Practice in Daily Life

Bhante Buddharakkhita

Practicing Dhamma in Daily life

The Buddha said, “Think not lightly of evil, saying, ‘It will not come to me.’ Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the untrained (unwise) person, gathering it little by little, fills himself with evil.” Our daily life is filled with actions, words and mostly thoughts, which have a cumulative effect as we interact with others. For instance, if we behave in unskillful ways that cause suffering for oneself, others, and both, then this will gather force with time and in turn become our habit, character or value. The Buddha gave a second inspiring phrase: “think not lightly of good, saying, ‘It will not come to me.’ Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the trained person, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.

In our daily life, when we act or speak in skillful ways, this can lead to happiness for oneself, others and both. Then, these drops will fill our mind with happiness in the end. The key to spiritual growth, development and transformation is the practice of the Ten Perfections in our daily life.  Most people in the world are trying to earn a living and still wrestling with the issue of how to practice the Dhamma in daily life. The ten Perfections provide an indispensable framework for viewing and reviewing your daily activities from the time you wake up until you go to bed. Any activity undertaken skilfully and wisely with the primary purpose of developing the Perfections becomes part of the daily practice. The Perfections are a group of ten skilful qualities of the heart and mind which may be developed in our daily life in this very lifetime or over many lifetimes, by anyone who aspires to attain ultimate happiness, freedom or even reach Buddhahood. The ten Perfections are: Generosity, Ethical conduct, Renunciation, Wisdom Energy, Patience, Truthfulness, Determination, Loving-friendliness and Equanimity. For the sake of clarity, I will present the four-fold definition given in the ancient commentaries and Buddhist psychology, in terms of characteristic, function, manifestation and proximate or supporting condition of each of the ten Perfections.

Generosity: The way to Happiness

Generosity (Dana in Pali) has the characteristic of relinquishing; its function is to dispel greed for things that can be given away; its manifestation is non-attachment, and any object that can be relinquished is its supporting condition. Generosity means giving and sharing our material or immaterial things with others. Begin to practice the giving away of things, time, ideas, kind words and even a smile. When a person is relaxed, a smile is a natural expression of a relaxed body and mind. Most people find it easier to give away material things rather than their time. They are quite attached to their free time. Try to spend your time with people who need your time, help or advice. There is a Chinese saying: “…if you want to be happy for the rest of your life, help others…” It is a great opportunity to be able to share your time with others. Do some volunteer work for the non-profit organizations established for a noble cause. Practice sharing merits with others and rejoice in other’s merits. These two spiritual practices go even deeper when sharing one’s spiritual resources, let alone material resources. Giving will help you to weaken or overcome self-centred desires and attachments thereby achieving far greater happiness now and in the future.

Ethical Conduct:
Protecting oneself, protecting the whole world

Ethical conduct or training rules (Sila in Pali) has the characteristic of composing. Its function is to dispel immoral behaviour, and bring about blameless conduct; its manifestation is moral purity; and its supporting condition is moral shame and moral dread. Ethical conduct is the foundation of all the spiritual growth, development and transformation. We should train ourselves to live virtuous lives by following a minimum of five training rules. These are: refraining from destroying living creatures, from taking that is not given, from sexual misconduct, from false speech, and from taking intoxicating drinks and drugs, which lead to heedlessness. Some people might say that training rules are formulated in a restrictive or negative sense. They only mention what not to do.  People always ask what do. We should preserve life; be generous and be contented with what we have; be faithful; truthful, honest; and heedful. Actually, the training rules are worded in a negative sense for a good reason. At the outset, we should abandon unwholesome states of mind before cultivating wholesome ones. We have to stop negative emotions that harm oneself, others, and both before cultivating positive emotions that foster happiness for oneself, others and both. By restraining from negative emotions, we can certainly protect our inner-world, thereby protecting the outer-world.

Renunciation:  Less stuff, much fun!

