Buddhist Ethics
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The training in virtuous conduct.
A statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara fearlessly taming a dragon in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Singapore representing our ability to control ourselves with mindfulness. Photo by Anandajoti Bhikkhu (CC BY 2.0)
Table of Contents
Books (24)
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⭐ Recommended
An important sutta on Right Speech, giving the Buddha’s famous injunction to “not insist on local language.”
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The young people of today are not usually impressed by the wisdom of their elders.
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498 pages[recommended but under copyright]
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Canonical Works (71)
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⭐ Recommended
This epic poem on grasping firmly the intention to awaken has inspired many generations of Buddhists to live a more ethical and spiritual life and it captures beautifully the aesthetic of Buddhist ethics. Well worth reading again and again and again.
126 pages -
⭐ Recommended
One of the most detailed descriptions of morality in the early canon, this discourse lists twenty kinds of actions: unwholesome and wholesome.
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🥇 Best of
Venerable Shariputra explains five ways to quell anger through wise attention, giving five memorable similes on being determined to find the good in everyone.
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Subha Bhikkhuni finds a creative solution to sexual harassment.
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What are the qualities that make one a contemplative?
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⭐ Recommended
One imagines this sutta was delivered to a group of monks frustrated with an erratic companion. The Buddha gently encourages them to develop empathy by cultivating themselves and to recognize that, in the final analysis, some people are simply best avoided.
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⭐ Recommended
On the eight ways that people become defensive when admonished: a useful mirror for how we handle criticism. When was the last time you were “like a wild colt?”
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Here, bhikkhus, someone in pain and grief abstains from killing living beings, and he experiences pain and grief that have abstention from killing living beings as condition.
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What is the cause, what is the reason why, of the two persons without a blemish, one is said to be worse and one better?
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Brahmin, I don’t say that coming from an eminent family makes you a better or worse person. I don’t say that being very beautiful makes you a better or worse person. I don’t say that being very wealthy makes you a better or worse person.
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⭐ Recommended
… wine at minimum conduces to madness
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“Be my heirs in the teaching, not in material things.”
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The Buddha rejects the poorly phrased fatalism of a Jain follower and gives an alternative method for overcoming bad karma.
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King Pasenadi of Kosala had returned from the war front, victorious in battle, his purpose having been achieved. Then King Pasenadi of Kosala set out for the park.
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Thus, Rahula, you should train yourself, ‘I will not tell a deliberate lie even in jest.’
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Mendicants, there are these five drawbacks to a charnel ground…
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What kind of person, bhikkhus, is like a rainless cloud?
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Aspiring to these three forms of bliss, a wise person should guard his virtue.
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Furthermore, a mendicant is attached to their own views, holding them tight, and refusing to let go. This too is a quality that makes them difficult to admonish.
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In which a deva chastises a monk for sniffing a flower!
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A Queen gives her King an honest answer, and the Buddha gives us the very pith of ethics.
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⭐ Recommended
There are, mendicants, these ten topics of discussion…
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Protecting oneself, bhikkhus, one protects others; protecting others, one protects oneself.
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Ten things hinder the ten likable, desirable, and agreeable things that are rare in the world.
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A lay follower living at home with these five qualities is self-assured.
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What should one who desires the good not give away?
What should a mortal not reject?1 page -
“Possessions, honor, and popularity are brutal, bitter, and harsh. They’re an obstacle to reaching the supreme sanctuary.
So you should train like this: ‘We will give up arisen possessions, honor, and popularity, and we won’t let them occupy our minds.’ -
Because of these meritorious deeds, I have been born as a very beautiful devata
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Readings (59)
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🥇 Best of
A fascinating series of open letters between Ajahn Geoff and Bhikkhu Bodhi on the subject of “just war.”
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⭐ Recommended
If you can intentionally kill out of compassion, then fine, go ahead. But are you sure? Are you sure that what you think are friendliness and compassion are really friendliness and compassion? Are you sure that some subtle aversion and delusion have not surfaced in the mind?
