Guiding Principles

Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. The grocery store by my house has a list of ingredients you will never find in any of the products on their shelves. It includes hydrogenated oils, MSG, food coloring, high fructose corn syrup, and so on.

That list serves as a set of guiding principles for the owners of the store, who are also transparent about making their business decisions to simultaneously best serve their community, their shareholders' interests, and, of course, their own bottom line, so long as no decision contradicts their core values. This means that even if a profitable business opportunity presents itself, they would turn it down and refuse to carry a product if it contains any of the ingredients on that list.

It's not about sainthood or being perfect, it's about integrity and being in alignment, congruent, and ethical. Buddhism doesn't give us a specific list of ingredients to avoid, nor does it have Ten Commandments for us to follow with the threat of eternal damnation if we don't. Buddhism invites us to consider five guiding principles that are called precepts, or instructions, designed to help us regulate behavior and thought.

They are intentionally open for interpretation by each individual according to their own time, place, and circumstance. Following is Thich Nhat Hanh's modern translation of the Five Buddhist Precepts. I will read them and you can replay this episode to listen to them again as an invitation for contemplation, not as a set of rules. Pretend you are the owner of that grocery store, and consider these principles a business proposition that you can

either accept or reject, amend or append, uphold or release. There is no wrong answer. Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn ways to protect the lives of people, animals, and plants. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in my way of life.

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to learn how to work for the well-being of people, animals, and plants. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need.

I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on earth. Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I vow to cultivate sexual responsibility, and learn ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without love and a

long-term commitment. In order to preserve the happiness of myself and others, I am determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse, and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I vow to cultivate loving communication and deep listening skills.

Knowing that words can bring joy or anguish, I vow to speak truthfully with words that inspire self-confidence, and relieve others of their suffering. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain, and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or community to break. I will make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself and my society, by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I vow to only ingest items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body and in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of society.

I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant, or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain conversations, magazines, books, films, and television programs. I'm aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society

by practicing mindful consumption. I understand that this is a crucial step for self-transformation and for the transformation of society. At first, these sound a lot like 'Thou shalt not kill, steal, etc.' But the Buddha's intention was for us to contemplate WHY we do what we do. In general, the Buddha never told us WHAT to think; he told us to think.

He went as far as to encourage we question everything we are told, even if it's by him or anyone else, to see if it resonates within us as wholesome before accepting it. I think this is so we aren't even tempted to do certain things in the first place, not because we are told not to, but because doing them would be incongruent with mindful living. The precepts' aim is to build character and create leaders, not followers.

This is why compassion toward those who do not follow the precepts is built right into the vows, for we are invited to contemplate them for ourselves, not to judge others. It is a call to lead by example, not to rule. How would your life be different with a compass of this sort? Would following these principles create the balance you seek, perhaps end some internal conflict, and even bring a sense or purpose and conviction to everything you think, say, and do?

Is this roadmap something you've been missing all along? Now that you've listened to the precepts, as