The Path to Self-Development and Ethical Living : หน้า 111/164

Suzanne Jeffrey tions, although in the beginning of our life, when we are developing our habits, our six directions give us total input - in other words, we are in-taking all the information that will be the key factors to our self-development and habit-building. But as we grow and mature, these six directions become interactive and the people around us learn from us as well. Further, whoever has the better standards in life is more successful. So we need to develop ourselves in our own six directions so that we are moral, ethical people in order to be successful. We can see the Dhamma by practicing the eight fold noble path. Because the Buddha meditated and saw his own mind, He then saw everyone else’s mind. He could see the defilements in his mind and then in the minds of others - those defilements cause us to see, speak and act badly. Sometimes, when we look at an object in the dark, we cannot see it clearly. But the Buddha could see clearly the goodness and the evilness in other people. The Buddha saw and knew the unwholesomeness in others. There are three main actions that are considered immoral actions: killing, stealing, and adultery. Those are corrupt actions of the body. But there are also corrupt verbal actions as well. And they are: lying, using harsh speech, causing conflict through speech, and idle chatter or gossip. These unwholesome actions lead to vengeance and having the wrong view. So the Buddha gave us the clear cut scale of what is good and what is bad. The Buddha could also understand the Law of Kamma and what would be perceived as good and bad action. As I said, the Buddha was not the creator of the Law of Kamma, but the re-discoverer. Unfortunately, most people don’t study this law and they don’t know how to use the existing laws that we have. The Buddha also saw the celestial realms that He perceived in meditation. He saw the ignorance that causes all of the bad actions in the world: Ignorance manifested in the mind. Then He saw the Four Noble Truths and saw, upon enlightenment, that even the mind is impure. Since the body deteriorates, and the mind has defilements, we must put our mind in the middle of the Dhamma. And this is done through repeated meditation. Then the mind will stay within the Dhamma permanently. But for most of us, defilements take us out of this state. It is best, of course, to start your meditation practice before the age of 50, because then we have better meditation. Age triggers things within the body that do not help us with our meditation and we tend to fall asleep more easily. Plus, our body cannot meditate as easily for long periods of time. So we need to practice meditation as soon as possible for as long as possible.