Ethics Mindfulness & Loving Kindness- 6CE

Through his teachings Buddha provides comprehensive guidelines for attaining and sustaining loving kindness. The Noble Eight-Fold Path is a moral framework comprising right understanding, right mindedness, right speech, right action, right living, right endeavor, right attentiveness, and right concentration. Each is a valuable practical guideline for massage therapists as well as any type of healer.  They are further explained below:

 

Right view is to see and to understand things as they really are. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions.

 

Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: intention of purity or resistance to the pull of desire, intending  good will or resistance to feelings of anger, and the intention of harmlessness, or resisting cruelly, violence, or aggressive behavior.

 

Right speech The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious.  The power of words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: to abstain from lying, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.

 

Right action right action means first and foremost to abstain harming others, especially to abstain from taking life and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, to abstain from taking what is not yours, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and to abstain from sexual misconduct.

Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others.

 

Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully.

 

Right effort  is positive mental energy.  Without effort nothing can be achieved.  Right effort fuels self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness.  whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task and manifests itself as desire, envy, aggression, and violence.

 

Right mindfulness is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. It is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. This alows us to actively observe and control our thoughts and focus.

 

Right Concentration refers to the development of concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. In this application it means concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions.

 

Lets take a few moments and reflect upon these 8 principles and how they might relate to the massage therapy profession:

 

Are we able to see and interpret information about our clients that will help them in their healing process?

What are our intentions with our clients? 

Are we being honest about what we know and how we are able to help our clients?

Are our Actions right?  Are we holding true to the ‘Do not harm’ part of our creed? 

Are we earning our living honestly and peacefully?

Do our efforts come from honesty and self discipline?

Are we being mindful of thoughts & words during each massage session?

Are we truly concentrating on our mission to help our clients feel better?