Renunciation (Nekkhama in Pali) has the characteristic of departing from sense pleasures and all conditioned phenomena; its function is to verify their unsatisfactoriness; its manifestation is the withdrawal from sensual pleasures and all conditioned phenomena; and its supporting condition is a sense of spiritual urgency. One of the basic forms of renunciation is the practicing of ethical conduct. It means letting of our gross, unskilful bodily and verbal behaviours. I would call it a lower form of renunciation. There is even a higher form of renunciation of letting go of the negative emotions in the mind that obstructs concentration. Since failure to reach concentrated states of mind in meditation is a good sign of lack of letting go at some level or another.  Most people want to have a concentrated mind yet they do not want to let go negatives states of mind. We cannot “have our cake and eat it too!” Could we? Finally, the highest form of renunciation is letting go of the subtlest defilements; greed, hatred and delusion. We should begin with examining carefully the danger inherent in the blind pursuit to fulfill sensual desires. The outcome of this introspection would impel a wise person to seek renunciation.  However, this renunciation is not blind avoidance or repression of sensual desires. It is rather an outcome of our deep understanding that sensual pleasures bring a little bit of excitement, but certainly bring no permanent, real happiness. Ultimately, sensual pleasures produce even more suffering than happiness as both the objects of desire and our feelings towards them are constantly changing. This form of renunciation results in true happiness. In fact, renunciation is directly proportional to happiness.

Wisdom: Living your understanding

Wisdom (Panna in Pali) has the characteristic of penetrating the real, specific nature of phenomena, its function is to illuminate the objective field, its manifestation is non-confusion; and the Four Noble Truths, is its supporting condition. Cultivating wisdom in daily life entails the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. It is our reliable source of wisdom and understanding. The Four Noble Truths are: Suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the Path leading to its cessation. Wisdom means seeing in detail the true nature of things.  What is the true nature of things? All conditioned things are impermanent, unsatisfactory and selfless. Wisdom unfolds in three progressive levels namely: listening, reflection and meditation.  Basic wisdom supports successive higher wisdom as we progress on the spiritual path. For instance, wisdom acquired through hearing and reading supports the wisdom arising through reflection and being mindful. This in turn supports the penetrating wisdom, which arises through deeper meditation practice.  I suggest that you begin cultivating wisdom by listening to Dhamma talks and reading excellent Dhamma books. Continue to reflect on the Dhamma and try to discern what is skilful and unskilful. It is very important to put into practice what you have learned through listening or reading and reflection.  It is beneficial to practice formal meditation, perhaps twice a day. Also, it is recommended to maintain mindfulness throughout the day. Our daily life can be transformed through living our understanding.

Energy: Crossing the ocean of suffering

Energy (Viriya in Pali) has the characteristic of striving; its function is to fortify; its manifestation is not being fatigued; and a sense of spiritual urgency is its supporting condition. According to the Buddha, the primary condition for the arising of energy is to pay wise attention which means turning the mind or bringing to mind the three (3) stages of energy: initial or arousal, sustained or continuous and perseverance or heroic energy.  For instance, we can use this energy to overcome distractive thoughts. Most of us are always caught up in cascading unhealthy thoughts. If you are already suffering from this Compulsive Obsessive Thinking Syndrome (COTS) or planning to have one, the Buddha gave five ways of overcoming these random, distractive thoughts. I would like to call them Thought Management Techniques (TMT):
Substitution: The first technique is to replace unskilful thoughts with skilful thoughts. For instance, when thoughts connected to desire, aversion, and delusion arise, we replace them with thoughts connected to non-greed (generosity), non-hatred (loving-friendliness), non-delusion (understanding). If unskilful thoughts still arise, then try the second technique.
Reflection: we reflect on the danger of unskilful thoughts connected with desire, anger, and delusion and the benefits or beauty of skilful thoughts connected to generosity, loving-friendliness and, wisdom. If unskilful thoughts still arise, then try the third technique.
Redirecting: we shift our attention from unskilful object to skilful objects.  We do not give attention to disturbing thoughts connected to desire, hatred, and delusion. For instance, when anger arises, redirect the mind to a less anger-provoking object like mindfulness of breathing. If unskilful thoughts still arise, then try the fourth technique.
Retracing: we retrace unskilful thoughts to their causes. For instance, the primary cause of anger is paying unwise attention to the theme of unattractiveness. Anger can be retraced to desire. It is the desire to get rid of. Desire can be retraced to ignorance. Where does ignorance come from? It comes from paying unwise attention.  And where does unwise attention come from? It comes from Ignorance.  If unskillful thoughts still arise, then try the fifth and last technique.
Resistance: It means applying all your mental energy in order to “resist” unskilful thoughts from dominating the mind.  It might be helpful to mentally note anger as a mental state.  When we practice this way, the Buddha said that we can master our thoughts. Through applying the energy we can overcome all unskilful states of mind and all forms of suffering.

