The Good Life: Understanding Buddhist Ethics

Unit 1 | Why Ethics?

Why do we practice Buddhism? Why do we meditate? Our suggestion is that the awareness we're developing through these practices is in service of how we live. It's about ethics. In this course we will show the overwhelming importance of holding ethics in mind continuously. It's a reversal from the usual ways that we understand this path: ethics is a foundation but it also becomes the end goal.

Two questions we might ask ourselves as we embark on this path are, "How should I live?" and "What should I do?"

Unit 2 | The Eightfold Path to Ethical Living

The key to this unit is a neglected and misunderstood element of Buddhist practice: care (appamāda). So, we will approach the eightfold path in terms of care and consideration. This is in contrast to thinking of mindfulness and the other path factors simply as techniques that we apply mechanically. In doing this, the eightfold path becomes a wholehearted practice.

Unit 3 | Ethics and the Brahmaviharas

Let's look at the ethical implications of the Brahmavihāras. These four qualities of the heart are:

1. lovingkindness
2. compassion
3. empathetic joy
4. equanimity.

These are the most primary ethical expression that we see in Buddhism, and particularly in the early texts where the Brahmavihāras are mentioned again and again. We wish to emphasize these four qualities as ways of looking at the world, being in the world, and particularly as ways of into relating with others.

Unit 4 | The Precepts as Ethical Questions

In this unit, we will examine the five precepts. The word "precept" means a rule of training. We're training ourselves in five areas of ethical awareness, opening ourselves up to everyday ethical questions around:

1. relationships of harm
2. relationships of appropriation
3. our sensual world
4. our speech
5. our relationship to the addictive and intoxicating.

These cover major parts of our lives, and we'll look carefully at these and discuss the implications of them in our day-to-day lives.

Unit 5 | Self Respect and Respect for Others

Self-respect and respect for others are said to be the guardians of the world, without which societies could not function. The key terms are hiri (self-respect) and ottopa (respect for others). These terms are often mangled in translation and we are trying to rescue them from misunderstanding. We will make sense of them, psychologize them, and unpack the implications of these two key foundations for ethical development.

Unit 6 | Ethics, Society, and Engagement

In the sixth and final module, we will weave together the elements of the course and extend it further into the social realm. Ethics can't be developed in isolation: it can only be developed in a context with others.

We'll also discuss how ethics impacts every aspect of our lives. And there will be some final reflections on the relationship of Buddhist teachings on "not self" to the development of ethics.