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)
Forms cognizable by the eye are of two kinds: those to be cultivated and
those not to be cultivated. Such forms as cause, in one who cultivates
them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to diminish, such
forms are not to be cultivated. But such forms as cause, in one who
cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy states to
increase, such forms are to be cultivated. (MN 114)
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As humans we
use our eyes a lot. Mostly we are free to choose what we gaze on, but in
many cases our attention is hijacked by visual images directed at us
from a billboard, a magazine page, or a computer screen. Sometimes this
provokes craving of various sorts and is thus a way of engaging us in
sensual misconduct against our will. Learning to resist being hijacked
by images and to abandon it when it happens is a healthy skill.
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Notice the
quality of your mind as you take in visual information. The more you
look at something, does it increase or decrease your stress? Does it
make you more calm and at ease or does it wind you up? What you look at
is one thing; how you feel when you do so is something else. Learn to
observe the inner state evoked by sensory inputs and to thereby learn
what to cultivate and what not to cultivate for your own well-being.
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Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
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