Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Buddhist ethical conduct including the Five Precepts (Pañcasikkhāpada), and Eightfold Ethical Conduct (Aṭṭhasīla).

Which Precept is most difficult for you?

1. To abstain from killing living beings
5
6%
2. To abstain from taking what is not given, i.e., stealing
1
1%
3. To abstain from sexual misconduct
7
9%
4. To abstain from false speech, i.e., lies, divisive speech, harsh speech, idle chatter
57
72%
5. To abstain from intoxicants and harmful drugs
9
11%
 
Total votes: 79

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octathlon
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by octathlon »

suriyopama wrote: - Eventually I kill mosquitos (I tyry to avoid it to some extent, but there is a limit). If you think that you would never do it, maybe you've never been long enough in Thailand, you enjoy being covered with DEET from the feet to the eyes 24 hours a day, or you are not attractive to them ;)
I used to have a friend who is not attractive to mosquitos. She is never bitten. She loves the outdoors-- her jobs have always been outdoor things like the forest service. We would go camping and she would sit there comfortable as anything, while the rest of us were scratching ourselves like crazy. I wonder if she carefully avoided killing mosquitos in past lives and is now experiencing the fruits of that merit? :D
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suriyopama
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by suriyopama »

octathlon wrote:I wonder if she carefully avoided killing mosquitos in past lives and is now experiencing the fruits of that merit? :D
Yes, sometimes I wonder this too, but I would like to know how to go outside of this spiral :thinking:
Next time I'll give it a second tought
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

2. Musāvādasuttaṃ

82. “Catūhi, bhikkhave, dhammehi samannāgato yathābhataṃ nikkhitto evaṃ niraye. Katamehi catūhi? Musāvādī hoti, pisuṇavāco hoti, pharusavāco hoti, samphappalāpī hoti — imehi kho, bhikkhave, catūhi dhammehi samannāgato yathābhataṃ nikkhitto evaṃ niraye.
Endowed with four things, monks, one is dragged off and thrown into hell. What four? One tells lies, one slanders others, one abuses others, one indulges in frivolous talk.

I think our inability to abstain from frivolous chatter is a major contributory factor to not attaining the path and its fruition in this very life. On retreats it is expected that meditators maintain noble silence — i.e. not speaking at all unless it is about Dhamma or essential for communication.

An Exposition of Right Speech

There is no end to talk about worldly matters. It may help our material progress in this life, but it does not lead us out of saṃsāra — in fact, it just prolongs our journey.
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Goedert
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by Goedert »

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:
2. Musāvādasuttaṃ

82. “Catūhi, bhikkhave, dhammehi samannāgato yathābhataṃ nikkhitto evaṃ niraye. Katamehi catūhi? Musāvādī hoti, pisuṇavāco hoti, pharusavāco hoti, samphappalāpī hoti — imehi kho, bhikkhave, catūhi dhammehi samannāgato yathābhataṃ nikkhitto evaṃ niraye.
Endowed with four things, monks, one is dragged off and thrown into hell. What four? One tells lies, one slanders others, one abuses others, one indulges in frivolous talk.

I think our inability to abstain from frivolous chatter is a major contributory factor to not attaining the path and its fruition in this very life. On retreats it is expected that meditators maintain noble silence — i.e. not speaking at all unless it is about Dhamma or essential for communication.

An Exposition of Right Speech

There is no end to talk about worldly matters. It may help our material progress in this life, but it does not lead us out of saṃsāra — in fact, it just prolongs our journey.
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
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suriyopama
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by suriyopama »

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:
There is no end to talk about worldly matters. It may help our material progress in this life, but it does not lead us out of saṃsāra — in fact, it just prolongs our journey.
:goodpost: Thank you! :anjali:
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Ytrog
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by Ytrog »

The fourth, most definitely. Most of the time it is how I say things, but sometimes the truth also slips on me. I sometimes find myself in a situation that I lied and regretting it a moment later. I never have the courage to admit it to the person though. Mostly a lie is a product of trying to protect myself from small things, such as telling someone I've done something while I didn't just so they don't bring up the subject again (my parents sometime meddle in things they shouldn't in my view). A bad habit, I admit. I'm working on it though.

EDIT

Oh, and if people ask me why I don't drink alcohol I usually don't tell them about the precepts, but say that I don't need it, had bad experiences and that my friends usually don't drink as well. This is all true, but it is leaving out my prime motivation.
Last edited by Ytrog on Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Suffering is asking from life what it can never give you.
mindfulness, bliss and beyond (page 8) wrote:Do not linger on the past. Do not keep carrying around coffins full of dead moments
If you see any unskillful speech (or other action) from me let me know, so I can learn from it.
Laurens
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by Laurens »

I smoke cigarettes, and sometimes marijuana. That probably makes the 5th precept hardest for me. Not that I'm really trying to keep them any more. My own personal integrity tells me I shouldn't kill, lie, steal and generally be nasty - and I don't think my use of marijuana harms anyone (except arguably myself). I don't feel the need to take any precepts any more.
"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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SDC
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by SDC »

Laurens wrote:I smoke cigarettes, and sometimes marijuana. That probably makes the 5th precept hardest for me. Not that I'm really trying to keep them any more. My own personal integrity tells me I shouldn't kill, lie, steal and generally be nasty - and I don't think my use of marijuana harms anyone (except arguably myself). I don't feel the need to take any precepts any more.
Check out silabbata-paramasa, Laurens.

You may not feel the need to take any precepts, but that doesn't change the fact that you seem to appreciate that type of behavior. Therefore you are making the choice based on that assessment rather then making the choice because someone else is telling you to do so. And in my opinion that is what the Buddha was trying to convey. We look at our own behavior as compared to what the precepts lay out. We asses what our lives would be like if we behave in that way. If we see the benefits in that behavior, we want to move in that direction.
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
ezzirah
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Re: Which Precept is most difficult for you?

Post by ezzirah »

I am in the 4th precept camp! The speech thing is one I am just working one. I don't lie, so I considered that part a done deal, but the idle speech and at work sometimes the gossip creeps in to keep good "vibes" going with friends at work. I know I should not, but it is a work in progress....
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