this way, then no matter where they go, neither suffers from worry or distrust. They live together smoothly and happily to the end of their lives because their hearts are honest and loyal to each other. Even if there are times when they have barely enough to scrape by, that isn’t important. The important point lies in their being honest, faithful and committed to each other. Such a family may be rich or poor, but the happiness, security and trust its members feel for one another give them the stability and cohesion that everyone hopes for. This is called fewness of wants in a marriage relationship. One husband. One wife. No outside involvements. Even though other men and women fill the world, they don’t become involved. This is fewness of wants for lay people.
If this principle of fewness of wants were to be erased from the world, human beings would know no bounds, and we wouldn’t be any different from dogs in heat. Have you ever seen them? Here in the northeast of Thailand, they get going in August and September, barking and howling like crazy. There’s no telling which one is which one’s husband and which one is which one’s wife. They bite one another to shreds. Have you ever seen them, every August and September? When they really get going they run all over the place with no sense of day or night, home or away, no concern for whether or not they get fed. They go after each other worse than when they’re rabid. If we human beings were to let ourselves run loose like that, we’d cause even worse damage than they do because we have guns and weapons to shoot and kill one another, thanks to the
fact that we’re smarter than they are. The world would be a shambles, and there wouldn’t be enough room for us all in the prisons. This is the harm that comes from letting oneself go under the unruly power of sexual lust. There’d be no such word as “enough”, and certainly dogs in heat would be no match for us.
Dogs have no limits when lust takes over. They can go anywhere with no fear of death, no concern for hunger or thirst. They run wild, without a thought for their owners. At most, they may stop by their homes for a moment. If anyone feeds them in time, they eat. If not, they’re off and running. And look at them. What do they look like at times like this? Ears torn, mouths torn, legs torn, stom- achs ripped open in some cases, all from the fights they get into. Some of them die, some of them go crazy, some of them never return home.
This is the sort of harm that occurs when animals fall under the power of lust. Because it’s so different from their normal nature, when they behave like that, it’s not pretty to look at. When the season comes, males and females go running wild after one another. The fires of lust and anger burn together and consume everything. This is what happens when animals know no bounds; that is, when their lust knows no limits. They suffer so much pain, so much distress when the disease of lust flares up – to the extent that some of them die or are crippled for life.
If we human beings didn’t have the Dhamma of fewness of wants as a brake to safeguard our own safety, we’d know no limits in following our in- stincts either. Because of our intelligence, we’d cause much more harm and destruction to one another than animals do. When we’re intelligent in the right way, it’s an honor and a benefit to ourselves, our family and nation. But human intelligence is something that lends itself to all sorts of uses; and for the most part, if our minds are low, it becomes a tool for doing a great deal of evil. It’s because of our intelligence that we human beings can do one another so much harm.
This is why we need moral virtue as a guide and protection, so that we can live together happily and in peace. Between husbands and wives, this means
being faithful to each other. Don’t go looking for scraps and leftovers like our friends in August and September. That’s not a course of action that human be- ings – who know enough to have a sense of right and wrong, good and bad
– should put into practice. Otherwise we’ll destroy, or at the very least reduce, the honor of our human status. Worse than that, we’ll ruin ourselves to the point of having absolutely no worth.
To give in to the moods of our inner fires, looking for scraps and leftovers in bars, night clubs, massage parlors and other places catering to this sort of thing, is to destroy our inner virtue as human beings, because it’s nothing more than the way of animals who know no bounds of propriety but know only how to get carried away with their passion and bite one another to shreds. For this reason, it’s not a course we human beings should follow – and especially when we’re married – because it contradicts the family bounds we’ve established in line with the universally recognized moral principles of human beings.
 To act without restraint in this way would do such damage to a spouse’s heart that no treatment could cure the sorrow and bring the heart back to nor- mal. So husbands and wives who cherish each other’s worth should never do this sort of thing. Love can quickly turn to hatred, and spouses turn to enemies, when we disobey the principle of fewness of wants. To lack this principle is to lack an important guarantee for the family’s well-being.
