Page 94 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

formulation. This will give us a balanced picture of this particular
pattern of Buddhist ethics.

(i) The first of the Five Precepts is abstention from harming living
beings. This is the literal translation. Although sometimes

rendered as 'not to kill', it is really abstention not only from
killing but from harming in any way. It conveys the meaning of

abstention from all forms of violence, all forms of oppression, all
forms of injury. Violence is wrong because ultimately it is based,
directly or indirectly, on an unskilful mental state, i.e. on the

state of hatred or aversion, and if we indulge in violence this
unskilful mental state, of which violence is the natural

expression, will become stronger and more powerful than it is
already.

The positive counterpart of abstention from violence is, of
course, the practice of maitri (Pali metta), love or friendliness.

Here, maitri is not just an emotion or a feeling, but maitri as
embodied in deeds — as put into actual practice. It is not
enough simply to feel goodwill towards others. It m ust be

expressed in action. Otherwise, if we simply gloat over it in our
own mind, thinking how much we love everybody and how kind

we are, it becomes a sort of emotional self-indulgence — not to
say something worse. So we should watch ourselves in this
respect. We often consider we love other people. At least, we

consider we love some other people. But if we examine
ourselves, we find we never really express our love: we take it

for granted that it is understood. A familiar example is that of
the couple who have been married for twenty or thirty years,
and the husband never bothers to bring the wife as much

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