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Buddhist Ethics

Moral laws, customs and manners are made by human beings but Buddhist Ethics are based on universal values.

THE world today is in a state of turmoil; valuable ethics are being upturned. The forces of materialistic scepticism have turned their dissecting blades on the traditional concepts of what are considered humane qualities. Yet, any person who cares about culture and civilization should be concerned with practical, ethical issues. For ethics has to do with human conduct. It is concerned about our relationship with ourselves and with our fellow human beings.

The need for ethics arises from the fact that human beings are not perfect by nature: they have to train themselves to be good. Thus morality becomes the most important aspect of living.

Buddhist ethics are not arbitrary standards invented by people for their own utilitarian purpose. Nor are they arbitrarily imposed from without. Laws and social customs do not form the basis of Buddhist ethics. For example, the styles of dress that are suitable for one climate, period or civilisation may be considered indecent in another; but this is entirely a matter of social custom and does not in any way involve ethical considerations. Yet the artificialities of social conventions are continually confused with ethical principles that are valid and unchanging.

Buddhist ethics finds its foundation not on changing social customs but rather on the unchanging laws of nature. Buddhist ethical values are intrinsically a part of nature, and the unchanging law of cause and effect (karma). The simple fact that Buddhist ethics are rooted in natural law makes its principles both useful and acceptable to the modern world. The fact that the Buddhist ethical code was formulated over 2,500 years ago does not detract from its timeless character.

Morality in Buddhism serves the practical purpose of leading people to the final goal of ultimate happiness. On the Buddhist path to Emancipation, each individual is considered responsible for his or her own fortunes and misfortunes. Each individual is expected to work out deliverance through understanding and effort. Buddhist salvation is the result of one’s own moral development and can neither be imposed nor granted to one by some external agent. The Buddha’s mission was to enlighten beings on the nature of existence and to advise them how best to act for their own happiness and for the benefit of others. Consequently, Buddhist ethics are not commandments which people are compelled to follow. The Buddha had given advice on the conditions which were most wholesome and conducive to long term benefit for self and others. Rather than addressing sinners with such words as ‘shameful’, ‘wicked’, ‘wretched’, ‘unworthy’, and ‘blasphemous’ He would merely say, ‘You are foolish in acting in such a way since this will bring sorrow upon yourselves and others’.

The theory of Buddhist ethics finds its practical expression in the various precepts. These precepts or disciplines are nothing but general guides to show the direction which we should turn to on our way to final salvation. Although many of these precepts are expressed in a negative form, we must not think that Buddhist morality consists of abstaining from evil without the complement of doing good.

The morality found in all the precepts can be summarized in three simple principles—‘To avoid evil; to do good, to purify the mind.’ This is the advice given by all the Buddhas. (DHAMMAPADA, 183)

In Buddhism, the distinction between what is good and what is bad is very simple: all actions that have their roots in greed, hatred, and delusion that spring from selfishness foster the harmful delusion of selfhood. These actions are demeritorious or unskilful or bad. They are called Akusala Karma. All those actions which are rooted in the virtues of generosity, love and wisdom, are meritorious — Kusala Karma. The criteria of good and bad apply whether the actions are of thought, word or deed.

Buddhist Morals are Based on Intention or Volition

‘Karma is volition,’ says the Buddha. Actions themselves are considered as neither good nor bad but ‘only the intention and thought makes them so’. Yet Buddhist ethics does not maintain that a person may commit actions that are conventionally regarded as ‘sins’ provided that he or she does so with the best of intentions. Had this been its position, Buddhism would have confined itself to questions of psychology and left the uninteresting task of drawing up lists of ethical rules and framing codes of conduct to less emancipated teachings. The connection between thoughts and deeds, between mental and material action is an extension of thought. It is not possible to commit murder with a good heart because taking of life is simply the outward expression of a state of mind dominated by aversion anger, hate or greed. Deeds are condensations of thoughts just as rain is a condensation of vapour. Deeds proclaim from the rooftops of action only what has already been committed in the silent and secret chambers of the heart.

A person who commits an immoral act thereby declares that he or she is not free from unwholesome states of mind. Also, a person who has a purified and radiant mind, who has a mind empty of all defiled thoughts and feelings, is incapable of committing immoral actions.

Buddhist ethics also recognizes the objectivity of moral values. In other words, the karmic consequences of actions occur in accordance with natural karmic law, regardless of the attitude of the individual or regardless of social attitudes toward the act. For example, drunkenness has karmic consequences; it is a negative action since it promotes one’s own unhappiness as well as the unhappiness of others. The karmic effects of drunkenness exist despite what the drunkard or society may think about the habit of drinking. The prevailing opinions and attitudes do not in the least detract from the fact that drunkenness is objectively negative. The consequences—psychological, social, and karmic—make actions moral or immoral—regardless of the mental attitudes of those judging the act. Thus while ethical relativism is recognized, it is not considered as undermining the objectivity of values.

<<Назад Глава 8. Буддийская нравственность и духовная практика

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Редакция перевода от 01.07.2015 15:13