The principle of fewness of wants is not an insignifi- cant one. It’s one that allows a husband and wife to keep a firm and stable hold on each other’s hearts throughout time, one by which they can be loyal to each other in a way that will never fade. The money the family earns will all flow together into one place, and not go leaking out to feed the vultures and crows of sensual desire. No matter how much is spent, every penny goes toward the family’s well-being.
The wealth gained by the family thus becomes a source of joy for them. Its expenditure is reasonable, benefiting both parents and children, so that its true value is realized.
This is why the Buddha teaches us to train our hearts in the way of the Dhamma. The heart is very important. A stable heart means stable wealth. If the heart is unstable, our wealth is unstable as well. It will leak away day and night, because the heart creates the leak and can’t keep hold of anything at all. When a water jar is still intact, it can serve its full purpose. The minute it begins to crack, its usefulness is reduced; and when it breaks, there’s no further use for it. The same holds true with a marriage. One’s spouse is very important. There is no greater foundation for the wealth, security and happiness of the family than a relationship where both sides are honest, loyal and faithful to each other. So I ask that you put these principles into practice in yourself, your family and your work so that they lead you to lasting happiness and peace. Don’t let yourself stray from the principles of moral virtue that protect and maintain your own inner worth, together with your family’s peace and contentment.
The defilement of sexual craving, if left to itself, knows virtually no limits or sense of reason. As the Buddha said: “There is no river equal to craving.” Rivers, seas and oceans, no matter how vast and deep, still have their banks, their shores, their islands and sandbars, but sensual craving has no limits, no islands or banks, no means for keeping itself within the bounds of moderation and propriety. It flows day and night, flooding its banks in the heart at all times. If we didn’t have the teachings of moral virtue as a levee to keep it in check, the world would be in total chaos due to the pull of craving and jealousy. If we were to let sexual desire run wild, we’d be much more fierce than our friends in August and September, wiping one another out under the influence of sexual desire. On top of that, we would make such a display of our stupidity that we’d be the laughingstock of the animal kingdom. So for the sake of maintaining our honor as human beings and so that we won’t be seen as fools in the eyes of our fellow animals, we must hold to moral virtue as our guide in knowing the proper bounds for our conduct as it affects both us and our families.
Moral virtue means behavior that is noble and good. It’s a quality that gives security and stability to the world, a quality that the world has wanted all along. It’s one of the highest forms of nourishment for the heart. Moral virtue is the aspect of reason that guarantees the correctness of our behavior; a quality which the beings of the world trust and never criticize – for it lies beyond criti- cism. Suppose we earn five dollars. However many dollars we spend, we spend them reasonably, not wastefully. If we earn one dollar, a hundred, a thousand, a million, we use reason in deciding how to spend or save our earnings so that we can benefit from them in line with their worth, in line with the fact that they have value in meeting our needs and providing for our happiness.
But if the heart leaks, if it lacks principles, our earnings will vanish like water from a leaky pot. No matter how much we earn, all will be wasted. Here I’m not talking about spending our wealth in ways that are useful and good. That’s not called being wasteful. I’m talking about spending it in ways that serve no real purpose, in ways that can actually harm us. Wealth spent in those ways becomes a poison, a means for ruining its foolish owner in a way that is really shameful. People like this can’t get any real use out of their wealth, simply because they lack the moral virtue that would ensure their security and that of their belongings. As a result, they bring disaster on themselves, their posses- sions and everything else that should give them happiness.
This is why it is so crucial to have moral virtue. A family with moral virtue as its guide and protection is secure. Its members can talk to one another. In- stead of being stubborn and willful, they are willing to listen to one another’s reasons, ensuring the smooth and proper course of their work and the other aspects of their life together. Just observing the five precepts faithfully is enough to bring peace in the family. The five precepts are like an overcoat to protect us from the cold, an umbrella to protect us from the rain or a safe to protect our valuables. Maintaining them protects the hearts of family members, especially the husband and wife, and keeps them from being damaged or destroyed by the unbounded force of craving.
 The first precept speaks against killing living beings: The lives of all living beings – ours or any- one else’s – are of equal worth. Each animal’s life is of equal worth with the life of a human being, for if life is taken away from an animal, it can no longer remain an animal. If life is taken away from a person, he or she can no longer be a person. In
other words, the continuity of the animal’s being or of the person’s being is bro- ken right then in just the same way. We are taught not to destroy one another’s lives because to do so is to destroy completely the value of one another’s being. Death is a fear striking deeper than any other fear into the heart of each animal and every person. This is why the Buddha teaches us to keep our hands off the lives of our fellow living beings.
