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Basic Buddhist Teachings 12 - Mindfulness and the Five Precepts
The breath is the “boat that carries us” to practice mindfulness in the four domains: the body, feelings, mental formations, and objects of mind. Breathing in, “I am in touch with my eyes”; breathing out, “I smile to them.” We practice in the same way with “the heart,” “the liver,” letting the body be “embraced by mindfulness,” generating “mindful joy and happiness,” soothing and transforming suffering such as “toothache” or “jealousy.” Mindfulness “does not struggle,” it simply “embraces all states” like “a mother holding her crying child,” transforming “garbage into flowers.”
Mindfulness is the key that nourishes the entire Noble Eightfold Path, which includes:
- Right View
- Right Thinking
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Diligence
- Right Mindfulness
- Right Concentration
That energy illuminates the Five Mindfulness Trainings: “not to harm,” “not to steal,” “not to engage in sexual misconduct,” (the fourth training is not mentioned), “not to use intoxicants and poisons,” helping to “protect life,” “bring about social justice,” and “build physical and mental well-being.” The mind contains “fifty mental formations,” while dharmas are “fifty-one kinds – that is, the objects of mind”; the Discourse on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness and the Discourse on Mindful Breathing are likened to “great diamond mines,” which will need “hundreds of years” of further exploration so that “many people can walk together.”
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Basic Buddhist Teachings 14 - The Noble Eightfold Path