Morality and Meditation

(Caution: Longer-than-usual blog!)

Talks of morality never appealed me. Maybe, I am a tiny bit of a rebel and do not want anyone or anything to rule what I do or do not. Maybe, its because I never believed in "free will". Because, I think that it is a logical universe controlled by cause and effect. If we start believing and expecting a universe to have effects without cause where would that lead us to? Maybe, it is partially because of the quotation by JD Krishnamurti which my father uses often, “virtues can never be practiced. The moment they are practised they are no more virtues!” This means that when you have to “practise” something, it implies that it does not come to you naturally. Hence, there is a conflict in yourself when you “practise” anything. How can one expect to end inner conflicts (and get inner peace) by modus operandi that inherently creates conflicts?

For the last few years, I have been practising mindfulness meditation and have been slowly but steadily trying to learn and appreciate Buddhist philosophy and psychology. There is one fundamental aspect of Buddhism which I was not very comfortable with. This is a set of paths prescribed by the Buddha to achieve the state of no sorrow or inner peace. 

Let us take one step back. Why did I like Buddhism? It is a strictly logical religion/system. I doubt if we can call it a religion. Because, unlike most religions Buddhism does not believe in any God(s)! It is a scientific religion based on axioms, experiments and observations. The foundation of Buddhism is laid in the four Noble Truths of Buddhism. These are pretty self-evident. I remember a conversation of HH Dalai Lama where the Lama was asked about the contradicting theological views on the origin of the universe. HH Dalai Lama playfully pointed out, does any of these negate any of the four Noble Truths? Then there is no issue in Buddhism whichever you believe in or not! The four Nobel Truths are that important. At its core, they are like the three axioms of Euclid. 

1- There is suffering in the world. 

2- There is a cause of this suffering and it is Tanhā or craving. 

3- It is possible to end suffering. 

4- The way to end suffering is by following the Noble Eightfold Path. 

As you may observe, there is nothing in this list that needs you to believe in anything. It’s an evidence based path. Point four is a set of action items. Nothing to believe in. You do those and see the results for yourself. 

Coming to my pain point now, in the Noble Eightfold path, there are three that are about ethical conducts. Things like not stealing, not lying, not harming others etc. I agree that these are good things to do. But, as a matter of principle, I could not fully embrace the prescriptive tone of these things. My understanding was that as and when my vision gets pure through meditation, I can see the harm of these kinds of actions and "wont be able to" perform any of these. The whole idea of sin and merit or Paapa and Punya never appealed me. 

Then came some insights. I was listening to a set of podcasts in a channel called Audio Dharma. It sparked an insight. The insight was based on the fact that the Buddha did not often use the word “sin”. He invented (like many other phrases) the use of the phrase “Kushal Karma” and “Akushal Karma”. Kushal loosely translates to skilful. So Kushal karma is skilful action and Akushal Karma is unskillful action! What does it mean? Skill usually implies efficiency. Hence, Kushal Karma will make you more efficient at …….achieving what you want to achieve, i.e. freedom from suffering. So, if you do Akushal Karma you may take much longer to achieve the state of freedom from suffering. One way to understand this is to think of performing Kushal Karma as going to psychological gym. With your big psychological muscles, you can remove the veil of “Sanskara” and see things clearly (the literal meaning of Vipassana). 

Doing Kushal Karma will make your meditation practice deeper and more effective. Your meditation practice, in turn, will make it more natural for you to see the bigger picture. Seeing the bigger picture will make it natural to perform Kushal karma. For example, if I have deep insight and kindness (through meditation), I can see clearly that eating meat is affecting the environment negatively which, in turn, will make the earth less habitable for me! Naturally, I will stop eating meat! 

It also made it clear why the Buddha called these the eight-fold path. It is not a sequence of actions. Rather it is a bouquet of actions!