The teaching of ethical conduct or integrity is the second of the three limbs of the Eightfold Path. Sila (ethics) includes wise speech, wise action, and wise livelihood that do no harm. The practice is twofold: to resolve to do no harm and to do only that which is wholesome and skillful. The Buddha said that skillful actions have freedom from remorse as their purpose. They are a conscious choice to refrain from behavior that causes fear, confusion and suffering. There are increasing levels of subtlety in them.

Speech is a strong conditioning force in our lives. The Buddha cautioned against four unskillful ways of speaking: false speech or lying, angry or aggressive speech, gossip, and frivolous or useless talk. That covers a lot of what is said in modern life! So how do we take these guidelines as our practice? How do we reflect on and come back to them again and again? Words have tremendous power to harm and to heal. Knowing this, we endeavor to communicate in a way that facilitates openness and freedom rather than constriction and suffering.

Our understanding and intention inform and guide our actions so that speech emanates from a wholesome place. It begins in our mind-hearts: we can be aware of how many of your thoughts are not true, have a judgmental or harsh tone, are gossip, are useless. Note thoughts within the 4 categories before giving voice to them. Practice carefully enough to see the motivation before speech—and refrain when it is not motivated by metta or care. You can do it!

Wise Understanding is the first aspect of the Wisdom limb of the Noble Eightfold Path. Albert Einstein said “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ yet we experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. This delusion is really a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of understanding and compassion, to embrace all living creatures in the whole of nature and its beauty.”

As our silence deepens and mindfulness is more refined, the sense of being a separate and solid self begins to dissolve. We come to each moment with wiser understanding, with a greater sense of openness of heart, and with clear seeing. We begin to see how every thought, word and deed has consequences. And the Buddha’s profound teaching of suffering, its cause, its cessation and the Path to its cessation is seen as present moment, authentic and real experience.

Meditation offers us the possibility of learning to be free in the ups and downs of life, its pleasures and pains, to open and love, unafraid to feel that love and to express it fully. We begin to understand the humanity into which we were born and sense our oneness with all life. When we cultivate mindfulness and foster a sense of stillness, wise understanding dawns. Yet, practice is not such an easy thing. It requires courage.

Wise Intention is one of two limbs of Wisdom in the Eightfold Path. Every mind moment involves an intention. Each decision and every action is born of intention. Each movement, word and thought is preceded by a volitional impulse, frequently unnoticed. Yet just as drops of water will eventually fill a bucket, so the accumulation of all our choices shapes our life.

Intentions—noticed, unnoticed, gross or subtle—contribute to happiness or suffering. Long after a deed is done or a word said, the trace momentum of its intention remains, conditioning future happiness or unhappiness. If we nourish unwise intentions of greed, ill will, vengeance or harmfulness, their inherent suffering will sprout—presently, as we act on them, and in the future as reinforced habits, tensions and painful memories. If we nourish wise intentions of good will, harmlessness and generosity, they will grow in us and the inherent happiness and openness of those states will be frequent visitors in our life.

Mindfulness helps us to foresee the impact of intentions. We see that even if we act in ways of service or generosity, but based not on a spontaneous movement of the heart of basic and fundamental goodness but out of guilt or fear or to feel righteous, our actions will not have lasting benefit. Connecting to one’s deepest intentions will bear deeper results than practice connected to more superficial concerns.

Reflect carefully on your intentions before speaking or acting and their probable impact. What is your heart’s deepest intention?

Wise Intention is one of two limbs of Wisdom in the Eightfold Path. Every mind moment involves an intention. Each decision and every action is born of intention. Each movement, word and thought is preceded by a volitional impulse, frequently unnoticed. Yet just as drops of water will eventually fill a bucket, so the accumulation of all our choices shapes our life.

Intentions—noticed, unnoticed, gross or subtle—contribute to happiness or suffering. Long after a deed is done or a word said, the trace momentum of its intention remains, conditioning future happiness or unhappiness. If we nourish unwise intentions of greed, ill will, vengeance or harmfulness, their inherent suffering will sprout—presently, as we act on them, and in the future as reinforced habits, tensions and painful memories. If we nourish wise intentions of good will, harmlessness and generosity, they will grow in us and the inherent happiness and openness of those states will be frequent visitors in our life.

Mindfulness helps us to foresee the impact of intentions. We see that even if we act in ways of service or generosity, but based not on a spontaneous movement of the heart of basic and fundamental goodness but out of guilt or fear or to feel righteous, our actions will not have lasting benefit. Connecting to one’s deepest intentions will bear deeper results than practice connected to more superficial concerns.

Reflect carefully on your intentions before speaking or acting and their probable impact. What is your heart’s deepest intention?

