When the Buddha gave discourses to householders, he often stressed the importance of ethical behavior and thought (in Pali, sila) in everyday life as a foundational practice.  Most of us are familiar with the precepts (at least five, sometimes more) such as not intentionally killing; not taking that which is not freely given; refraining from sexual misconduct; refraining from harsh, untrue, or useless speech; and refraining from taking intoxicants that cause heedlessness.  The Buddha taught that one of the reasons to practice sila is to enable the mind to become calm to facilitate other practices of the Buddhist path.  When one lives in accord with sila, one becomes blameless, and one’s mind is not bothered by one’s conscience.  The typical approach is to do our best to live in accord with the principle of non-harming and learn from the times that we don’t live in accord with that principle.  In some ways this approach is similar to the moral approach of other belief systems and religions. 

As we continue our journey, a more subtle way of practicing sila can come to us.  Living mindfully as continuously as possible, we begin to see the effects of harming and non-harming directly.  When harmful thoughts, such as anger, fear, greed, judgement, harshness and the like arise, or one has acted or spoken harmfully, there is a sense of the mind ill at ease, not just as an issue of conscience, but as a matter of the mental state.  The mind is boiling and churning and not at peace (the Buddha gave several similes for these states).  A common psychological term for this state of mind is “cognitive dissonance”, as if the mind is rebelling against these thoughts, this speech or this action.  Sometimes there is even a bodily reaction, shaking or a hot sensation, etc.  We can then observe how the process of harming or non-harming conditions other thoughts, speech or actions and how we and other beings are affected.  We see the process of kamma (karma) unfolding right before our eyes. 

The differences between these view-points are somewhat subtle and both are needed and effective.  The advantage of the second way of practicing sila is that we notice that sila naturally arises out of mindfulness and continuous inclination of the mind toward wholesome states.  Thus this approach is very closely related to our practice during formal meditation as opposed a more “top down” approach, and vividly illustrates the interplay between sila and freedom from dukkha (Pali for suffering, dissatisfaction, discontent, stress, entanglement).   When the second approach is practiced diligently and ardently and we live this way, even very small breaks in the continuity of sila are dramatic and easily noticed.  One begins to see how deeply the integrity of being can be expressed in every moment of life.  One doesn’t just practice sila, one lives it with every fiber of being.