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)
Odors cognizable by the nose are of two kinds: those to be cultivated
and those not to be cultivated. Such odors as cause, in one who
cultivates them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to
diminish, such odors are not to be cultivated. But such odors as cause,
in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy
states to increase, such odors are to be cultivated. (MN 114)
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The point here
is not that some things smell good and some smell bad. Rather it is that
some odors provoke unhealthy states in us and some incline us toward
healthy states. As usual, the emphasis is on the mental and emotional
response to sensory input and not on the quality of that data. The key
is to avoid the tendency for the odor to give rise to craving, either
craving for more pleasure or craving for pain to go away.
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Here you have
another invitation to abide in your experience with equanimity, to be
acutely aware of something, in this case an odor, without being driven
by that information into responding with attraction or aversion. Smells
are a good way to practice equanimity, since it is so easy to observe
the mind being automatically hijacked by pleasure or displeasure into
liking or not liking the smell.
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Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
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