RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Taking What is Not Given
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Taking what is not given is
unhealthy. Refraining from taking what is not given is healthy. (MN 9)
Abandoning the taking of what is not given, one abstains from taking
what is not given; one does not take by way of theft the wealth and
property of others. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may take what is
not given, but I will abstain from taking what is not given.” (MN 8)
On hearing a sound with the ear, one does not grasp at its signs and
features. Since if one left the ear faculty unguarded, unwholesome
states of covetousness and grief might intrude, one practices the way of
its restraint, one guards the ear faculty, one undertakes the restraint
of the ear faculty. (MN 51)
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This is another
encouragement to be with what is happening without going beyond the
experience and taking more than is given in the moment. The image of
guarding the sense doors, as a watchman might guard the gate to a city,
suggests the ability to choose what gets into the mind and what is
turned away. It is a way of gaining some power and claiming some freedom
over what happens to you.
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Practice along
these lines: “In what is heard, there will be only what is heard.” As we
work with each of the sense modalities in turn, we learn to be fully
present with what is occurring without embellishing it or projecting our
desires onto it. Can we hear without grasping? What does this feel
like? Mindfulness practice involves being fully aware of what is
presenting at the sense doors without getting swept away by it or swept
beyond it.
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Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
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