Thank you Venerable and Paul
Paul I'm talking about a situation where a person is vigilant but doesn't hav the intention to break sila. A similar situation would be driving in the car and unbeknownst to the driver kills small insects. As I said earlier, my understanding is that intention to break the sila is a key element. Unfortunately I don't hav the time to track down the textual source which ennumerates how sila is broken. Respectfully I disagree with your post and I suggest that if one intends to drink alcohol and if one drinks a drop, then the precept is broken. You are right that the precepts are not an end in themselves but they are an important foundation for the development of sammasamadhi and panna. How one attends to sila conditions the development of samadhi and panna.
Dear Bhante,
What if a man meets a woman, who says she's unattached, and sleeps with her, but she is married, where is the wrong-doing?
Breach of the third precept, in my humble opinion, regardless of whether she is married or not. But if he knew that the woman was married then it is weightier.
Or, if one receives stolen goods not knowing that they're not stolen.
Certainly guilty of taking that which is not freely given if the receiver
knew the goods were stolen. If however, he did not know, I don't see how the precept is broken.
Or if a monk eats after midday, not knowing what time it is.
Then surely he is only guilty of not knowing what time it is. Incidentally, what do monks do at mealtimes when they are in-flight and crossing multiple time-zones?
Isn't there a duty of care to check about such things? Either way, if one doesn't check, and others see what one has done, they will blame us anyway.
Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I'm not talking of a situation of a lazy person or someone who takes advantage of a situation where alcohol could be served by someone who doesn't know one has taken the fifth precept. Perhaps the blame in many situations is the result of the defilements in the other person's mind rather than anything to do with our one's own behaviour. I thought the consideration of blame is when it arises in the mind of the 'wise'.
It seems to me that if one breaks sila when the intention was not present then it appears, and perhaps I am very wrong, to conform to the teachings of jainism rather than buddhism. And so, the crux of my enquiry is really in relation to the role of intention in sila.
So take care
Thank you. I do to the very best of my ability. And I wish you well too.
kind regards
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
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