The second precept speaks against stealing: To steal, to take things that haven’t been given by their owner, is to mistreat not only the owners’ belong- ings, but also his or her heart. This is a very great evil, and one that we should never commit.
When talking of other people’s belongings, even a single needle counts as a belonging. Personal belongings and their owner’s heart are both things of value. Every person cherishes his or her belongings. If the belonging is stolen, the owner is bound to feel hurt. The heart is the important factor here, more important than the item stolen. Losing a possession through theft feels very differ- ent from willingly giving it away. Feelings of regret, combined with the desire for re- venge, can lead people to kill one another, even over a single needle. Because the is- sue of ownership is taken very seriously by people, we are taught not to steal. Theft has a devastating effect on the owner’s heart – and that’s a serious matter.
The act of stealing and the act of voluntary giving are two very different matters. When it’s a question of voluntary
giving, any amount is easy to part with. To say nothing of a single needle, we can be happy even when giving things away by the hundreds or thousands or millions. The person giving is happy and cheerful, the person receiving is pleased to no end, and both sides are blessed, as has always been the case when the people of the world aid and assist one another.
The Dhamma treats all hearts as equals. It holds that each being’s heart is of value to that being, which is why it teaches us not to mistreat the hearts of others by taking their lives, stealing their belongings or having illicit sex with their spouses or children. All of these things have the heart of a living being as their owner. No good is accomplished by stealing the goods and provoking the hearts of others, because once the heart is provoked, it can be more violent than anything else. The murders that are committed everywhere usually have a sense of indignation, of having been wronged, as their motivating force. This is why the Buddha teaches us to follow moral virtue as a way of showing respect for one another’s hearts and belongings.
This means that we should not abuse one another’s hearts by doing im- moral actions. For example, to kill a person is to devastate that person’s heart and body, which also has a devastating effect on others close to that person who will want to seek revenge. That person dies, but his friends and family still live, which ends up causing them to seek revenge, in turn causing further re- venge going back and forth in an endless cycle for eons and eons.
The third precept speaks against illicit sex: All parents love their children; all husbands love their wives; all wives love their husbands. In any family, there is no greater love than that between the husband and wife. The husband and wife stake their lives on each other as if they were parts of the same body. There is no greater love in the family than his for her or hers for him. Their love is great and so is their sense of attachment and possessiveness. There is no other be- longing that either of them cherishes nearly as much. If either of them is unfaith- ful or untrue to the other, looking outside for scraps and leftovers like a hungry mongrel, the other will feel more sorrow and disappointment than words can describe. It’s like having one’s chest slashed open and one’s heart ripped out and scattered all over the place – even though one hasn’t yet died. That’s how much the wronged spouse will suffer.
If any of you are thinking of mistreating your spouse in this way, I ask that you first take a good long look at the teachings of the religion – the foremost Dhamma of the foremost Teacher – to see what kind of teachings they are, what kind of teacher he was, and why great sages honor and revere him so highly. As for the defilement of sexual craving, are there any sages who honor and revere it as anything special? So why is it that we honor and revere it so much? When you start considering in this way, you’ll be able to resist and avoid these defilements at least to some extent. At the very least, you’ll be one of the more civilized members of the circle of those who still have defilements in their hearts. Your spouse will be able to sleep peacefully, secure and proud, instead of swallowing tears of misery – which is the direction the world is heedlessly rushing everywhere you look. You are people in society. You have sharper eyes than the old monk sitting before you here saying this with his eyes and ears closed, so surely you’ve seen what I’m talking about.
For the sake of mutual honor and smooth relations between husband and wife, there are some duties in the family where he should be in charge, and
which she shouldn’t interfere with unless he asks for her help. There are other duties where she should be in charge, and which he shouldn’t interfere with unless she asks for his help. Each should let the other be in charge of whatever the other is best at. Each should honor and show deference to the other and not curse the other. Always show respect when you speak of your spouse’s family. Never speak of them with contempt. Even though there may be times when your opinions conflict, keep the issue between just the two of you. Don’t go dragging in each other’s family background, for that would be to show con- tempt for your spouse’s heart in a way that can’t be forgotten, and can lead to a split in the family – something neither of you wants.
