I knew little about Buddhism when I began this research, but I did know it employs a list of goals for the ethical life called the Eightfold Way. For completeness if nothing else, the Eightfold Way should be included as a candidate ethical touchstone. I discovered that the Eightfold way is the schema for a lifelong process of discovery, while a shorter list, the Five Precepts, encapsulate the Buddhist's rules for ethical behavior.
Buddhism is not a scripture-based doctrine, in the same sense that Islam, Christianity, or Judaism are each based on a single, standardized document. There is a set of texts (the Pali Texts) that claim to reproduce the teachings of the Buddha in approximately the way that the Synoptic Gospels claim to reproduce the teachings of Jesus. The Pali Texts are the basis of one major branch of Buddhism, Therevada Buddhism. Two other major branches ñ Mahayana, found in China and Japan and incorporating the Zen tradition, and Vajrayana, found in Tibet ñ focus on other, later texts.
However, throughout almost all its history, Buddhism has relied on oral transmition from teacher to pupil; it has never been spread primarily by the written word. (In contrast to Christianity, for example, under which a missionary's first task is to translate the Bible into the native language.) Given the oral nature of Buddhism, it is no surprise that so many Buddhist teachings are organized in numbered bundles, as if for easy memorization: Four Noble Truths, Three Universal Characteristics, the Eightfold Way, the Five Precepts, and many others.
In a way almost inconceivable to someone reared in a more dogmatic religious tradition, Buddhists of each type are happy to agree on a core of beliefs, and happy to permit each other to differ on details that would create bitter schisms in other religions.
Interpretative Buddhist texts in English abound, including hundreds on the Web. Of course there is no Buddhist Vatican to stamp an imprimatur on correct texts, so the novice explores and reads at random. For information on traditional Buddhism you might start at Essentials of Buddhism for an overview and a good set of further links. The Pali Texts (scriptural basis for Therevada Buddhism) as well as a wide variety of interpretive essays and books, are found at Access to Insight.
In the summary that follows, the names of the eight parts of the Way (right effort, right speech, and so on) are given consistently in most sources. The summaries in the right-hand column of the table are my best attempts at a sympathetic combination of several sources -- sources that in some cases were so different, not only in emphasis or vocubulary but in apparent meaning, one can only wonder whether they are discussing the same thing.
The core of Buddhism is in the Four Noble Truths:
The Eightfold Way is a list of eight areas to which you must pay attention, if you are to live a life without desire ñ which is also a harmless life, and a joyful life. The eight are usually arranged in three groups, as in the following table.
| Wisdom | right knowledge (or understanding, or view) | Grasping the teachings of the Buddha; seeing the world as conditional and impermanent. |
| right intent (or right aspiration) | Approaching any task with intent to eliminate grasping, without ambition, greed, lust, violence. | |
| Meditation | right effort | Constantly fostering good states of mind and constantly releasing bad ones. |
| right mindfulness (or attentiveness) | Awareness of the functioning of the body and mind; attention to content of one's thought. | |
| right concentration | Development of the focussed state found in meditation. | |
| Morality | right speech | Speaking little and then only truth, quietly and with compassion. |
| right action | Behaving selflessly, constructively, and harmlessly to all living things (including yourself). | |
| right livelihood | Choosing a livelihood that permits you to follow the Way. |
It is fascinating to compare any teaching on the Eightfold way with the core teaching of Christianity, Jesus's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew ch. 5, Luke ch. 6). There are many parallels; for example between the Buddha's right speech and Jesus's "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."
Yet the differences are also intriguing. For example, consider the Buddha's right mindfulness and the precept of mindful consumption, which together teach (in part) "take care of yourself, be a good steward of your body." Contrast these to Jesus's teaching (Matthew 6:24ff):
Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? ... Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
This teaching, as clearly as anything in the New Testament, embodies Christianity's disdain for the present world and the mortal flesh, and its willingness to sacrifice all material considerations in favor of the work of the Church and of the afterlife. In these deep-seated policies Christianity and Buddhism are in sharp conflict.
The authority behind Buddhist belief differs from other candidates we are considering. The authority is traditional, in that these are the truths said to have been taught by the Buddha and passed on unchanged from teacher to pupil for 2500 years or so. The Buddha is expressly not a divinity, but simply the first person to have achieved right understanding on his own, without a teacher.
Contrast this to (for example) the Jewish Torah, whose contents are of similar antiquity. Although the Torah is old, it does not claim authority based on its age. It claims authority based on a claim to have been dictated and preserved by God himself.
The Buddhist claim is much more modest, and in fact, Buddhism really claims no authority base higher than personal affirmation. The Four Noble Truths are thought to be so self-evidently correct that, once properly explained, they claim the willing adherence of the practitioner.
The Morality group of the Way is augmented or made more explicit in the Five Precepts:
| compassion for life | Revere life; do not take the life of any living thing. |
| generosity | Take nothing that is not explicitly given to you. |
| sexual responsibility | Practice sex only in the context of lawful commitment. |
| True speech | Speak only what is both the truth and helpful. |
| avoid intoxication | Avoid all intoxication (it interferes with mindfulness and makes the other precepts harder to keep) |
It is clear from even a cursory exploration of Buddhist teachings that a person who tries, consistently and honestly, to follow the Precepts and the Eightfold Way cannot avoid living a life that is harmless and healthy, and probably a life that is creative and joyful.
It is also clear from the same cursory exploration that it will take some time and some study to really come to know the Eightfold Way. One needs to read; one needs to meditate; and certainly one needs to have a teacher in order to achieve even the beginnings of right knowledge.
The Five Precepts, however, are a useful ethical touchstone. From the essay The Healing Power of the Precepts,
Healthy self-esteem comes from living up to a set of standards that are practical, clear-cut, humane, and worthy of respect; the five precepts are formulated in such a way that they provide just such a set of standards.
No intentional killing, stealing, having illicit sex, lying or taking intoxicants. ... [the precepts] give very clear guidance, with no room for waffling or less-than-honest rationalizations.
Applying my four criteria to the Precepts:
| Prescriptive | Yes. |
| Authority | Traditional authority; and self-evident nature. |
| Compact | Yes; can be summarized in a sentence. |
| Coverage | Fairly broad coverage of the most important evils of modern life. No positive guidance (that is the role of the Eightfold Way). |
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