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Stopping the harm: Practicing ethical conduct

Stopping the harm: Practicing ethical conduct

A series of talks based on Don’t Believe Everything You Think given at Sravasti Abbey’s monthly Sharing the Dharma Day starting in March 2013. The book is a commentary on The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas.

Without ethics you can’t accomplish your own well being,
So wanting to accomplish others’ is laughable.
Therefore, without worldly aspirations
Safeguard your ethical discipline—
This is the practice of Bodhisattvas.

  • We can’t help others if we can’t stop harming ourselves
  • Ethical conduct impacts the lives of others but also our own mental state and experience
  • Ethical conduct is about observing the mind and being aware of our motivation
  • When our motivation is rotten we can hit the pause button, restrain our behavior and change our motivation
  • Cultivating ethical conduct using mindfulness and introspective alertness
  • How to communicate constructively with children and avoid harmful speech
  • Using meditation to practice antidotes to the afflictions and develop constructive habits

SDD 26: Stopping the harm (download)

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.