Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you

By  Misterbcc

There are three jewels/paths in Buddhism, ethical discipline, meditatative stabilisation, and wisdom. I’ll be sharing with you today a bit about ethical discipline, covering three main aspect:


1) Right speech: true, kind and appropriate speech
2) Right activity: actions which do not harm others
3) Right livelihood – obtaining our substinence – food clothing and so forth – by non- harmful and honest means.

I’d like to share with you a tale on ethical discipline, namely right activity: actions that do not harm others. In this ever changing world times are getting tougher and tougher. However, we would still like to hope that people are still generally born good. Having said this, we may find that some people we meet in life will test us. This may be through things that happen to us which are unprovoked through no fault of our own. One may often find that one is sometimes left with no immediate solution of rectifying the situation that one finds oneself in. Should we find ourselves in this situation similar to this paradigm, we will find how we respond to it will make the difference between constant frustration or inner peace.

Let me give illustrate by way of an example based on a true story; a story of two young men, Abraham and Jack. Abraham grew up with great material comfort, taking pleasure for granted (large new house to live in, new cars to drive, overseas holidays, expensive gifts). Jack came from a relatively modest material background. Both grew up in their childhood and teens seeing each other very regularly at family functions and quite a lot of the time Abraham enjoyed taunting Jack of his lesser social economic background. Although at the time Jack felt somewhat left out, he never retaliated. He smiled and knew deep inside his heart that whilst Abraham may have been born more privileged, his life adventures were over. Jack knew that one day, his dreams and aspirations would begin if only he worked hard, made informed decisions and lived sensibly and honourably.

Ten years passed, both boys grew into young men. Abraham found love early, married and had a child. He made good investment choices that most people would admire. His dream was to retire at forty years of age, which, given his investment choices, seemed very much a possibility. That was the case, until for the want of greed, a poor investment choice went south and Abraham’s fortune was completely stripped off him by his debtors leaving him bankrupt. Upon hearing this, Jack could have rubbed salt in Abraham’s wounds, however he chose to keep silent. Not only that, Jack prayed for  Abraham and his immediate family to find a solution to this very difficult situation. Jack chose to forgive and in doing so chose good over evil for himself. This way his conscience was clear, his heart pure and his earlier burden lessened. By letting past wrongs go, Jack found peace within himself.

This brings us to the moral of the tale. There is no need, no matter what one’s situation to feel miserable about circumstances. One has to, as best they can, make their own circumstances. And by not harming others, and wishing others well, one will find greater contentment on one’s life path.