With their higher brainpower, along with their dexterity, human beings were capable of inventing tools and weapons for farming and hunting, as well as protecting themselves. They were capable of building safe living quarters as their shelters. Safer together, they supported each other and each had one’s own responsibility and designated activities. Their communities flourished rapidly and dominated other species. Human beings, with only 2% difference in their DNA structures from those of the chimpanzee, have successfully conquered the Earth and transformed this planet into the world of materialism.

Freeing themselves from their daily activities of hunting and seeking for food, as well as being safe in their secured living environment, they had more time to think and created many suppositional or conventional systems to support the infrastructure of their communities. These are, for example, language, occupation, educational system, monetary system, ranking and honoring system, commuting and transporting system, advanced telecommunication system, and nowadays the internet system. They learned from the earlier generations and passed on their knowledge and wisdom to the newer generations. Tremendous explosion of knowledge and technology has resulted in rapid advancement among various fields, way beyond the Four Basic Necessities of Life, or the basic need of human beings, which only include food, clothing, shelter, and medicine.

Many new ideas and inventions have given birth to the new era of high technology with sophisticated and luxurious materials of various kinds, from delicate and exotic food, fine and glamorous clothing, big and luxurious houses or mansions for ones to enjoy. Advancement in medicine with many newly discovered medications, e.g., antibiotics, and chemotherapeutic agents, along with many invented sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic tools have saved and prolonged innumerable lives. This modern world is being transformed into a material worshipping society, being flooded with numerous unimaginable merchandises tempting to be owned or mastered. Such phenomenon by itself can turn out to be both good and bad. They may vary from stereo systems, fast cars, newer and faster computers, fast and convenient way of communication, nuclear power, sophisticated and complex computer and video games, to automatic weapons and even the most powerful nuclear warheads, enough to overkill the whole world population.

At the surface, life appears to be at its best, with all these luxurious items and energy-saving devices ready to comfort or enhance one’s pleasure, instead of the burden and pain, of the daily living. Yet, human beings appear to be trapped deeper and deeper by their own egoistic desire and attachment to those newly invented toys, materials, and phenomena, e.g., video poker games, recreational drugs, riverboat gambling, internet pornography, etc. Some phenomena, such as TV violence and combat video games, may even be linked to certain tragic incidents, e.g., the Columbine High School massacre. People are seeking for more pleasure, fun, and excitement, trying to reach a new and higher level of mental climax, equating them to happiness, fueled by one’s desire through various means of acquisition, sometimes illegally and immorally. The more one indulges in such conventional materials or system, the more one is enslaving and subjecting oneself to them. Such luring Worldly Phenomena result in positive or negative outcome as fortune or misfortune, promotion or demotion, praise or gossip, and happiness or unhappiness. Everyone loves to enjoy the positive aspect of life, but hates to face the negative aspect of the same nature. They are conditioned by desire, greed, or lust, hatred, anger, or ill-will, and delusion or egoism, embedded and sneaked in with one’s own thoughts. Blinded and deluded by such biased thought, one is basically ignorant of not seeing the truths as they truly are. Without mindfulness and insight, one frequently becomes firmly attached and subjects oneself to those suppositional values. This does not mean that one should never enjoy the benefit of scientific advancement or the wealth one could have earned, as one can make the best out of it as long as it is moral and being practiced with the right conduct. It is not the wealth, material, or worldly phenomenon itself that creates the problem, but the attachment to such wealth, material, or worldly phenomenon that causes stress, conflict, unsatisfactoriness and suffering. This frequently results in different ways of how people react and respond to the same phenomenon or situation, based upon each individual’s moral background or experience, as well as ethnic or social values towards those suppositional stimuli or environments that one exposed to. Unfortunately, as one works one’s way to fulfill one’s desire for power, fame, sex, wealth, and ideology, frequently other people’s rights are being ignored, suppressed, deprived, exploited and damaged.

To live peacefully together, it is essential for human beings, especially in this new age of many luring luxurious materials and sophisticated tempting phenomena, to maintain certain codes of ethics and morality, which in turn will keep an order and uniformity among each community, and even the world. Individuals and the world are interrelated and co-dependent. If everyone keeps on destroying the earth’s delicate ecosystem, very soon this world will be uninhabitable. Similarly, for the world to be peaceful, it must start at the individual level. Each individual has the responsibility to work diligently on oneself and one’s mind, in concert with the others in unison, observing and implementing the Golden Rules. At least, one should always act in such a way that one would have all others act in the same way. To do so will have a great impact to the world, and create harmony towards world peace.

Morality in general reflects the goodness, concerning with right or wrong conduct and being virtuous, forming moral philosophy or ethics for everyone to observe and follow. When uniformly observed and practiced, it results in peace and harmony in such communities, as everyone’s conduct is similar to the others. It equates the ethical status of all individuals, and forms bondage among themselves, transcending all other difference in age, race, nationality, occupation, literacy, and other suppositional values.