When differences of opinion come between you, don’t be quick to feel anger or hatred. Think of the past, before you were married, and of how much you suffered from fear that your engagement would fall through. On top of that, think of all the trouble your families were put to as well. Now that you are mar- ried, in line with your hopes, you should care for your union to see that it lasts as long as you both are alive.
By becoming husband and wife, you willingly gave your lives to each other. If any issue arises between the two of you, think of it as teeth biting the tongue – they lie close together, so it’s only normal that they should get in the way of each other now and then. Both of you share responsibility for each other, so you should regard your stability together as more important than the small issues between you that might hurt your relationship.
Always remember that both of you have left your parents and now each of you holds to the other as parent, friend and life-mate. Whatever you do, think of the heart of your owner – that is, the wife is the owner of the husband, and the husband the owner of the wife – and don’t do anything that would hurt your owner’s feelings. Anything without an owner to look after it, no matter what, tends to be unsafe, so always think of your owner. Don’t be heedless or lax in your behavior, and your family will then be stable and secure.
All of this is part of the principle of fewness of wants. If you take this prin- ciple to heart, you can go wherever you like with a clear heart – whether your work keeps you at home or takes you away – for each of you can trust the other. The earnings you gain can provide for the family’s happiness because you go in all honesty and work in all honesty for the sake of the family’s well-being, contentment and peace.
Even if the family is lacking in some things – in line with the principle of impermanence – it’s not nearly as serious as when a husband or wife starts looking outside. That’s something very destructive. When a family has this sort of problem lurking inside it, then even if it has millions in the bank, it won’t be able to find any happiness. But a family that lives by the principle of fewness of wants – keeping your husband in mind, keeping your wife in mind, keeping in mind what belongs to you and what belongs to others, without overstepping your bounds – is sure to be happy and at peace. Even if things may be lacking at times, the family can live in contentment.
The family relationship between husband and wife is the important factor in our lives as human beings. If this is sound, then when children are born they won’t bear the emotional scars of having their parents fight over the issues that arise when one of them goes out of bounds. When parents argue over other things – a lack of this or that or whatever – it’s not too serious and can be taken as normal. But quarrelling over infidelity is very serious and embarrasses ev- eryone in the family. So for this reason, you should always be very strict with yourself in this matter. Don’t let yourself be heedless or lax in your behavior. As for quarrelling about other matters, you should be careful about that too. When parents quarrel for any reason, the children can’t look one another in the face. When they go to school or out with their friends, they can’t look their friends in the face, because of their embarrassment.
The fourth precept speaks against lying: Why did the Buddha teach us not to lie? Let’s think about it. Is there anything good about lying? Suppose every- one in the country, everyone in the world, lied to one another whenever they met. Wherever you’d go, there’d be nothing but lies. You wouldn’t be able to get the truth out of anyone at all. If this were the case, how could we human beings live with one another? It would be impossible. If we couldn’t get any truth or honesty from one another, we wouldn’t be able to live together. So in order that friends, husbands, wives, parents, children and people throughout society can live together and trust one another, we need to be honest and hold to truthfulness as a basic principle in all our dealings. Society will then have a strong foundation.
Here I’m giving just a short explanation of the fourth precept so that you will see how great the value of truthfulness is. People live together in harmony because of truthfulness, not because of lies and dishonesty. Lies are very de- structive to the world. People who hope for one another’s well-being should be entirely honest and truthful in their dealings. Lies are like disembodied spirits that deceive people and eat away at social values. This is why a society of good people despises those who tell lies and does its best to keep them out of its midst. The only people who like lying are those who harvest their crops from the hearts and livers of others; in other words, those who make their living by fraud and deceit. Thus, lying is a means of livelihood only for evil people, but is of absolutely no use to good people. The Buddha taught us not to lie because lies are like executioners waiting to torture people and bring them to a bad end.
