The Top Ten Daily Hit List of 84,000 Buddhist Vows To Choose From

As promised in my former blog, Thou Shalt Not Lie…..Truthfully, here are the top ten out of 84,000 possible Buddhist Vows.

And this blog post is about what they mean to both me and also according to Geshe Roach, Founder of Management By Design, formally The Enlightened Business Institute, and author of “The Diamond Cutter, The Buddha on Managing Your Business And Your Life.”

Both MBD and I, (and this is true in both of my companies, Speaking To Win and My Real Voice,) base our work on these principles and draw on wisdom from some of the world’s great spiritual traditions.

I happen to really appreciate the list that Management By Design has developed so I wanted to share it with you. These principles also serve as the platform for coaching, consulting and training for MBD.  I happen to be practicing them too to the best of my ability:

10 Principles of Enlightened Business (Management by Design)

Enhance the well-being of others
Respect your financial commitments
Choose wisely
Convey only true impressions
Bring people together
Speak professionally and respectfully
Speak about meaningful things
Find happiness in what you have
Celebrate the achievements of others
See the hidden potential of all things

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY?

So what does all this mean to you? Here is a blending of Geshe Roach’s explanation and my own personal experience with trying to keep these top ten vows in my work and life.

A SHORT EXPLANATION OF THE SHORT BUDDHIST LIST

1) Enhance the well-being of others or in other words did you protect life today?

“So did you protect life of any kind in some form today. And no you cannot draw the line at I will kill a roach because they are so gross, but work on the rest. It means everyone, equally.

So think about this. Did you move a pencil off the stairway that someone might have slipped on or did you walk on by or perhaps even not notice all and hear about the person who broke a broken bone from that slippery stairway later in the day?

You’re not going to get a chance to throw someone out of the way of a speeding taxi or invent the Salk  vaccine every day. Did you do the simple things, like give aspirin to someone at work? Did you go out and get their favorite latte just cuz? Did you make tea for someone with a sniffle? Did you close the cupboard somebody else left open so the next person won’t bang their head?

This is protecting life. The karmic result of checking this one every day is that your body will get light, strong, healthy–unbelievable. Just little things!…Just moving a pencil off the stairway where you live. So that’s protecting life.

2) Respect your financial commitments or in other words honor other people’s property.

Did you take the last of the toilet paper from the bathroom and not make sure that the next person had some?  Stuff like that–small. Heaven is built on small things.

You’ll find out that you don’t have to be Mother Teresa. It’s the state of your mind. Your state of  mind has to be concerned about details. It’s the small things that make you a perfect spiritual person. Seriously.

3)Choose wisely or in the Buddhist sense it is called, sexual purity.

While I know that sex is a really hot button for many people, try looking at this vow in a slightly different way: Are you faithful in your relationships with other people?

If you are engaging in sex, are you doing it at a nice, normal, healthy level and not getting obsessed about it or thinking about it all day, or doing it in improper places at improper times, and with improper people? A healthy sexual, normal, relationship–fine. Adultery, all sorts of weird things, not fine, okay?

Notice your mind. The general rule of thumb is: does thinking about it bother your peace of mind? See what I mean? That’s the question.

Sex is similar to eating. There is overeating, there is eating bad food, there is eating what you need, there is eating what’s good for you; and finally in Buddhism there is a stage where you don’t need to eat any more, and sex is supposedly exactly the same. I am personally not there yet but, it will be interesting I am sure when and if I ever do.

That’s the main thing right now. Honor your own and other people’s commitments and don’t ever cross that line. If you don’t cross the line, you save yourself all those second thoughts and guilt. This leaves more room in your mind for all the good, kind, fun, nurturing stuff.

4) Convey true impressions or in other words, try to be totally truthful all day long.

Again we have covered that one in my blog, Thou Shalt Not Lie….Truthfully,  we will do a quick recap her: are you required to tell someone how bad their dress looks who asks you for your
opinion? Change the subject, okay? Drop your coffee cup. If it would hurt the person in some terrible way, make them very angry, if it’s very destructive, you can just sort of slide out of it.

5) Bring people together or in other words, do you speak in ways that you try to bring people together?

Do you, in your everyday conversations, try to bring people close together?

Once in a while you meet a person who’s really good at this: They are the kind of person who runs up to you and says, “I got a person for you! I’ve got someone who you’ve got to meet! You’ll love this person!” He introduces you and you’re best friends forever.

I call these folks, “the People Weavers.” Do you see what I mean?

Because our normal human tendency is, “Did you hear what he said about you? Oh! You don’t wanna know.” And then of course you feel you cannot help yourself. For me, if you tell me I cannot have something, a food for example, it is all I think about. Seriously. The mind is a dangerous place to go alone some days!

So this one is about doing the opposite. It is concentrating on trying to do the opposite, okay? Focus your attention on bringing people together with your words and actions. Try it. It’s fun. Lots of people smile as a result.

