In Buddhism, we often speak of the 5 basic precepts that lay practitioners follow and today i'm putting down a short reflection on the first precept. Before i begin, you may ask what is a precept - precepts are generally regarded as principles that we adhere to that guide our daily thoughts, speech and bodily actions.
What is the first precept? Buddha said the first precept to a spiritual and harmonious life is to avoid killing. It is the practice of non-killing / non-violence, the practice to perfect the art of compassion. All practitioners are strongly encouraged to include all sentient beings and not just limit the practice to human beings in their practice of the first precept of non-violence.
Why do we practice non-violence? When we reflect and look deeper into ourselves and our surroundings, we will quickly realise and understand that all beings, including ourselves have the innate wish to be well and happy. There is no being who will wish to suffer and remain in a state of unhappiness. This innate wish of non-suffering is one of the common connections that we can identify ourselves with the rest of the sentient beings and develop empathy.
And when we incorporate the practice into our daily life, we first learn and practice not to be violent and harsh with ourselves. We must learn to apply the practice of kindness and love to our own mind and body first. This means first learning to let go of negative thoughts and intentions that arise in our minds. Mind is the forerunner of all speech and actions. Entertain and water similar negative thoughts and it may soon come into realisation and we will find ourselves hurting both in speech and action.
Without learning the ability to take of ourselves, to take care of our own sufferings and to treat ourselves with kindness and compassion, we will not be able to treat our loved ones similarly in the same loving capacity. The ability to love and take care of others especially our loved ones lies basically in our ability to self-love and take care of ourselves.
As we practice and become more skillful in treating ourselves and others with kindness, we will generate lesser sufferings. As sufferings lessen, we will have more opportunities to cultivate and water the seeds of peace, love and compassion within us, more joy and happiness will then naturally arise in our daily living.
In order to become more skillful in our practice, we must temper it with both wisdom and understanding. Only with the right view and right understanding, our best intentions and efforts made towards our practice will not be wasted or generate undesired results. What is this wisdom necessary to ensure our efforts produce the right results? It is known as insight and not just any insight but insights to impermanence, non-self and interdependence.
Without this insight, it is difficult to realise our knowledge into true wisdom. True wisdom is when we learn to transform our knowledge into realisation, apply the knowledge in our daily thoughts, speech and actions. Most of you will agree with me that having knowledge is not sufficient and only upon practical application is the knowledge proven useful and worthy.
Our practice and the results we yield will vary from person to person as we are unique individuals living under unique conditions but most importantly is that we nurture the intentions of kindness and compassion and start on the path of liberation.
May all be well and happy on the path of practice and may the path bear you sweet fruits of love, peace and joy.
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