The fifth precept speaks against drinking alcohol: What is alcohol? Alcohol here refers to any intoxicant. It changes the person who takes it from a full hu- man being to one with something lacking. The more we take it, the more we’re lacking, to the point where we become raving lunatics. When we were newly born, our parents never gave us alcohol to drink. They gave us only healthy, nu- tritious things like food and mother’s milk. We were able to grow to adulthood because of our mothers’ milk and the other good nutritious foods our parents gave us. But after having grown up on good nutritious food, we then take alco- hol and other intoxicants to poison and drug ourselves. Exactly where this adds to the value of our status as human beings is something I have yet to see.
Think about this for a minute: Suppose that all of us sitting here were drunk, from old Grandfather Boowa on down. Suppose we were all roaring drunk, sprawled all over the roadsides. Everywhere you went, there’d be people defecating and urinating in their pants all over the place, with no ordinary hu- man sense of shame or embarrassment. Could you stand to look at it? If alcohol were really good, as people like to pretend it is, wouldn’t then good people ex- press their admiration for drunkards sprawled all over the roadsides, their urine and excrement covering themselves and their surroundings? “These drunkards are really outstanding, aren’t they? They don’t have to look for a place to def- ecate. They can do it right in their pants. Ordinary people can’t do that. These drunkards are really extraordinary, aren’t they?” Would they ever say anything like this?
This is why the Buddha cautioned us against drinking alcohol. He didn’t want people all over the nation to be crazy, ruining their good human manners and ruining their work. A drunk person is no different from a dead person. He can’t do any work – aside from boasting. He damages his intelligence and finds it easy to do anything at all with no sense of conscience or deference, no fear of evil or the results of kamma, no respect for people or places at all. He can go anywhere and say anything with no sense of shame or embarrassment. A drunk
arise when one of them goes out of bounds. When parents argue over other things – a lack of this or that or whatever – it’s not too serious and can be taken as normal. But quarrelling over infidelity is very serious and embarrasses ev- eryone in the family. So for this reason, you should always be very strict with yourself in this matter. Don’t let yourself be heedless or lax in your behavior. As for quarrelling about other matters, you should be careful about that too. When parents quarrel for any reason, the children can’t look one another in the face. When they go to school or out with their friends, they can’t look their friends in the face, because of their embarrassment.
The fourth precept speaks against lying: Why did the Buddha teach us not to lie? Let’s think about it. Is there anything good about lying? Suppose every- one in the country, everyone in the world, lied to one another whenever they met. Wherever you’d go, there’d be nothing but lies. You wouldn’t be able to get the truth out of anyone at all. If this were the case, how could we human beings live with one another? It would be impossible. If we couldn’t get any truth or honesty from one another, we wouldn’t be able to live together. So in order that friends, husbands, wives, parents, children and people throughout society can live together and trust one another, we need to be honest and hold to truthfulness as a basic principle in all our dealings. Society will then have a strong foundation.
Here I’m giving just a short explanation of the fourth precept so that you will see how great the value of truthfulness is. People live together in harmony because of truthfulness, not because of lies and dishonesty. Lies are very de- structive to the world. People who hope for one another’s well-being should be entirely honest and truthful in their dealings. Lies are like disembodied spirits that deceive people and eat away at social values. This is why a society of good people despises those who tell lies and does its best to keep them out of its midst. The only people who like lying are those who harvest their crops from the hearts and livers of others; in other words, those who make their living by fraud and deceit. Thus, lying is a means of livelihood only for evil people, but is of absolutely no use to good people. The Buddha taught us not to lie because
lies are like executioners waiting to torture people and bring them to a bad end.
The fifth precept speaks against drinking alcohol: What is alcohol? Alcohol here refers to any intoxicant. It changes the person who takes it from a full hu- man being to one with something lacking. The more we take it, the more we’re lacking, to the point where we become raving lunatics. When we were newly born, our parents never gave us alcohol to drink. They gave us only healthy, nu- tritious things like food and mother’s milk. We were able to grow to adulthood because of our mothers’ milk and the other good nutritious foods our parents gave us. But after having grown up on good nutritious food, we then take alco- hol and other intoxicants to poison and drug ourselves. Exactly where this adds to the value of our status as human beings is something I have yet to see.
