Silaparamita: the Perfection of Morality

The art of supporting all beings in fully manifesting themselves

The second of the six perfections is morality - sila - which is a subset of ethics:  whereas ethics involves asking what kind of person we should become, morality specifically involves asking how we should relate to other people. All of the paramitas as well as the precepts and the four noble truths are about ethics; the perfection of morality is specifically about relating to other beings. 

The first paramita, generosity, opens the heart for the practice of morality.  If we wholeheartedly engage in morality, we find that patience becomes of absolutely fundamental importance and will feel a strong need to develop patience.  If we are not trying very hard to be moral, we do not need patience very much.  In trying to perfect morality, the door to the third perfection, patience, opens.

These following points have been helpful for me to reflect on while in meditation.  (Meditation, by the way, is the fifth perfection, so if you want to think more about the meaning of meditation and how it relates to practices of stilling the mind versus active contemplation and visualization, check back in :)  

– The morality of a bodhisattva: through every action of body, speech, and mind, support all beings in fully manifesting themselves.

– Connection: At each moment we can focus on and feel how the actions of our body, speech, and mind can serve to forge a deeper connection with other beings as well as how they can forge disconnection.  The bodhisattva path means to cultivate all the energies arising from your body, speech, and mind so that they facilitate deeper connection. 

– The link between meditation and morality: Attending to the moment – meditation – attunes our bodies to all that surrounds us, increasing our sensitivity and ability to notice subtlety, and thus awakens us to greater moral capabilities.   

– Meditation and intentionality: Meditation allows us to become increasingly aware of our own tendencies and allows us to form ourselves as beings whose intentional as well as unintentional thoughts and actions benefit all beings.  Meditation allows us to set meaningful intentions and follow through on them: If we sit with an intention, we come to understand the more subtle dimensions of it and can act on it.  Through meditation we stay present with a vision of morality that may otherwise be fleeting. 

– Meditation, regret, and shame: We may turn away from what we regret, choosing to move on, and thus lose the chance to grow morally.  In meditation we can face regret, witness the conditions that led us to do something harmful, and imagine skillful possibilities for action in the future.  We can sit with regret and shame with the ideal of enlightenment in mind, with a view towards understanding how ones actions have transgressed that ideal.  Shame entails self-condemnation and self-loathing.  We despise our weakness, question our capacity, and lose our self-respect.  To sit with shame is not to deepen these feelings and punish ourselves, but to witness ourselves with honesty while continuing to pursue our ideals.