6) Speak professionally and respectfully to people or in other words, speak gently to other people.

Try as best as you can to use gentle speech when you speak to other people. Gentle, thoughtful kind words; no curse words unless they’re your best friends.

Geshe Roach had names for his roommates in college (that I can’t tell you) and they were meant in a nice, beautiful way.

Then there are ways of talking to people in sweet ways when you’re not feeling sweet at all.

Like when you say “have a nice day,” but what you really mean is “go to hell.” It is judged by your intent.

Speak gently for the context.

7)  Speak about Meaningful Things or just do your best to try to speak meaningfully.

 Whenever you open your mouth, try to say something that has some kind of relevance to
the person’s life.

Like, don’t sit there and blab about O.J. Simpson or other stuff that’s never going to be resolved. Stuff that doesn’t matter really, stuff that doesn’t help anybody. Don’t talk about President Bush’s problems or just waste talk, okay?

When you open your mouth say some
thing meaningful.

Find happiness in what you have and when you see someone else get something nice, be happy.

What’s the opposite of that? It’s like jealousy or unhappiness when somebody gets something nice.

Next time when something good happens to somebody else, here’s another option: try rushing up to them up and saying, “I’m so happy you got that promotion! I can’t believe it! You really deserve it.” Something like that–consciously trying to do your very best to take joy in other people’s successes.

Unfortunately, our human tendency is to be jealous.

We say, “We are good people. We are bodhisattvas. We are Mahayana Buddhists. We are committed to the goal of bringing every happiness to every sentient being.”

So don’t think, “I don’t see why the hell they got the promotion.”

9) Celebrate the achievements of others or at least try to feel for other people who have a misfortune.

Like when someone has a misfortune, you take the time and the effort to try and empathize with them. You try to go to them and just say “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

The normal human tendency is to do the opposite. “Oh,  So and so had a horrible thing happen to them, their life is ruined and you say: “Ohhhh Tell me more!”

There’s this human tendency to be fascinated by other people’s problems, especially famous people’s problems. “John Kennedy died? Ooo, how? Did the fuselage break up or not?” You know what I mean?

This is the big thing in the newspapers, and people are dying to know about it. You have to try to think and do the opposite.

When you hear about something bad or tragic like that, instead you’re like, “Oh, I’m sorry for his family, and I feel really bad about it and I wish that wouldn’t happen to anyone.” It’s the opposite of being fascinated by other people’s problems. You truly try to put yourself in their place and try to help them out with their problems.

I just met a guy who on his own went out and fed 600 people a month for a year with his own homemade soup. He didn’t need a foundation or the media fanfare. He just did it because he was so happy and grateful to have survived kidney disease. He wanted to give something back to humanity since he was obviously meant to be here still. He’s just an amazing guy. You get my drift? 

It’s extensive, open, active empathy or compassion for other people’s problems rather than this secret little joy. Okay? 

10)See the hidden potential of all things or maintain a Buddhist World View.

Understand all good things come from helping other people, and all bad things come from watching out for your own interest only. You can watch out for your own interests, but equally watch out for other people’s interests. That’s healthy. Okay?

For many people, their philosophy is that whatever they do, it is at the expense of others and that’s how they serve themselves. That’s a wrong Buddhist view.

Every good thing in the world– money, financial security, friends, relationships, food,  Adam and Eve clothing in Bainbridge Island, Vivace coffee in Seattle who’s motto is, “una bella tazza di caffe.” and in Italian this means a beautiful cup of coffee and they truly deliver that beautiful aesthetic, delicious cup of coffee every time and with a smile on their faces…..my personal list could go on and on…..Bottom line is everything comes from serving other people. That’s the Buddhist belief:

You cannot breathe one breath of air unless you helped someone in the past to live. The reason you have the honor of breathing for the rest of today is that each breath comes from having done something for someone else, like making food. That’s the Buddhist World View. You strive to keep it.

So there you are. These are the top ten vows out of 84,000 that the heavy hitter Buddhists are working on every day. These ten could be going through your mind at home and at work and while you are out doing things every few hours. What most people would probably say is that the opposite goes through their mind every few hours.

This kind of negative thinking ruins your life and just plain make you unhappy.

Instead Geshe Roach and I are suggesting that you try to wish for yourself to be happy, and for others to have happiness also. Wanting it for yourself is fine as long as you go about getting it in a nice healthy Dharma way. Okay?

Which normally means giving it away to someone else….. Sorry.

By the way, the good news here is that if you practice this, then you get it back ten-fold. Guaranteed. So it’s no big sweat.

Now you’ve got the ten vows, right? In subsequent blogs we will go over them in more detail and we will be revisiting these ideas and principles over the next few months. But for now, this is a brief outline for you to get started. Stay tuned!

If you are reading this blog first, I encourage you to also go to my blog  Thou Shalt Not  Lie….Truthfully.