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PANATIPATA
VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I endeavour to refrain
myself from harming any sentient being (We must all wake up to
the serious depletion that we, of the human species, have inflicted
upon the resources of Mother Earth and embrace strategies for
sustainable development. This means saveguarding the endangered
species in the animal world as well as the fast disappearing marshes,
savannas, marine flora and rain forests. Some scientists have
argued that plants are also sentient beings. Our ancestors had
learned to live in harmony with Nature, seeing to it that resources
were being preserved for the livelihood and enjoyment of generations
to come. Sure enough, many had to kill with their own hands as
a matter of course in order to feed themselves. But their slaughters
would have amounted to a mere fraction on the scale of operations
in today's fully-automated slaughterhouses. Sure enough, there
had always been wars among rival tribal clans, but there were
none of these senseless and amorally murderous destructions of
both lives and environment on the scale of today's fields of landmines,
chemical warfares or blanket-bombing.)
ADINADANNA
VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I endeavour to refrain
myself from taking that which is not given (This covers not only
the black-and-white acts of stealing, but also, for example, the
murky instances where one uses one's position of power to take
possession of something that otherwise would not have been given
out of free will.)
ABRAHMACARIYA
VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
endeavour to refrain
myself from having unlawful sexual relations (This goes beyond
adultery to include other licentious excesses the like of incest,
sexual abuse, sex with a minor, and so on.)
MUSAVADA
VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I endeavour to refrain
myself from speaking that which is untrue (This relates to those
occasions when what came out of one's mouth may not be an outright
lie but certainly was not the truth either. Sometimes, saying
something which is untrue may be done in the spirit of protecting
another person's feelings as in "I love your gift!".
But who is lying to whom when you promptly recycle the gift you
so "love" to another person? Think about what an accumulation
of these little untruths does to your own self-esteem, not to
mention the erroneous understanding that people will ultimately
have of you. And then there are those utterings that are made
purposely to hurt and belittle another person, such as racial
slurs, name-calling and all the social prejudices that people
repeat around and around.)
SURA
MERAYA MAJJAPAM DATTHANA VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I endeavour to refrain
myself from dulling my mind (These days there are so many ways
one can dull one's mind, besides alcohol and drugs. Just look
at the ever-expanding selection of self-help books on addictions
and addictive behaviours. There are now work-addicts, TV-addicts,
sex-addicts... and internet-addicts! On this note, I better sign-off
the e-mail circuit and the Net so that I can endeavour to resharpen
my mind with some insight meditation.)
[Author's note
: I wrote the above in memory of Kema Ananda, a spiritual teacher,
who had taught much me on the relevance of Buddha's precepts in
today's hectic life, and inspired me to affirm my
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