Friends:
What is this
essential Right Action ?
The Noble
Eightfold Way, leading to Nibbāna, is simply this:
Right View, Right Motivation, Right Speech, Right Action,
Right
Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Awareness, & Right
Concentration.
But what is Right Action ?
The
3-fold Definition of Right Action:
Avoiding all Killing and Injuring of any
living Being...
Abstaining from Taking & Stealing what is
not Given...
Stopping all Misuse of any Sensual
Pleasures ...
That is Right Action!
The
Characterization of Right Action:
Friends, it is caused by behaviour in conflict with the
Dhamma,
by reason of immoral behaviour, that some beings here, right
at
the breakup of the body, after death, reappear lost in states
of
pain, in unhappy destinations, in the downfall, even in the
hells...
It is caused by behaviour in harmony with the Dhamma, by
reason
of moral behaviour, that some beings here, on the breakup of
the
body, after death, reappear in a happy destination, even in
the
heavenly worlds!!! And which, friends, are the 3 kinds of
bodily
moral behaviour in harmony with the Dhamma?
Here someone, stop any killing of living beings, abstains from
injuring living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle
and kind, such one dwells sympathetic towards all living
beings.
Avoiding the taking of what is not given, such one refrains
from
stealing, what is not given; such one does not take by way of
theft the wealth and property of others, neither in the
village
nor in the forest. Abandoning abuse in sensual pleasures, such
one gives up misuse in sensual pleasures; such one does not
have
intercourse with partners, who are protected by their mother,
or
father, or mother and father, or brother, or sister, or
relatives,
who is married, who are protected by law, or who are engaged
to other side. That is how there are three kinds of bodily
moral
behaviour in harmony with the Dhamma... Such is Right Action!
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