Since 1993, the Parliament of the World’s Religions has adopted the Global Ethic as a guideline for everyone and every nation to follow. They are 1. Commitment to a Culture of Non-violence and Respect for Life (No killing), 2. Commitment to a Culture of Solidarity and a Just Economic Order (No stealing), 3. Commitment to a Culture of Tolerance and a Life of Truthfulness (No lying), and 4. Commitment to a Culture of Equal Rights and Partnership Between Men and Women (including No sexual misconduct).

A good example of a true story happened in Thailand about 70 years ago. There was a small village of about 30 families that lived peacefully together by respecting each other’s rights. As they were farmers, they all worked diligently in the fields growing rice and vegetables, as well as raising chicken and pigs for their food. One day, a villager became lazy and started to consume liquor. Being drunk most of the time and not working, he soon ran out of his previously reserved food supply. Instead of going back to work, he continued to drink and be lazy. Without food, he stole his neighbor’s food supply to eat, but he was smart enough to steal a little at a time from many families. Running out of his own livestock, he killed his neighbor’s chicken to eat. His neighbor got suspicious of him, but he lied that he saw the chicken being slaughtered and eaten by a wolf. Without being caught, he got more courageous and began on another endeavor of incest, luring his neighbor’s daughter to have sex with him. This time the villagers were able to track him down as the culprit of the whole problems, and expelled him from the village to stop and prevent any further problem. Alone by himself, departing from all of his old friends, he regretted and was ashamed of what he had done. He roamed around the village for quite some time, and was very depressed realizing that he could not survive by himself. Finally, he came back and begged for forgiveness from the villagers and promised not to break any rule again. After a careful consideration, he was accepted back on the condition that he would solemnly observe and follow the golden rules, which he broke previously. Learning his lesson, he agreed to the term, and restarted his new life as a good and contributing member of the village. The village returned to its peaceful and harmonized community again. This is an example of Dependent Arising or Dependent Origination at work.

Besides the Five Precepts commonly observed among the Thai communities as mentioned earlier, there are the Eight Precepts for the more devout Buddhists to follow, usually on Buddhist Sabbath days (Wan Phra) which fall on the full moon, half-moon and new moon days. The 3 additional precepts, which make the practice more solemn, include, 6. Not eating untimely, i.e., no solid food after noon hours, 7. Not dancing, singing or watching unseemly shows, and not wearing garland or perfume, and 8. Not sleeping on a heavy and over-sized mattress. The third precept of sexual misconduct also transforms into not having sex.

It becomes clear that most precepts for monks and nuns are for their uniformity as well as a good practice and exercise for them to be mindful and to restrain themselves from all sorts of temptation and their past bad habits. Yet there are some difference in the severity of penalty as well. For example, should a monk steal money of more than 5 cents (which may be nothing for a lay person), he as a monk may be severely punished, being considered as nullifying his monkshood. This is because he is no longer a lay person but a monk who vows solemnly not to steal anything at all, and people respect him based on such nature. Besides, whether it is a small or large sum of money, it is still stealing as the basic nature of such act, and he broke the vow.

The basic moral codes that are essential for human beings, residing together as communities, mainly based upon the Five Precepts. These precepts have great values and impact which potentiates one to properly advance spiritually as well, at least to the first level of enlightenment or becoming a streamer-enterer (Sotapanna, e.g., Ms. Visakha, a stream-enterer during the Buddha’s time, living a family life as a millionaire, mainly observed the 5 precepts). All the precepts require restraint, not to commit the unwholesome acts, against which requires constant guarding of one’s own mind with mindfulness. As monks, nuns, and novice, they have to commit themselves to observe all those precepts according to their status, but for lay persons, they can be more liberal, yet should observe no less than the five basic precepts. One may choose to observe the 8 or even the 10 precepts, if one feels that they are suitable with one’s temperament during that particular period of time and environment, e.g., on the Buddhist Sabbath days. But one should not over commit oneself to more precepts than one can actually observe, as they may become a burden to oneself with all the restriction one has to restrain from. In fact, it is better of to observe the basic five precepts one feels comfortable with, and observe more with the 8 precepts, though not necessary, if one feels the need to train one’s mind more vigorously. Yes, it is the mind that one is training even though all the precepts deal directly with the bodily act. One does not break the code by having unwholesome thoughts provided that one does not commit the act yet, as one can still promptly stop it with mindfulness.

The Five Precepts have also been expanded into the Ten Wholesome Course of Action, with similar first four precepts. The 4^th precept, which deals with abstention from false speech, was further expanded into 5. Abstention from tale-bearing, 6. Abstention from harsh speech, 7. Abstention from vain talk or gossip. These 4^th – 7^th precepts deal with Verbal Action, while the first 3 precepts of 1. No killing, 2. No stealing, 3. No sexual misconduct, deal with Bodily Action. The last 3 precepts deal with Mental Action, namely, 8. No covetousness (greed for other people’s wealth), 9. No ill-will, and 10. Right View. These Ten Wholesome Course of Action had in the past been incorporated into the Japanese governing rules and culture.