Think about this for a minute: Suppose that all of us sitting here were drunk, from old Grandfather Boowa on down. Suppose we were all roaring drunk, sprawled all over the roadsides. Everywhere you went, there’d be people defecating and urinating in their pants all over the place, with no ordinary hu- man sense of shame or embarrassment. Could you stand to look at it? If alcohol were really good, as people like to pretend it is, wouldn’t then good people ex- press their admiration for drunkards sprawled all over the roadsides, their urine and excrement covering themselves and their surroundings? “These drunkards are really outstanding, aren’t they? They don’t have to look for a place to def- ecate. They can do it right in their pants. Ordinary people can’t do that. These drunkards are really extraordinary, aren’t they?” Would they ever say anything like this?
This is why the Buddha cautioned us against drinking alcohol. He didn’t want people all over the nation to be crazy, ruining their good human manners and ruining their work. A drunk person is no different from a dead person. He can’t do any work – aside from boasting. He damages his intelligence and finds it easy to do anything at all with no sense of conscience or deference, no fear of evil or the results of kamma, no respect for people or places at all. He can go anywhere and say anything with no sense of shame or embarrassment. A drunk
arise when one of them goes out of bounds. When parents argue over other things – a lack of this or that or whatever – it’s not too serious and can be taken as normal. But quarrelling over infidelity is very serious and embarrasses ev- eryone in the family. So for this reason, you should always be very strict with yourself in this matter. Don’t let yourself be heedless or lax in your behavior. As for quarrelling about other matters, you should be careful about that too. When parents quarrel for any reason, the children can’t look one another in the face. When they go to school or out with their friends, they can’t look their friends in the face, because of their embarrassment.
The fourth precept speaks against lying: Why did the Buddha teach us not to lie? Let’s think about it. Is there anything good about lying? Suppose every- one in the country, everyone in the world, lied to one another whenever they met. Wherever you’d go, there’d be nothing but lies. You wouldn’t be able to get the truth out of anyone at all. If this were the case, how could we human beings live with one another? It would be impossible. If we couldn’t get any truth or honesty from one another, we wouldn’t be able to live together. So in order that friends, husbands, wives, parents, children and people throughout society can live together and trust one another, we need to be honest and hold to truthfulness as a basic principle in all our dealings. Society will then have a strong foundation.
Here I’m giving just a short explanation of the fourth precept so that you will see how great the value of truthfulness is. People live together in harmony because of truthfulness, not because of lies and dishonesty. Lies are very de- structive to the world. People who hope for one another’s well-being should be entirely honest and truthful in their dealings. Lies are like disembodied spirits that deceive people and eat away at social values. This is why a society of good people despises those who tell lies and does its best to keep them out of its midst. The only people who like lying are those who harvest their crops from the hearts and livers of others; in other words, those who make their living by fraud and deceit. Thus, lying is a means of livelihood only for evil people, but is of absolutely no use to good people. The Buddha taught us not to lie because
lies are like executioners waiting to torture people and bring them to a bad end.
The fifth precept speaks against drinking alcohol: What is alcohol? Alcohol here refers to any intoxicant. It changes the person who takes it from a full hu- man being to one with something lacking. The more we take it, the more we’re lacking, to the point where we become raving lunatics. When we were newly born, our parents never gave us alcohol to drink. They gave us only healthy, nu- tritious things like food and mother’s milk. We were able to grow to adulthood because of our mothers’ milk and the other good nutritious foods our parents gave us. But after having grown up on good nutritious food, we then take alco- hol and other intoxicants to poison and drug ourselves. Exactly where this adds to the value of our status as human beings is something I have yet to see.
Think about this for a minute: Suppose that all of us sitting here were drunk, from old Grandfather Boowa on down. Suppose we were all roaring drunk, sprawled all over the roadsides. Everywhere you went, there’d be people defecating and urinating in their pants all over the place, with no ordinary hu- man sense of shame or embarrassment. Could you stand to look at it? If alcohol were really good, as people like to pretend it is, wouldn’t then good people ex- press their admiration for drunkards sprawled all over the roadsides, their urine and excrement covering themselves and their surroundings? “These drunkards are really outstanding, aren’t they? They don’t have to look for a place to def- ecate. They can do it right in their pants. Ordinary people can’t do that. These drunkards are really extraordinary, aren’t they?” Would they ever say anything like this?
