The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

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So at this talk I offer the fourth discussion about introduction to Buddhist ethics and

the emphasis for today is on training that the orientation that the Buddha had on becoming

ethical, being ethical, is that it's a training, a continual training, to be

as ethical as we can, to live as harmlessly as we can.

And this idea of training is very different than the idea of right or wrong or perfection and imperfection or you know you know that there's absolute morality we are measuring ourselves against.

The way that the five precepts are worded in in Buddhism is that they're worded to be trainings. Rather than

committing to not killing, it's I commit to train and not killing. I commit to train in not killing I commit to train in not taking what is not given I

commit to or I engage in it's not even the word commit might even not even be in the

Polly. Maybe that's a strong kind of Western tendency I have to insert a little

different idea of ethics. it's I engage in the practice of

training I engage in the training steps seek up padam and so the emphasis on training and training implies that you need to train, you need to cultivate and develop.

And so, rather than being all or nothing, we're working towards something.

We're developing ourselves.

And it's not working towards behavior necessarily, but more deeply training the heart and mind in such

a way that we live ethically, we live a life of non-harming and we live a life that's wholesome, that's ethically beautiful

because of the quality and nature of the heart. It's not the external formalities that we're trying to live by, but rather

to be transformed on the inside. So being ethical is a natural expression of who we are. So the

training is the training ourselves to appreciate and develop the inner qualities that support ethics,

the learning how to lessen and maybe even eliminate the strong forces within,

compulsions within, attachments within,

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