Patience: 
Settling back in the moment, the highest austerity.

Patience (Khanti in Pali) has the characteristic of wise acceptance; its function is to endure the desirable and undesirable; its manifestation is tolerance or non-opposition; and seeing things as they really are is its supporting condition. Patience is the practice of enduring the wrong things or hurt inflicted by others. It also means buying time to say or do a right thing at the right time, at the right rate, at the right place and with the right attitude. Our attitude towards other beings should be gentle and kind. We need to practice patience and endurance when faced with difficult situations like unpleasant and painful body sensations or strong and difficult emotions. It is also important to be patient with your meditation practice and allow it to unfold naturally.
    During our daily activities, we should learn to be patient and pace ourselves. Avoid rushing here and there unnecessarily. Get into the habit of pausing before you act or respond to people or situations. For instance, when a phone rings, pause a bit till the second or third buzz. This will give you a buffer zone to compose yourself before acting on autopilot.
    During your daily routine, try and stop what you are doing for one minute every hour. Relax the body and mind. Freeze all activities that are not critical for one minute and come back to mindful of your breathing or feeling the physical body.  You begin to mentally reflect along these lines: breathing in, here and now. Breathing out, letting go of the past and the future. Breathing in, may I be well, happy and peaceful, breathing out may all being be well, happy and peaceful. These drops of mindfulness, awareness and loving-friendliness will fill you day with joy and happiness. Do you like M&Ms, those little sugar coated chocolate candies? They are small but sweet. There is a Buddhist M&M!  I call it a ‘minute of mindfulness’ or ‘mini meditation’. Pausing this way regularly will help to slow down the ‘neurotic push into the future’, to reduce the continuous build up stress throughout the day. If you reduce stress during the day, you will reach home a bit more refreshed to do more meditation before you go to bed. If you meditate before you go to sleep, you will have a good deep sleep and perhaps sweet Dhamma dreams. If you get a sound sleep, you will happily wake up very fresh and ready to begin the day. Then, you are more likely to undertake your formal early morning meditation practice. And if you meditate before you go to work, you will have a great day with your co-workers, bosses and all beings! There is a bumper sticker that I like. It reads “Mindfulness a day keeps suffering away”. Such are the benefits of practicing daily meditation or even taking a minute of mindfulness and enjoy the present moment.

Truthfulness:  Freedom from confusion

Truthfulness (Sacca in Pali) has the characteristic of non-deceptiveness in speech; its function is to verify in accordance with fact; its manifestation is excellence; honesty is its supporting condition. Truthfulness is not mere absence false speech but also being truthful and honest about yourself. It means not pretending to be what you are not. Abstinence from false speech is one of the five precepts. The positive quality of this precept is to be honest in ones dealing with others.  It is very important to make a commitment to be truthful to oneself and others. This is the basic level of truth. We need to be truthful by accepting things as they really are. We should accept the way our daily life unfolds. Can we face even the more difficulty aspects of our life?  If we lead our lives based on the practice of the Four Truths (the Truth of Suffering, the Causes of suffering, the Cessation of suffering and the Path that leads to the Cessation of Suffering), we will be living according the ultimate truth.