This is why the Buddha cautioned us against drinking alcohol. He didn’t want people all over the nation to be crazy, ruining their good human manners and ruining their work. A drunk person is no different from a dead person. He can’t do any work – aside from boasting. He damages his intelligence and finds it easy to do anything at all with no sense of conscience or deference, no fear of evil or the results of kamma, no respect for people or places at all. He can go anywhere and say anything with no sense of shame or embarrassment. A drunk arise when one of them goes out of bounds. When parents argue over other things – a lack of this or that or whatever – it’s not too serious and can be taken as normal. But quarrelling over infidelity is very serious and embarrasses ev- eryone in the family. So for this reason, you should always be very strict with yourself in this matter. Don’t let yourself be heedless or lax in your behavior. As for quarrelling about other matters, you should be careful about that too. When parents quarrel for any reason, the children can’t look one another in the face. When they go to school or out with their friends, they can’t look their friends in the face, because of their embarrassment.
The fourth precept speaks against lying: Why did the Buddha teach us not to lie? Let’s think about it. Is there anything good about lying? Suppose every- one in the country, everyone in the world, lied to one another whenever they met. Wherever you’d go, there’d be nothing but lies. You wouldn’t be able to get the truth out of anyone at all. If this were the case, how could we human beings live with one another? It would be impossible. If we couldn’t get any truth or honesty from one another, we wouldn’t be able to live together. So in order that friends, husbands, wives, parents, children and people throughout society can live together and trust one another, we need to be honest and hold to truthfulness as a basic principle in all our dealings. Society will then have a strong foundation.
Here I’m giving just a short explanation of the fourth precept so that you will see how great the value of truthfulness is. People live together in harmony because of truthfulness, not because of lies and dishonesty. Lies are very de- structive to the world. People who hope for one another’s well-being should be entirely honest and truthful in their dealings. Lies are like disembodied spirits that deceive people and eat away at social values. This is why a society of good people despises those who tell lies and does its best to keep them out of its midst. The only people who like lying are those who harvest their crops from the hearts and livers of others; in other words, those who make their living by fraud and deceit. Thus, lying is a means of livelihood only for evil people, but is of absolutely no use to good people. The Buddha taught us not to lie because lies are like executioners waiting to torture people and bring them to a bad end.
The fifth precept speaks against drinking alcohol: What is alcohol? Alcohol here refers to any intoxicant. It changes the person who takes it from a full hu- man being to one with something lacking. The more we take it, the more we’re lacking, to the point where we become raving lunatics. When we were newly born, our parents never gave us alcohol to drink. They gave us only healthy, nu- tritious things like food and mother’s milk. We were able to grow to adulthood because of our mothers’ milk and the other good nutritious foods our parents gave us. But after having grown up on good nutritious food, we then take alco- hol and other intoxicants to poison and drug ourselves. Exactly where this adds to the value of our status as human beings is something I have yet to see.
Think about this for a minute: Suppose that all of us sitting here were drunk, from old Grandfather Boowa on down. Suppose we were all roaring drunk, sprawled all over the roadsides. Everywhere you went, there’d be people defecating and urinating in their pants all over the place, with no ordinary hu- man sense of shame or embarrassment. Could you stand to look at it? If alcohol were really good, as people like to pretend it is, wouldn’t then good people ex- press their admiration for drunkards sprawled all over the roadsides, their urine and excrement covering themselves and their surroundings? “These drunkards are really outstanding, aren’t they? They don’t have to look for a place to def- ecate. They can do it right in their pants. Ordinary people can’t do that. These drunkards are really extraordinary, aren’t they?” Would they ever say anything like this?
intelligent human being means being clever in maintaining one’s moral virtue, not clever in taking intoxicants, creating animosity or abusing other people. People of that sort aren’t called intelligent. They’re called foolish.
The teachings of the Buddha are correct, and appropriate for human be- ings to put into practice according to their position in life. There’s nothing in the principles of the Dhamma to act as deadweight on the progress of the world. In fact, the world acts as deadweight on the Dhamma, destroying it without any real sense of conscience. When we act like that, all we lack is tails; otherwise we might be called dogs. Even without tails, we might be called dogs if we act in such a depraved manner. When we go out trying to snatch tails from dogs, we should watch out – they might bite us.
