THE FIRST PRECEPT:
REVERENCE FOR LIFE
"Aware of the suffering caused by the
destruction of life, I undertake to cultivate
compassion and
learn ways to protect the
lives of people, animals, plants, and
minerals.
I am
determined not to kill, not to let others
kill, and not to condone
any act of killing in
the world, in my thinking, and in my way of
life."
Life is precious. It is everywhere, inside
us and
all around us; it has so many forms.
The First Precept is born from the awareness
that lives everywhere are being destroyed.
We see the suffering
caused by the destruction
of life, and we undertake to cultivate
compassion
and use it as a source of energy for the protection
of
people, animals, plants, and minerals. The First
Precept is a precept
of compassion, karuna -- the
ability to remove suffering and
transform it. When
we see suffering, compassion is born in us.
It is important for us to stay in touch with
the
suffering of the world. We need to nourish that
awareness
through many means -- sounds, images,
direct contact, visits, and so
on -- in order to keep
compassion alive in us. But we must be careful
not
to take in too much. Any remedy must be taken in
the proper
dosage. We need to stay in touch with
suffering only to the extent
that we will not forget,
so that compassion will flow within us and be
a
source of energy for our actions. If we use anger
at injustice
as the source for our energy, we may
do something harmful, something
that we will
later regret. According to Buddhism, compassion
is
the only source of energy that is useful and safe.
With compassion,
your energy is born from insight;
it is not blind energy.
We humans are made entirely of non-human
elements,
such as plants, minerals, earth, clouds, and sunshine.
For our practice to be deep and true, we must include
the
ecosystem. If the environment is destroyed, humans
will be destroyed,
too. Protecting human life is not possible
without also protecting the
lives of animals, plants, and minerals.
The Diamond Sutra
teaches us that it is impossible to
distinguish between sentient and
non-sentient beings. This is
one of many ancient Buddhist texts that
teach deep ecology.
Every Buddhist practitioner should be a protector
of the
environment. Minerals have their own lives, too. In Buddhist
monasteries, we chant, "Both sentient and non- sentient beings
will realize full enlightenment." The First Precept is the practice
of protecting all lives, including the lives of minerals.
"I am determined not to kill, not to let others
kill, and not
to condone any act of killing in the world, in my
thinking,
and in my way of life." We cannot support any act of
killing;
no killing can be justified. But not to kill is not enough.
We must also learn ways to prevent others from killing.
We cannot
say, "I am not responsible. They did it. My hands
are clean." If you
were in Germany during the time of the Nazis,
you could not say, "They
did it. I did not." If, during the Gulf
War, you did not say or do
anything to try to stop the killing,
you were not practicing this
precept. Even if what you said
or did failed to stop the war, what is
important is that you tried,
using your insight and compassion.
It is not just by not killing with your body
that
you observe the First Precept. If in your thinking
you allow
the killing to go on, you also break this
precept. We must be
determined not to condone killing,
even in our minds. According to the
Buddha, the mind
is the base of all actions. It is most dangerous to
kill
in the mind. When you believe, for example, that yours
is the
only way for humankind and that everyone who
follows another way is
your enemy, millions of people
could be killed because of that idea.
Thinking is at the base of everything. It is
important
for us to put an eye of awareness into each of our
thoughts. Without a correct understanding of a situation
or a
person, our thoughts can be misleading and create
confusion, despair,
anger, or hatred. Our most important
task is to develop correct
insight. If we see deeply into
the nature of interbeing, that all
things "inter-are," we
will stop blaming, arguing, and killing, and we
will
become friends with everyone. To practice nonviolence,
we
must first of all learn ways to deal peacefully with
ourselves. If we
create true harmony within ourselves,
we will know how to deal with
family, friends, and associates.
When we protest against a war, for example,
we may
assume that we are a peaceful person, a representative
of
peace, but this might not be true. If we look deeply,
we will observe
that the roots of war are in the unmindful
ways we have been living.
We have not sown enough
seeds of peace and understanding in ourselves
and others,
therefore we are co-responsible: "Because I have been
like this, they are like that." A more holistic approach
is the
way of "interbeing": "This is like this, because
that is like that."
This is the way of understanding and
love. With this insight, we can
see clearly and help our
government see clearly. Then we can go to a
demonstration
and say, "This war is unjust, destructive, and not
worthy
of our great nation." This is far more effective than angrily
condemning others. Anger always accelerates the damage.
All of us, even pacifists, have pain inside.
We feel angry and frustrated, and we need
to find someone willing
to listen to us who
is capable of understanding our suffering.
In
Buddhist iconography, there is a bodhisattva
named Avalokitesvara who
has one thousand
arms and one thousand hands, and has an eye
in
the palm of each hand. One thousand hands
represent action, and the
eye in each hand represents
understanding. When you understand a
situation
or a person, any action you do will help and will
not
cause more suffering. When you have an
eye in your hand, you will know
how to practice
true nonviolence.
