BUDDHISM IN KERALA: Morality is the 2nd Mental Perfection:

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Morality is the 2nd Mental Perfection:

Avoiding all Harm!
Doing only Good...
Purifying the Mind:
This is the True Dhamma
of all the Buddhas!
Dhammapada 183

Morality is the foundation,
the initiator and the origin of all,
that is fine, good and very beautiful...
One must therefore purify true morality!
Theragatha 612

All success is rooted in a clean morality, cultivated to purity!
Theragatha 608

Morality is a mighty Power!
Morality is a forceful Weapon!
Morality is a supreme Jewel!
Morality is a marvelous Protection!
Theragatha 614

Harmlessness towards all living beings,
Speaking only kind and wise truths,
Taking nothing not freely given,
Enjoying only one's own partner,
Never abusing drinks or drugs.
Having given up and left all behind
these five harmful actions, such
Good Ones truly possess right morality...
AN III 205-6

Ananda once asked the Buddha:
"What, Venerable Sir, is the rewarding advantage of morality?"
"Freedom from regret, Ananda!"
"And what is the advantage of freedom from regret?"
"Joy that produces bliss, Ananda.
Bliss then generates happiness.
Happiness enables concentration.
Concentration facilitates vision and knowledge.
Vision and knowledge bring disillusion and detachment
Disillusion and detachment induce direct experience of
certain and complete mental release, Ananda…"
AN X.1

Intention always comes first!
Intention is of all states the primer.
By intention are all things initiated.
By construction of mind are all phenomena formed.
So - if with good intention one thinks, speaks or acts:
Joy and pleasure surely follow one, like a never-leaving shadow
However - if with evil intention one thinks, speaks or acts:
Pain certainly follows one, like the wheel follows the car.
Dhammapada 1+2

Both the moral and immoral doings;
Both the good and the bad behaviour;
That human beings do here;
These are truly only their own possessions...!!!
These, they take along with them, when they die, go and re-arise,
These actions, good, neutral and bad are what follow them,
like shadows, that never ever leave...
So do only what is admirable and advantageous,
as an accumulating investment for the future life!
Good prior doings are the only support and help for all beings,
when they re-arise in the world of the next state of being…
SN III 4

Here and now the good-doer rejoices... Even so after
passing away and re-emerging, the doer of good,
reaps only joy, pleasure and satisfaction ...
So both here and there, the wise with merit well done
and stored, enjoys the moral purity of prior actions.
Dhammapada 15

Here and now the bad-doer suffers... Even so after
passing away and re-emerging, the doer of wrong and evil,
reaps only pain, discontent, despair, and regret ...
So both here and there, the fool with wrong views
and bad behavior, suffers agony as the inevitable
effect of prior evil behaviour.
Dhammapada 16

As the yak-ox watches her tail even onto death,
without breaking through, when caught in thorns,
guard your doings as your own life, by avoiding all
overstepping of this fine line, between right and wrong.
The Basket of Behaviour, Cariyapitaka

The Bodhisatta once as the Naga serpent King Sankhapala
guarded his precepts of moral habit, even when tortured:
Though pierced with sharp bamboo stakes and hacked with
hunting knives, I raged no anger against these hunters, as this
was my final perfection of Morality!
Sankhapala Jataka no. 524

The 5 precious precepts (pañca-sila):
I accept the training rule of avoiding all killing of breathing beings.
I accept the training rule of not taking anything, that is not given.
I accept the training rule of abstaining from any sexual misconduct.
I accept the training rule of desisting from all incorrect speech.
I accept the training rule of no drinks or drugs causing carelessness.

True Buddhists undertake these precious precepts right here:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/sangha/Sangha_Entry.htm

These are timeless laws of only pure good,
which all the mighty seers of the past
have fully followed and made their Way!

This Virtue of Morality is like Rock:
A solid foundation for all good states!
Immorality creates regret, and thus destroys all joy...
Purity creates calm, and thus the subtle concentration,
which is necessary for gaining all higher understanding!
Only higher Understanding can ever set one completely Free...