RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
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Sensual misconduct is
unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9)
Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among
sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may engage in
sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct." (MN 8)
Sensual conduct is of two kinds: to be cultivated and not to be
cultivated. Such sensual conduct as causes, in one who cultivates it,
unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such
sensual conduct is not to be cultivated. But such sensual conduct as
causes, in one who cultivates it, unhealthy states to diminish and
healthy states to increase, such sensual conduct is to be cultivated.
(MN 114)
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Misbehaving
among sensual pleasures can include various forms of harmful sexuality,
such as exploitation, causing humiliation, or sexual predation. It can
also include all sorts of activities that are not sexual but involve
sensual gratification. Our ability to inhabit a sensory and sensual
world is not in itself a problem. The problem is that our senses can so
easily lead us into attachments and aversions that cause difficulties.
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This practice
is about the skillful use of the sense apparatus. Notice when sensory
stimulation leads to craving and thus to grasping behavior. This is the
path to suffering, as our senses lead us to wanting things we cannot
have or hating things that are unpleasant. Notice also that there are
ways to engage the senses that do not automatically lead to craving and
grasping, and thus do not lead to suffering. Explore this.
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Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
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