Determination:  Transforming your life

Determination (Aditthana in Pali) is the key to success. Determination has the characteristic of determining upon the factors of enlightenment like mindfulness, its function is to overcome their opposites like hindrances; its manifestation is unshakeableness in that task; and the factors of enlightenment are its supporting condition. Practicing determination to follow the Dhamma is a very important attitude for spiritual growth and development. Our daily practice might begin by determining to maintain the five basic training rules throughout one’s life.  Maintaining the training rules is the key to success and it opens up the floodgates to all wholesome states of mind. Can you imagine if one day the whole world determines to preserve life and not break one precept like not killing living beings? It would make a huge difference in the life of all beings. Another worthwhile determination is to maintain mindfulness in our daily activities, for instance, while you are vacuuming or digging in the garden or any kind of so-called mundane work. Then daily work becomes our mindfulness practice and mindfulness practice becomes our daily work. Though this is not intensive mindfulness, but general awareness in a relaxed skilful way can make a huge difference in our life.  However, your determination should be practical and realistic. Some people after attending retreat, they get inspired and determine to do formal meditation for 2 hours or so. But soon or later that dwindles to 30, 20, 10, or one minute. Finally, before they leave the door, they simply pet the Buddha statue on the head and with palm folded together and say: Chao…! Or See you later…! This then becomes their daily practice.  Personally, I would recommend people with a busy schedule to start meditation in a humble way by setting realistic and feasible determination. Through determination and perseverance, we can transform our daily life.

Loving-friendliness: Freedom of the heart and mind

Loving-friendliness (Metta in Pali) has the characteristic of promoting the welfare of living beings; its function is to provide for their welfare or to remove resentment; its manifestation is friendliness; and seeing the agreeable side of beings is its supporting condition. Loving-friendliness is a mental factor that may be cultivated by opening our heart to all living beings. Loving-friendliness is a natural quality of the heart and mind that can be used as a tool for mental development in order to cultivate the natural ability for loving-friendliness towards oneself and all other living beings. It is very important to be mindful and abide in the present moment as we radiate loving-friendliness. It helps to remember the bright spots in ourselves and others rather than focusing only on their dark spots, weakness and faults. Sometimes people might do one hundred good things but once they do only one wrong thing like forgetting to put the trash out, we blow it up! With loving-friendliness, we learn to forgive and forget. This practice is by far the easiest to practice in daily life.  For instance while driving, waiting in the line at the Mall and talking with others. The beauty of loving-friendliness practice lies in overcoming ill-will, anger, resentment and other psychic irritants that keep our heart and mind in bondage. The Buddha said that when the mind is free from unskilful states of mind, it becomes gladdened, joyful, tranquil, happy and concentrated. With continuous practice of loving-friendliness, we can experience a greater degree of freedom in the heart and mind.

Equanimity: Bringing balance in life

Equanimity (upekkha in Pali) has the characteristic of promoting the aspect of neutrality; its function is to see things impartially; its manifestation is the subsiding of attraction and repulsion: and reflection upon the fact that all beings inherit the results of their own kamma is its supporting condition. Equanimity is a mental factor that involves cultivating even-mindedness towards all beings and situations in our daily life.  Through the practice of equanimity we can cultivate a balanced mind in order to deal with ups and downs of our daily life. By cultivating equanimity we can deal with difficult situations or people whether at work or at home or anywhere. We should maintain mental balance in daily life when faced both with agreeable and disagreeable circumstances, especially with the eight worldly winds: pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, honour and dishonour. The practice is to be aware of the change of these winds. We know we can not stop the wind from blowing but we can be aware of it. For instance, we can not stop pain in our life and we can not hold on to the pleasure and make it stay with us for ever and ever. However, we can be mindful of great pain and wonderful pleasurable sensations. Bringing awareness and attention to the prevailing situations in our life is a great skill that can bring a wonderful balance in our life.

(Extracted and modified from “Drop by Drop” by Bhante Buddharakkhita)