Zen Stoic Morality

Zen Stoic Morality

Society seems to be at each other’s throats in the name of what is moral. However in the pursuit of morality people end up becoming inhumane with their intentions, words, and actions. In this episode, we discuss how to not be a d*ck! We dive into Zen Stoic morality and how to help find your inner peace.
  • Important Quotes:
  • “Buddhism is about liberating the mind. To accomplish this, the Buddha taught his path of morality (sīla), concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā).”
  • “A life grounded in morality is a life free from restlessness and remorse as a result of regret.”
  • “Just as in the entire Buddhist path, when it comes to the precepts the Buddha emphasises the underlying intention. This does not mean that you can invoke ignorance or inattention to justify misconduct. You cannot say that you knew well or did not know better and that it was moral. Much more it means that your consciousness is the forerunner of your actions and that the consequences of your actions follow, as the Dhammapada (verse 1) nicely states:‘Mind is the forerunner of all things, mind is their leader, they are made by the mind. When someone speaks or acts with impure thoughts, suffering follows, like the wheel follows the hoof of the ox.’ “ -Editors at Buddho.org 
  • “When your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts: not to tell lies, not to steal, not to kill, not to be immoral, and so forth. If you keep your original mind, the precepts keep themselves.” - Shunryu Suzuki
  • “We should be very grateful to the rigid formal way of practicing Zen and Zen precepts. You may think these precepts are useless if we cannot observe them perfectly. But they are the traces of human efforts based on the great mercy of Buddha.” -Shunryu Suzuki
  • “Lies make you weak and you can feel it. You cannot get away with warping the experience of being.” -Jordan Peterson
  • “Men have come into being for one another; so either educate them or put up with them.” -Marcus Aurelius
Key Takeaways:
The 5 Precepts
  1. Not to destroy life
  2. Not to take what is not given
  3. Abstain from exploiting my passions
  4. Abstain from false speech
  5. Abstaining from intoxication
  • These are not commandments or moral law laid down by some kind of cosmic law giver.
  • They are vows. They are not going to make you into a good person, they are not intended to be sentimental.
  • Imagine what the world would look like if we put our best effort forth to observe and practice these precepts. What would it be like if we all adopted Marcus Aurelius’s attitude of fellowship?
  • The best way for us to get things done and get the most out of our experiences is to work together. The foundation of the quality of our efforts towards meaningful ends begins with our own morality with how we treat ourselves and others.
References:
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