The purpose of the teachings and practice is freedom, the sure heart’s release, right now. Knowing the genuine possibility of freedom for every being, the Buddha taught that the heart can be free and loving in every circumstance. And he assured us that if it were not possible, he would not teach it. This is the Third Noble Truth–suffering can cease and that cessation, sometimes called the “sure heart’s release,” must be realized: freedom, not elsewhere but in the midst of the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows that comprise our life.

It is the putting out or cooling of the fires of greed hatred and delusion that rage in our hearts. By seeing the inevitability of pleasure and pain, light and dark, gain and loss, praise and blame, all appearing for a time and changing from their own karmic momentum, we understand everything is in process–our thoughts are appearing and disappearing, our feelings change, our bodies transform, shift, move. This is how it is–no solid self, nothing permanent, irretrievably, unchangeably me or mine. This understanding points the way to not clinging inwardly or outwardly, letting go.

It is important that the notion of liberation not be made a thing or place that one gets or gets to at some point. It’s not in Burma, Tibet or elsewhere. And if you think you’ve “got it,” there’s it, separate from you, and clinging, disconnection.

Inexorable and inevitable freedom is the essence of the Third Noble Truth. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Let freedom ring.”

I’ve been reflecting lately on the Four Noble Truths as the quintessential teaching of the Buddha. These Truths underpinned all 45 years of his teachings. We sometimes think we already know this as a beginners’ teaching. And we want the juicy stuff, the more complex and meaty philosophical or intellectual challenges. Yet, my experience with these Four seemingly simple Truths is that as our practice settles and we reflect more deeply, they reveal the profound reality of being human in unexpected ways. This is not surprising, as they have endured as a guide leading to the liberation of the heart/mind for 2600 years.

The Four Truths can be stated simply—First, there is dukkha; Second, that there is an origin or cause of dukkha—the mind that clings; Third, that dukkha can cease; and Fourth, the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the cessation of dukkha.

To find freedom, the Buddha says our first task is to understand the First Noble Truth–that dukkha exists (suffering, insecurity, unsatisfactoriness, stress are all different translations), with the taking on of a human body–there is unavoidable pain and change, sorrow, lamentation, loss, despair.

It becomes more and more visible through practice as we give up hiding from the way things actually are–sickness, loss, depression, confusion, anger, jealousy, competition, guilt, betrayal. Even in pleasure, there’s dukkha. We get what we want and we’re afraid it won’t last–we grasp after what inevitably changes. Things are insecure; no matter where we look, they change.

Can you understand this First Noble Truth–look honestly and identify dukkha in our own lives?

We’ve discussed the Seven Factors of Awakening—first, mindfulness, then the three energizing (or arousing) factors, investigation, energy or effort, and rapture and finally the three stabilizing factors, tranquility, concentration and equanimity.

It is helpful to periodically review the presence or absence of these factors in your formal practice. For a period of two or three weeks, in the middle of each sitting, at a point when you feel relatively settled and attentive, look to see which of the factors are present, which are strong, and which are weak. Notice carefully what you see without any evaluation or judgment. Ask: in this sitting, is mindfulness strong or weak? Which of the three arousing factors are present? Are energy and effort there? Investigation? Rapture and interest? To what degree or strength has each of these qualities arisen? Then examine the three stabilizing qualities. Is concentration present? If so, is it weak or strong? Tranquility? Equanimity and balance?

Sometimes in the very act of our being aware of the presence or absence of qualities, they become more present or stronger. Notice if that happens as well. The factors of awakening are impersonal qualities arising out of certain conditions. When you observe that they are absent, see what conditions block them.

Getting a sense of how you can nourish these qualities in your practice without straining will enhance your ability to naturally call upon them, both in meditation and in daily life. May these factors of awakening be your constant companions.

Equanimity is the seventh Factor of Awakening.

Life can become so muddled by our preferences and plans that we miss the simple experience of things as they are, of life as it is. We excessively rely on our judgments, plans and ideas–as if we know what is going to happen. Although we might be able to make a good guess, we really don’t know how things will be. We don’t know whether tomorrow our time on earth will end or we’ll win the lottery. (As my teacher once said, we have the same chance of winning as we do of it being sent to us by mistake!!!).

Yes, human life is a mixed bag of sorrows, joy, great difficulties and beauty. Knowing this deeply, we discover through loving presence, the heart’s capacity to rest in the seasons of gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and disrepute and their resultant changes and unfolding circumstances, with unshakable evenness, balance and poise. We meet life as it is, not apart from, but in our humanity, with a strength and softness or fluidity that is not caught by circumstances.

Equanimity should not be confused with indifference (a cold distancing from a heartfelt sense of life, blocking the potential to realize our birthright of love and freedom). It is a warm open hearted engagement with all of life in its inevitable manifestations and phases.

This is the last of the Seven Factors of Awakening.

Next week, we will discuss ways of working with these factors in your practice.