The Core Principles of Buddhist Living : หน้า 84/115

Purity of livelihood (achivaparissuddhismavara): The main duties of monks are to study Dhamma, practice meditation, and teach the Dharma knowledge to the public. The daily subsistence of monks comes from donations, which include food, medicines and other necessities. Monks are not supposed to engage in any forms of worldly professions or to earn a wage, because these activities distract them from their main goal and take away their concentration and purity of mind. Reflection on the Requisites (paccayapacavekkhana): This is the practice of moderation. Monks are to realize that the requisites given to them are nothing more than necessities for the survival of the body, not for overindulgence and excess. After all, they have already left behind the material world, and they are not supposed to attach to anything. They are supposed to “eat to live, not live to eat”. BASIC BUDDHIST PRACTICE Buddhists follow three basic practices: 1. To do good 2. To avoid bad 3. To purify the mind Good deeds are achieved through the practice of giving, an act of generosity and loving-kindness. Bad deeds can be avoided through observation of moral conducts known as Precepts. Cultivation of the mind can be achieved through meditation. • Giving (dana) - Giving is an act of generosity. It is a weapon against greed. Giving can be in the forms of material, such as money, food and clothing, or in non-material forms, such as charitable services, Dhamma knowledge, and caring for someone. The practice of giving helps form a habit to free one from attachment, greed, selfishness, jealousy and ill will, and to promote loving-kindness, sympathy and compassion. If more people are accustomed to giving there will be less cheating, stealing, robbery and crime in our societies. Giving is a first step to peace. • Precepts (sila) - Precepts are codes of moral conduct. We humans are essentially moral beings. As a first practical step on the Buddhist path, we put our lives in good order. Just doing this in itself makes us feel better, less ill at ease with ourselves and less at odds with the world at large. We become more peaceful, more trusting, and that in turn causes good things to happen back to us – and to those around us. There are 5 or 8 precepts for laypeople, 10 for novice monks (samanera) and 227 for monks (bhikkhu).