An Introduction to BuddhismHANDOUT

In this episode Bodhi is concerned with the Buddhist precept of Right Conduct, which is one of the points on the Buddha’s Eight Fold Path. Right Conduct means to act with compassion, kindness and helpfulness, as opposed to being harmful or aggressive. 

So Bodhi is in a quandary: it would be improper for him to act aggressively toward the possum, but he feels the need to get a good night's sleep.   So his solution is to get Dharma to do the dirty work which Bodhi himself doesn't want to be tainted by, karmically speaking.

Poor Bodhi -- here he goes stumbling into another pitfall along the Path!   This time he thinks that getting someone else to do Wrong Conduct on his behalf will be okay -- but in fact it's not okay, according to the Law of Karma. 

You see, in order to follow the precept of Right Conduct, you cannot do harm or cause someone else to do harm, because the consequences of the harmful act come back to you, according to the law of karma.  That's because the harm stays linked to your intention -- and karma is all about intention.   So you cannot be engaged in Right Conduct while encouraging someone else to be acting otherwise.

Karma is like the famous Native American saying: "The smile you send out comes back to you."  And so does the frown, as Bodhi will soon learn.

An Introduction to BuddhismHANDOUT

“It's easy to be Tolerant when nothing is bugging you!"