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A traditional analysis of the Five Precepts from the great reformer of Thai Buddhism.
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Buddhist ethics corresponds to a more generic, act-centered virtue ethics.
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Envisioning and modeling a better way to talk about sensitive subjects.
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⭐ Recommended
Bodhisattvas who genuinely take the bodhisattva vow of ethical discipline do nothing but act for the benefit of beings, either directly or indirectly, but unless one is skilful in benefiting these beings, no matter how much one does, it might not benefit beings, but could actually be a direct or indirect cause of harm.
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For at least the Pāli Buddhist tradition, the cessation of suffering is the sole intrinsic good.
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… bodily conduct that harms oneself, harms others, harms both; that destroys wisdom and fosters evil; that does not [lead to] attaining Nibbāna, does not lead to knowledge, does not lead to awakening, and does not lead to Nibbāna.
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… for Śāntideva, since vice is always ultimately rooted in confusion, and the elimination of confusion issues in virtue, there can never be a situation in which one really knows what is right but chooses what is wrong. There is always a failure of knowledge, not just of will, in vicious action.
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The gift of fearlessness, if extended beyond its classical scope to include the challenges of xenophobia and terrorism threats, is a capacious framework through which to probe the moral contours of contemporary refugee policy and the security concerns of states.
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An encyclopedia entry on Buddhist Ethics across interpretations and traditions.
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⭐ Recommended
Mansplaining is not a universal flaw of the gender, just the intersection between overconfidence and cluelessness where some portion of that gender gets stuck.
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Results reveal a compassionate culture towards this marginalised group, for which Buddhist lesbians, gays and bisexuals (LGBs) cultivate self-acceptance through Buddhist teachings, such as the clarification of nature and manifestation, Buddhist equality, and proper interpretation of precepts. These teachings also encourage inclusiveness.
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To defend the innocent is a bright deed. To kill is a dark deed. To kill in defense of the innocent is a deed both bright and dark
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Such cultivation of mindfulness provides the foundation by establishing the balance within oneself that then enables helping others.
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Feeling comfortable with one’s balance of harmful and helpful actions is qualitatively different from reducing harm in the first place.
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The ghosts who lust for our dedication [of merits] are like beggars. Only a tiny fraction of the merits we have accumulated can be shared with them
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A defense of abortion and IVF rights from the Buddhist perspective.
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An analysis of the “Trolly Problem” from the perspective of Buddhist Ethics.
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The key is to focus on two distinctions: systems as distinct from individuals, and having privilege as independent of choosing how to engage with it.
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Forget you. This is about waiting
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I give you back 1948.
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If we are satisfied, then we will not want more. Wanting more is delusion. We think that it will be better if we can just have this person. But instead of getting better, many problems follow.
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⭐ Recommended
The inspiring (and frustrating) story of one modern, South Indian reformer who turned towards Buddhism as a refuge from exploitation.
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One of the first transgender men in Britain, Michael Dillon, was also a pioneering Buddhist monk.
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A short encyclopedia entry on Buddhist views of suicide.
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I do not like the ‘single issue’ approach to Dhamma. However, a few years ago I had an encounter which made me realize that inquiries about homosexuality should be given my whole attention.
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The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll.
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A short celebration of the Perth Bhikkhunis, and how important it is for people to see monastics.
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Smoking does not break the fifth precept, but should still be avoided.
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Audio/Video (26)
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An excellent introduction to ethics in Early Buddhism.
4h 14m -
Ajahn Jayasaro’s idea of a “Buddhist economics.”
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🥇 Best of
62 min -
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Ajahn Brahm returns to the origins of Buddhism to help us understand the intentions and practice of “original” Buddhism.
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On the value of simplicity.
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On how to understand and hold the five precepts, through two common questions.
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A short answer on the question of euthanasia.
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