People have gotten way out of bounds. We say we’ve progressed, that we’re advanced and civilized, but if we get so carried away with the world that we don’t give a thought to what’s reasonable, noble or right, then the material progress of the world will simply become a fire consuming the world and ev- eryone in it, until eventually there’s no world left to live in. We can’t pretend that we’re dogs, because we don’t have tails. But if we try to snatch their tails, they’ll bite us. This is what it means to be a fake human being. We can’t pretend to be genuine human beings because we don’t have any moral virtue to our name. We lack good enough manners to fit in with our status as human beings. On the other hand, we can’t pretend we’re animals because we don’t have any
tails. These are the sorts of difficulties we get ourselves into, the damage we do to ourselves and the common good if we go against the teachings of the reli- gion. And this is why the practice of the Dhamma is fitting for our true status as human beings – because the Buddha taught the religion to the human race.
Before you do anything, reflect on whether it’s right or wrong. Don’t act simply on your moods or desires. Moods and desires have no true standards. You can desire everything. Even when you’ve eaten your fill, you can still want more. Your desires are hungry – hungry all the time. That’s desire. It has no stan- dards or limits at all. The Buddha calls this the lower side of the mind.
This is why you need to use Dhamma to contemplate desire and take it apart to see what it wants. If, on reflection, you see that what it wants is reason- able, only then should you go ahead and act on it. But if it wants to eat and, after you’ve eaten, it still wants more, then ask it: “What more do you want to eat? The sky? Nobody in the world eats sky. Whatever people eat, you’ve already eaten. You’ve had enough already, so what more do you want?” When your desires are stubborn, you really have to come down hard on them like this if you want to be a good person of moderate wants.
If left to themselves, our desires and moods know no limits; so we must teach ourselves, even force ourselves, to stay within proper limits. If we act merely in line with our desires, the human race will degenerate. So we need to take the principles of moral virtue as our guide. The teachings of the religion are an important means to ensure that we are good people living in happiness and peace. If we lack moral virtue, then even if we search for happiness until the day we die, we’ll never find it. Instead, we’ll find nothing but suffering and discontent. What’s right and appropriate, no matter who you are, is putting the teachings of the religion into practice. To lack Dhamma – in other words, to lack goodness and virtue – is to lack the tools you need to find happiness.
The world is becoming more and more troubled each day because we lack moral virtue in our hearts and actions. All we see is the world acting as dead- weight on moral virtue, trampling it to bits. Don’t go thinking that moral virtue
is deadweight on the world. Moral virtue has never harmed the world in any way. Actually, the world tramples all over moral virtue and destroys it, leaving us empty-handed, without any guiding principles. We end up destroying one another in a way that’s really appalling. So I ask that you see both the harm that comes from a lack of moral virtue and the value of putting moral virtue into practice. You yourself will prosper, your family will prosper and society will prosper because you have the Dhamma as a shield for your protection.
Our worth as human beings comes from our moral behavior, you know. It doesn’t come from our skin and flesh the way it does with animals. When ani- mals such as fish and crabs die, you can take their flesh to the market and come back with money in your pockets; but try taking the flesh of a dead person to the market and see what happens. Everyone in the market will scatter in an up- roar. Since when has our human worth lain with our skin and flesh? It lies with a heart that is adorned with moral virtue. People with moral virtue are people of value. Wherever they live, everything is at peace and at ease.
When we have moral virtue as our adornment, we’re attractive in a way that never loses its appeal, no matter how old we get. We have value precisely because of our virtue. If moral virtue is lacking in a family, that family will tend to become more and more troubled. If virtue is very much lacking, the family will be very much troubled; if it’s completely lacking, the whole family will be destroyed.
I ask that you contemplate what I’ve said and put it into practice so as to rid yourselves of the dangers that have been threatening you and your family, allowing you instead to meet with nothing but happiness and peace. In particu- lar, husbands and wives should be determined to treat one another well. I ask that you treat your spouse as having equal worth with yourself. Don’t try to de- base your spouse’s value and exalt your own through the power of your moods. Treat each other as having equal value, both in moral terms and in terms of the family. Your family will then prosper and be happy.