From: tt@wag.caltech.edu (Toshi Takeuchi)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: Exercise 3, Learning from Precepts of Buddhism
Date: 9 Sep 92 19:50:36 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

Hi all,

Here's the third exercise in the series that I have been periodically
posting on the net.

To refresh your memory, 

The first exercise I gave:

Refraining from false speech: speech from the heart:  Undertake for
one week not to gossip (positively or negatively) or speak about anyone
you know who is not present with you (any third party).

The second exercise I gave:

Refraining from sexual misconduct: conscious sexuality.  Undertake
for one week to observe meticulously how often sexual feelings
ant thoughts arise in your consciousness.  Each time, note what
particular mind states you find associated with them, such as love,
tension, compulsion, caring, loneliness, desire for communication,
greed, pleasure, aggression, and so forth..


--These exercises are taken from Seeking the Heart of Wisdom by
Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Shambhala press.

	I like doing these exercises --NOT to whip and torture
	myself into a better person, BUT TO become AWARE of some
	things that occur spontaneously without thinking...

--If any of you tried the gossiping exercise, then you might have
noticed how often you "speak falsely" of other people without thinking!

--If any of you try the conscious sexuality exercise, then you might
have noticed how often sexual connotations and feelings arise in
TV and other media, daily interaction etc...

The third exercise is as follows:

From p.8 of the book mentioned above:

	The second precept (of Buddhism) asks us to refrain from stealing,
meaning not to take what is not ours.  Not to steal is called basic 
nonharming.  We need to let go of being greedy and not take too much.  
More positively, it means to use things with sensitivity and care, to 
develop our sense of sharing this life, this planet...We're all interwoven.
If we can learn to love the earth, we can be happy whatever we do, with 
a happiness born of contentment.

Exercise:

Refraining from stealing: care with material goods.  Undertake for
one week to act on every single thought of generosity that arises
spontaneously in your heart.

----

My comments:

I noticed that there are many things that pop into my head that are
actually nice, but I don't act upon them because "it's too much
trouble".

The problem is that I am lazy.  It's like when I was younger, I would
complain and complain about doing the dishes with my parents  (my
allowance for the week came from doing some chores).  Well, the
fact of the matter was, I learned that I spent as much time
complaining about doing the dishes than it actually took to
do the dishes!  After all, we had a dishwasher!

I think there are many actions of goodwill that can be done in the
blink of an eye.  However, we are often caught up in our selfishness
and laziness, that we don't act upon our good intentions.


The easiest thing that came from this exercise:

Pick up trash that's lying around:

	On the street, there's a trashcan on every other corner.  It
takes little effort to have respect for the place around you.

	I also pick up trash when I go hiking in the mountains...

--If any of you try the exercise, and think of some other things
that occur in your mind, then please write and tell me about it.

Thanks,

Toshi
tt@wag.caltech.edu
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