RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication
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Intoxication is unhealthy.
Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the
imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that
defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that
defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus:
“Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from
the negligence of intoxication.” (MN 8)
There are these two worldly conditions: pleasure and pain. These are
conditions that people meet—impermanent, transient, and subject to
change. A mindful, wise person knows them and sees that they are subject
to change. Desirable conditions do not excite one’s mind nor is one
resentful of undesirable conditions. (AN 8.6)
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We have within
us a natural instinct to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. One of the
Buddha’s great insights is that both are hardwired into our minds and
bodies and are thus an inevitable aspect of the human condition. Knowing
this and accepting it as true allows us to watch the interplay of the
two without needing to change what is happening. A wise person is
mindful of both pleasure and pain, regarding them evenly.
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Practice
becoming aware of feeling tones, both pleasant and painful, as they
arise accompanying all experience. Cultivate a posture of noticing each
one, acknowledging how it feels, and letting it change into something
else, as it will naturally do. Give up the hopeless task of chasing
after pleasure and fleeing pain and simply appreciate, with equanimity
rather than excitement or resentment, the changing nature of experience.
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Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings
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