To practice nonviolence, first of all we
have
to practice it within ourselves. In each of us,
there is a
certain amount of violence and a
certain amount of nonviolence.
Depending
on our state of being, our response to things
will be
more or less nonviolent. Even if we
take pride in being vegetarian,
for example,
we have to acknowledge that the water in
which we
boil our vegetables contains
many tiny microorganisms. We cannot be
completely nonviolent, but by being vegetarian,
we are going in
the direction of nonviolence.
If we want to head north, we can use the
North Star to guide us, but it is impossible
to arrive at the
North Star. Our effort is
only to proceed in that direction.
Anyone can practice some nonviolence,
even army generals. They may, for example,
conduct their
operations in ways that avoid
killing innocent people. To help
soldiers move
in the nonviolent direction, we have to be in
touch
with them. If we divide reality into two
camps -- the violent and the
nonviolent -- and
stand in one camp while attacking the other, the
world will never have peace. We will always
blame and condemn
those we feel are responsible
for wars and social injustice, without
recognizing
the degree of violence in ourselves. We must work
on
ourselves and also work with those we condemn
if we want to have a
real impact.
It never helps to draw a line and dismiss
some people as enemies, even those who
act violently. We have to
approach them
with love in our hearts and do our best
to help them
move in a direction of nonviolence.
If we work for peace out of anger,
we will
never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never
come
about through non-peaceful means.
Most important is to become
nonviolence,
so that when a situation presents itself, we
will not
create more suffering. To practice
nonviolence, we need gentleness,
loving
kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity
directed to our
bodies, our feelings, and
other people. With mindfulness -- the
practice
of peace -- we can begin by working to transform
the wars
in ourselves. There are techniques for
doing this. Conscious breathing
is one. Every time
we feel upset, we can stop what we are doing,
refrain from saying anything, and breathe in and
out several
times, aware of each in-breath and
each out-breath. If we are still
upset, we can go
for walking meditation, mindful of each slow
step
and each breath we take. By cultivating peace
within, we bring about
peace in society. It depends
on us. To practice peace in ourselves is
to minimize
the numbers of wars between this and that feeling,
or
this and that perception, and we can then have
real peace with others
as well, including the members
of our own family.
I am often asked, "What if you are
practicing nonviolence
and someone breaks into your house and tries to
kidnap
your daughter or kill your husband? What should you do?
Should you still act in a nonviolent way?" The answer depends
on
your state of being. If you are prepared, you may react
calmly and
intelligently, in the most nonviolent way possible.
But to be ready to
react with intelligence and nonviolence,
you have to train yourself in
advance. It may take ten years,
or longer. If you wait until the time
of crisis to ask the question,
it will be too late. A this-or-that
kind of answer would be
superficial. At that crucial moment, even if
you know that
nonviolence is better than violence, if your
understanding is
only intellectual and not in your whole being, you
will not
act nonviolently. The fear and anger in you will prevent
you from acting in the most nonviolent way.
We have to look deeply every day to practice
this precept
well. Every time we buy or consume something, we may
be condoning some form of killing.
While practicing the protection of humans,
animals,
plants, and minerals, we know that we are protecting
ourselves. We feel in permanent and loving touch with
all species
on Earth. We are protected by the mindfulness
and the loving kindness
of the Buddha and many generations
of Sanghas who also practice this
precept. This energy of
loving kindness brings us the feeling of
safety, health,
and joy, and this becomes real the moment we make the
decision to receive and practice the First Precept.
Feeling compassion is not enough. We have to
learn to express it. That is why love must go
together with
understanding. Understanding and
insight show us how to act.
Our real enemy is forgetfulness. If we
nourish
mindfulness every day and water the seeds of
peace in
ourselves and those around us, we become
alive, and we can help
ourselves and others realize
peace and compassion.
Life is so precious, yet in our daily lives
we are
usually carried away by our forgetfulness, anger,
and
worries, lost in the past, unable to touch life
in the present moment.
When we are truly alive,
everything we do or touch is a miracle. To
practice
mindfulness is to return to life in the present moment.
The practice of the First Precept is a celebration of
reverence
for life. When we appreciate and honor
the beauty of life, we will do
everything in our power
to protect all life.
THICH NHAT HANH is a Zen Buddhist
monk, peace
activist, scholar, and poet. He is the founder of the
Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon, has taught
at Columbia
University and the Sorbonne, and now
lives in southern France, where
he gardens, works
to help those in need, and travels internationally
teaching "the art of mindful living." Martin Luther
King, Jr.,
nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1967, saying, "I do not
personally know of anyone
more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than
this
gentle monk from Vietnam."