This document outlines three stages of ethics: restraint, virtue, and altruism. It discusses each stage in detail. [1] The ethic of restraint involves refraining from harming others through actions like murder, theft, or inappropriate conduct. [2] The ethic of virtue is about cultivating positive behaviors and values. [3] The highest form is the ethic of altruism, which is dedicating one's life to others' welfare. It emphasizes tools like mindfulness, awareness, and heedfulness to apply ethics in daily life through speech, actions, virtues like generosity and charity.
2. “The attributes of
mindfulness – wise
speech, wise listening,
wise intension, & wise
actions ~ all are tied
into our professional
ethics”
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3. Table of Content
Introduction
Ethic of Restraint
Harm Caused by Non violent Means
Heedfulness, Mindfulness, and
Awareness
Ethic of Virtue
Ethic of Altruism
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4. Introduction
To live ethically, one must not only adopt an
ethical perspective, but also actively work on
developing and implementing inner values in
daily actions.
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5. 1. Three stages of ethics in practice
outlined in classical Buddhist texts:
• Ethic of restraint - deliberately refraining from doing
actual or potential harm to others.
• Ethic of virtue - actively cultivating and enhancing our
positive behavior and inner values.
• Ethic of altruism - dedicating our lives, genuinely and
selflessly, to the welfare of others.
8. THE ETHIC OF RESTRAINT
⊳ Definition: Deliberately refraining from doing
actual or potential harm to others.
⊳ Examples: Murder, theft, and inappropriate sexual
conduct.
⊳ Importance: A necessary step before actively
benefiting others
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9. ⊳ Religious perspective: Jainism places great
emphasis on the virtue of nonviolence (ahimsa).
⊳ Example: Jain monks go to great lengths to avoid
harming any living being in their daily activities.
⊳ Challenges: Indirect harm caused by actions and
technologies.
The Practice of Nonviolence
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10. Minimizing Harm
Approach: Apply discernment in our behavior and
follow the sense of conscientiousness that arises
from enhanced awareness.
Realistic approach: Minimize the harm we inflict in
our everyday lives.
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12. Harm caused by nonviolent means
Harm inflicted by outward action can normally be
scenes, the suffering we inflict on others with word can
be more hidden but is often no less damaging.
We humans are quite sensitive, and it is easy to inflict
suffering on those around us through our careless use
of harsh word.
We can also inflict harm with dishonesty, slander, and
divisive gossip
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13. So here we all need to understand and observe the “golden rule”
found in all of the worlds ethical system :
“Treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself” All “Do unto
others as you would have do or do you”.
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14. Harmful actions
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2nd Century Indian thinker Nagarjuna mentioned
6 principle to avoid harmful actions of body and speech:-
• avoid excessive use of intoxicants
• Uphold the principle of right livelihood
• Ensure that once body, speech, and mind are non violent
• Treat others with respect
• Honour those worthy of esteem, such as parents, teachers,
and those who are kind
• be kind to others
15. Nagarjuna also listed the following
examples of wrong approach to livelihood :
~ trying to gain material benefits from others through pretense.
~ using attractive words to gain things from others through
deceit .
~ praising others possession with the intention of trying to obtain
them for oneself.
~ forcibly taking what belongs to someone else
~ extolling the qualities of what one has obtained in the past with
the hope of receiving more.
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16. CONCLUSION:
⊳ Dishonesty destroys the foundation of others trust
and is profoundly harmful.
⊳ Transparency in our dealing with others is
therefore tremendously important.
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19. Having the most sophisticated ethical mind is not
sufficient, what we need to do is apply it in our
everyday life and for that we need the following tools :
i. Heedfulness
ii. Mindfulness
iii. Awareness
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20. Aim of these tools
⊳ help us retain our core values in everyday
life
⊳ guide our day-to-day behavior so that it
becomes more in tune
⊳ bringing benefit to self and others
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21. Heedfulness
⊳ It refers to an overall stance of caution which also includes
a sense of being careful and attentive .
⊳ For eg – if we are diagnosed with diabetic then the doctor
will advise us to have a proper diet and avoid unhealthy
food products and especially sugar.
⊳ In order to maintain a healthy lifestyle the patient must
carry a sense of caution when they are tempted to eat
something they should avoid .
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23. MINDFULNESS
⊳ Second tool that can help us to apply ethics in practice is
mindfulness.
⊳ It Refers to gaining awareness of our own patterns of
behavior, including thoughts and feelings , and learning to let
go of those habits , thoughts and emotions which are
unhelpful.
⊳ So It’s basically knowing about how we operate and behave
in certain situations so that we can add good values that we
require and subtract all the impurities.
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25. Awareness
Awareness is also known as sheshin in Tibetan which means to pay
attention to our own behavior. To be aware, we need to honestly
observe our behavior that is going on and to gradually bring it under
control and for that we need to build inner conscience .The term
conscience has different meanings in different context .
For example in religious terms it is referred as the precious gift from
God which makes human beings a unique moral creature. From a
secular perspective, we may understand conscience as a product of our
biological nature as social animals, or as something we acquire from
society through our upbringing and environment
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27. Virtue ~ behavior showing high moral standards (good character
becomes necessary) as highlighted by a Sanskrit phrase
“Sheelam param Bhushanam” ~Character is the highest virtue
There is a need to give more serious attention to actively doing good,
and this can be a source of great joy and inner confidence.
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The Ethics of Virtue
29. This can achieved by
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SPEECH
ACTIONS
Being warm and
generous
Being charitable Praising others Encouraging them
30. ⊳ This attitude is a powerful antidote against envy, which is not
only a source of unnecessary suffering on the individual level
but also an obstacle to our ability to reach out and engage
with others.
⊳ As the famous Tibetan teachers say that sympathetic joy is
the least costly way of promoting one's own virtues.
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31. The Ethic of Altruism
Altruism refers to selfless dedication of one's
actions and words to the benefit of others.
All the world's religious traditions recognize this
as the highest form of ethical practice, and in
many it is seen as the main avenue to liberation or
to unity with God.
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33. In caring professions, such as social works, health care,
teaching etc… all are involved in the pursuit of this third
level of ethics.
They directly benefits the lives of many people and, are
truly noble.
Ordinary people do also benefit others in several ways.
The most important priority can be serving others
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34. Essential part of serving others is to know the
result/ impact of our own actions.
By being heedful, mindful, and attentive in our
daily lives we all will master over our actions and
words
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