As one advances in the mind development or training, one can nurture one’s mind beyond restraining against unwholesome acts with observation of the Five Precepts, by strengthening them with the Five Ennobling Virtues or wholesome acts (Benjadhamma). These include 1. Loving-kindness and Compassion, 2. Right means of livelihood, i.e., respect the rights of other’s belongings, 3. Sexual restraint, 4. Truthfulness and sincerity, and 5. Mindfulness and self-awareness. They not only help prevent the mind from unwholesome thoughts, but will preoccupy the mind with the wholesome or positive thoughts, as the mind cannot do more than one thing at a time.

These two aspects of observing the precepts and strengthening with the ennobling virtues form the first two arms of the Foundation of the Buddha’s teaching, or the Heart and Core of Buddhism, namely 1. Avoid doing bad deeds, 2. Doing good deeds, and 3. Purifying one’s mind. Practicing the above two aspects helps to prepare and set one‘s mind ready for clearing and purifying itself. One would see and appreciate the true nature of one’s mind, which is but equanimous, neutral, empty, and pure. This is why the first two practical aspects may even become obstacles or burden to one’s advancement if one still clings or attaches to the unwholesome or negative aspect, and the wholesome or positive aspect of life. One needs to free oneself and not to attach to anything to allow one’s mind to liberate or see through itself. All these three Fundamental Principles require mindfulness to perfect the mind and keep it pure and neutral, clearing one’s mind from biased thoughts and concepts.

The Middle Path, avoiding the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification, and Insight meditation can and should be practiced all day long while one is awake. One would be practicing Wisdom (1. Right View, 2. Right Thought); Morality (3. Right Speech, 4. Right Action, 5. Right Livelihood); and Concentration or Mind development (6. Right Effort, 7. Right Mindfulness, and 8. Right Concentration). One can see that the Buddha intended for everyone to apply and utilize this Middle Path or Noble Eightfold Path in one’s daily life. He emphasized that one should have right effort, right action, and right livelihood, that is one should be diligent in one’s career which will not harm the others. One should respect oneself and others by having right speech, to speak truthfully, not lying and hurting others. Such physical aspects cannot be done during the sitting meditation, frequently taught and accompanied by closing one’s eyes. The Buddha would simply want everyone to apply this Middle Path to one’s daily life at all time. With right mindfulness and right concentration, one can observe and monitor one’s mind and thoughts all the time during one’s daily activities, though this would require some initial mind training to strengthen and gain focus on the mind to effectively watch and catch the mind movement, which is the thought. By doing so, one is practicing Insight Meditation all day long. One would automatically be guarding one’s mind and thought, and therefore restraining oneself from committing any bad deed or unwholesome act. This is the Supreme Morality (Adhisila-sikkha), which will spontaneously be guarding one’s mind and automatically restraining one’s eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodily contact, mind and thoughts. Such morality will become the norm of one’s mind, replacing all sorts of conventional precepts or moral codes. It is the weapon against the grossest form of unwholesome roots, getting rid of greed, hatred, delusion, defilement, craving and clinging. [While the Supreme Mental Concentration (Adhicitta-sikkha) is the weapon against the medium form of unwholesome roots, and the Supreme Wisdom (Adhipanna-sikkha) is the weapon against the subtlest form of unwholesome roots.]

The Buddha praised the person who is moral with the 5 benefits as follows:

1. Being blessed with great fortune from being mindful, not reckless.
2. Gaining reputation for being a moral person.
3. Being courageous and confident among his/her peers, whether among the administrators, the priests, the rich, or the monks.
4. Not being lured by his/her thought to commit suicide (as always being mindful).
5. Would ascend to a higher realm or heaven after his/her death.

On the contrary, the Buddha pointed out the 5 harms that would approach the immoral person as follows:

1. Facing bad luck due to being reckless, not being mindful.
2. Being notorious for his/her immorality.
3. Lack of confidence among his/her peers, whether among the administrators, the priests, the rich, or the monks.
4. Could be lured by his/her thought to commit suicide.
5. Would descend to the lower realm or hell after his/her death.

The Buddha taught people to have Loving-kindness and Compassion towards each other, to live one’s life through the righteous means, to respect other people’s personal rights, to be truthful and sincere, and to constantly train and guard one’s mind with Mindfulness. Wherever his teachings have propagated to, these Five Ennobling Virtues enjoining the Five Precepts have reshaped those parts of the world into peaceful and tolerant societies.

On the occasion of this new Millennium, the United Nations General Assembly realizing his impact to the world community has adopted the resolution on Internationally Recognition of the Visakha Puja or Vesak Day, commemorating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, honoring him as a great teacher of the world. This is a very special and wonderful moment for all of us to honor him by practicing Mindfulness and observing at least the basic Five Precepts to help keeping this world a peaceful and great place to live.