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 seeing a form with the eye, one does not grasp at its signs and
features. Since if one left the eye faculty unguarded, unwholesome
states of covetousness and grief might intrude, one practices the way of
its restraint, one guards the eye faculty, one undertakes the restraint
of the eye faculty. (MN 51)
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This is not a
practice for shutting out the world but for gaining some control over
what enters and influences your mind. Just as you don’t eat everything
that you encounter, so also you need not see, hear, touch, or think
everything that is capable of being discerned. Some objects impinge on
the senses with such force that they cannot be ignored, but most of what
we experience we seek out, driven by desire. We need not do this.
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Even with
visual experience, we do not always have to take in more than what is
immediately presented to the eye. Practice seeing something,
acknowledging it, and then letting it pass away without chasing after
its details and associations. We can take what is given to sight, and
only what is given, and then move on to the next moment. In this way we
are not dragged into entanglements we don’t choose, and we remain free.
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Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
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