This summer we’ll be exploring the creative aspects of Buddhist ethics, drawing on a book by a Triratna Order member, Subhadramati — It’s Not About Being Good: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Ethics (2013). As we make our way within a world context that is challenging in so many ways, Subhdramati’s framing inquiry seems relevant. She describes having become disillusioned, first with her childhood Christianity and later by the advanced physics she pursued at university, as ways to understand why things are as they are. Through her encounter with Buddhism, however, her perspective shifted entirely. “I revised the very questions I was seeking answers for,” she writes. “Rather than focusing on why the universe is as it is, the crucial issue became how I should live my life within it.”
Subhadramati says that as she moved along in her practice she came to understand being ethical as learning to act more and more in accord with her values, and it would be hard to come up with a better list of values than the positive precepts: kindness, generosity, contentment, authenticity and awareness. As we consider each of these, we’ll also talk about karma and the effects of our actions, the importance of the Buddha as an exemplar of kindness, the beauty of generosity, how to take responsibility for our unskillful actions without guilt, the positive power of speech, and the qualities of a mind “purified” of the poisons of craving, hatred and delusion. Overall, we’ll be looking at how focusing on ethics can give us a practical understanding of how to approach the famous dictum in the opening lines of the Dhammapada:
Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind. If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows even as the cart-wheel follow the hoof of the ox (drawing the cart).
Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.
Join us this summer as we meditate together and explore these teachings in a spirit of friendship and community. Each topic will stand alone, so join us whenever you are able.
Every Sunday, 10-11:45am. These mornings will include meditation, a short talk and discussion. Everyone is welcome! We will be meeting in-person at Gateway Taiji, 875 Islington St, Portsmouth, with a Zoom option. Offered by donation, $5-$15 suggested. If you’d like to attend by Zoom, we’ll send the Zoom link upon registration, or simply sign up for our weekly email which includes the link. Please bring your own water bottle or thermos; we have meditation cushions and chairs at the studio.
July 7: July 4 weekend, no meeting
July 14 Introduction: Karma & the Effects of Our Actions
July 21 Acting Like a Buddha
July 28 The Beauty of Generosity
August 4 Remorse vs. Guilt
August 11 Meditation in the park
August 18 The Power of Words
August 25 A Beautiful Mind
September 1: Labor Day Weekend, no meeting
Image detail from ‘The Buddha’ by Odilon Redon