The title of this piece comes from the better-than-it-should-have-been movie based on a Disney amusement park ride Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. The main heroine, Elizabeth Swan, has struck a bargain with the infamous Captain Barbosa based on the terms of “The Pirate’s Code”. Barbosa proceeds to break their deal declaring that the code is more “guidelines than actual rules”. This is by far one of the best lines in the entire movie and it’s made all the better by Geoffrey Rush’s delivery. So why on Earth am I bringing up a swashbuckler movie at the start of a Zen talk? Because the idea that something is a guideline rather than a rule applies equally well to the Bodhisattva Precepts as it does to the Pirate’s Code...at least from a Zen perspective.
Before we dive in, a little historical background. When a community of monks and nuns formed around the historical Buddha, conflict inevitably arose, as it always does with people. His followers would ask the Buddha whether or not something as ok and then take his answer as a hard and fast rule regarding the specific issue. When he was dying of food poisoning, he told Ananda, his attendant and cousin, that people should keep the major rule and let the minor ones go. Unfortunately, he neglected to specify which rules were which and so we have many different lists of Buddhist Precepts today.
Zen focuses on a list often referred to as The Sixteen Buddhist Precepts or sometimes The Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts. There are a number of different versions of said list so I’ll give you two different versions. The first is from Zen Mountain Monastery and is more traditional in its framing of things in the negative though they try to add a little positive before the negative.
Take refuge in the Buddha
Take refuge in the Dharma
Take refuge in the Sangha
Do not create evil
Practice good
Actualize good for others
Affirm life – do not kill
Be giving – do not steal
Honor the body – do not misuse sexuality
Manifest truth – do not lie
Proceed clearly – do not cloud the mind
See the perfection – do not speak of others’ errors and faults
Realize self and other as one – do not elevate the self and blame others
Give generously – do not be withholding
Actualize harmony – do not be angry
Experience the intimacy of things – do not defile the Three Treasures
The second version that I want to present here is from the Cloud & Water Tokudo ceremony from the Order of Clear Mind Zen. Technically Jukai is the ceremony in which one first receives the precepts, but since that version is very similar to Zen Mountain and the “traditional” version, I thought I’d share this other one.
The first is to cease doing evil.
The second is to do good.
The third is to bring about abundant good for all things.
I vow to respect and be kind to all forms of life.
I vow to respect the possessions of others.
I vow to use my sexuality to nurture and enhance my life and the lives of others.
I vow to speak the truth.
I vow to feed my body and mind and those of others healthful and wholesome substances and materials.
I vow to be kind when I speak of others.
I vow to treat others and myself as equals.
I vow to be generous with what I possess.
I vow to sow and water seeds of love in my life.
I vow to value and honor the Triple Treasure: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
This version of the precepts leaves out the three refuges that are typically at the beginning and also writes each precept in the positive rather than the negative. I vow to do something rather than vowing not to do something.
The Zen Mountain version begins with the Three Refuges in which one takes refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This action is very important, but a little outside of the scope of what I want to talk about so I’ll leave it for another time. Both versions then proceed with what are called the Three Pure Precepts. Everything else regarding Buddhist ethics can be seen as stemming from these three ideas, Don’t do Evil, Do Good, and Do Good for Others. Everything else is just refining these points.
The remaining ten lines are called the Ten Grave Precepts. I could write a talk about each one individually without any trouble especially if I included alternate versions. It seems like everyone who interprets these admonishments comes up with their own take. For example, the third grave precept about not misusing sexuality has also been interpreted as an encouragement not to desire too much. Then there is Bodhidharma’s take on them which is an entirely different head trip. That’s not the point of this talk. Maybe at some point I’ll dive into each one separately, but that’s another time.
The point I really want to make here is that the precepts aren’t hard and fast rules the way the Ten Commandments of Christianity are viewed. If you break a precept, no one is going to punish you for it. In fact, from a certain perspective, many of the precepts are nearly impossible to keep to the letter. We must kill something in order to survive whether that thing is animal, vegetable, or mineral. The precepts are best viewed as guidelines for Life that make it easier to practice. Just like the Noble Eightfold Path, when we follow the precepts, our lives become less complicated and thus we are able to devote more time and effort to our practice. To put it another way using my dirt in the glass metaphor, the more closely we are able to follow the precepts, the less dirt we are adding to our glasses as we navigate Life’s challenges.
It’s worth noting that knowing when a precept is broken is something we can easily discern for ourselves, but only about ourselves. Nishijima-roshi said that we have an intuitive understanding of what the right thing to do is in every moment. It’s just that our minds come in and start messing with that understanding. When it comes to other people, we really have no idea why someone has done what they have done so it is best to just to focus on ourselves and our own behavior.
With all that said, it is also extremely important to understand that we will break the precepts. What really matters is not whether or not we break the precepts. It is instead to notice when we have broken them and then renew our efforts to follow them. Sometimes we cannot help but become angry. When this happens, we add dirt to the glass and break the precept. But, in noticing that we have strayed, we can refocus our efforts back to the path of awakening. All in service of our practice.
Gassho,
Daishin
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