Any student of Namgyal Rinpoche knows of his penchant to break down and analyze words and phrases in Pali, the ancient Northern Indian language spoken by the Buddha. Such analyses invariably shed new light. Dharma teacher, poet and editor Cecilie Kwiat has undertaken a similar analyzing exercise below, looking specifically at ten of the Buddha's moral cautions. They do not match precisely with the ten precepts, but do reveal much of what was behind them.

Not suprisingly, one of the more complex examinations is the third item, the one dealing with, what else, sex. You'll find many varied interpretations of this issue in Buddhist commentaries!

Author's Foreword
This article on sila [morality, virtue] arose from my continuous question about right view, right action. Which gets stimulated by events in the world of dharma: differences of opinion about what is or is not good practice, good teaching. Whenever I am faced with these issues, it is always helpful to go to the Buddha for new understandings. So this article is a result of the above.

Four or five times in the past months people have remarked to me that the work of sila is for beginners, those who do not have the wisdom of sunya [emptiness, non-inherent identity], which (so it is implied) makes sila obsolete. Someone who embodies the insight into this non-inherent identity can teach in ways that seem to contradict the ten marks of sila. Like I said; I hear this from more than one source. And the grain of truth contained therein seems to obscure the mountain of self-centeredness that also dwells in that belief. So, as part of my questioning my own beliefs, I spent some time meditating on sila, on what it does, is there a time when it is redundant, etc.. The summation of my study is this article, written because a friend asked me how one should understand sila.

1. Panatipata veramani:
pana = Skt. [Sanskrit] prana - life breath
ati + pat = attack
pat from patati - to fly, to fall. (From this, Latin praepes - quick, peto - to go for, impetus, attack, etc.) To fall, jump, fall down on.
Panatipata = to cause prana to fall; to attack life breath.

2. Adinn'adana veramani:
a = not
dinn = taking
a + dana = not given
Adinn'adana = not taking what is not given.

3. Abrahmacariya veramani:
not going as the brahmans do, OR
Kamesumiccha-cara veramani:
kamesu: the English word "whore" is derived from this through the Indo-European root "qar" to Norse/German/Dutch/English. In the Southern European countries, this root became "carus, cara": to hold dear, be fond of. Fond, in the north of Europe, was a simile for foolish, vain, swaggerer. In a similar way, kama as sense desire and enjoyment describes all but the most refined conditions of life from a Buddhist standpoint. Kama can refer to an object of sensual enjoyment as well as to the desire for pleasure.

Looking to the Tipitaka, the Mahaniddesa particularly describes kama as subjective and objective. In the Vimanavatthu, which is a much later part of the Pali canon, the commentator Dhammapala lists six categories of kama which obstruct the development of clarity and insight. These are:
1. manapiyo rupadi visaya - pleasant objects
2. chandaraga - impulsive desire; literally, impulsive passion
3. sabbasmin lobha - greed for anything
4. gamadhamma - sexual lust
5. hitacchanda - effort to do good; literally, useful + impulse
6. seribhava - self-determination, independence, self-willed

The literal meaning of gamadhamma indicates a much broader discipline than is suggested by its usual translation as sexual lust. Dhamma means law, truth. Gama comes from the Vedic grama and means heap, collection, parish. There is evidence to support that this root word was transported for Greek and Latin usage. Latin has grex; a collection of houses, a hamlet. In German there is gemeinde; a habitable place. Gama would translate well as meaning small town. A gama would not have large markets or malls.

In the time of the Buddha, a gama was the ideal place to go on almsround, so many references to it as a source of support for the ordained occur in texts. Although not literally so, the meaning of gamadhamma is taken as "being overly involved with the women of a village", and even "vile conduct". It is easy to understand how one who had taken the vows of homelessness might find that regular interaction with villagers could cause the desires for companionship, love and procreation to be stimulated. In more traditional terms, passion, impulse and greed - the most frequently occurring manifestations of kama - will arise when supportive circumstances coupled with lack of awareness are present. As lust is perhaps the strongest of these desires, gamadhamma (desire for village life) became identified as sexual lust.

In the Anguttara-Nikaya or Gradual Sayings (1-10-V) the Buddha discourses on the unlikelihood that one with mind stirred and muddied by desire can understand "... either his own profit or that of others; impossible for him to understand both his own profit and that of others, or to realize states surpassing those of ordinary men, the excellence of truly Noble knowledge and insight."

4. Musavada veramani:
musa = neglect; ne = not + legere = choose, pick up
vada = an emphatic or formulated speech, assertion or doctrine usually translated as lying

5. Pisuna vacaya veramani:
from the root pisaca = fiend, demon
literally demonizing through speech, usually translated as malicious speech, slander

6. Pharusa vacaya veramani:
pharasu = hatchet, axe
rough, harsh, cruel, impolite speech

7. Samphappalapa veramani:
palapa (from which English pollard, via Latin palea) = chaff of corn, frivolous talk pollard = bran shifted from flour; animals who have cast their horns; pruned tree - all of which point to a lack of fecundity dead speech, speech without energy for wholesome growth

8. Abhijjhaya veramani:
abhi = taking possession and mastering, as in English "coming by", and "overcoming". Thus a) facing and aggressing = toward, against, on to, at; and b) mastering = over, along over, out over, on top of. So, an idea of increasing, of intensifying the action implied by the verb. Used to indicate very much, greatly. jjhaya = (Skt. Jha, dhi) shine, perceive, cunning, meditate, contemplate, think upon, brood over, search for, hunt after. covetous, obsessive brooding after

9. Byapada veramani:
vy + a + pad; by, vy, vi = duality, separation, against a way, a place, a position, a thing, a principle, a constituent, a characteristic, etc. ill will, malevolence

10. Micchadittihiya veramani:
miccha = separate, opposite, contrary; mitthu = wrongly, false + ditthi = view, belief, dogma, theory, speculation
Three types of view are enumerated in the canon: micchaditthi, ditthi, and sammaditthi. Ditthi is partial, relative; micchaditthi is opposed to truth; sammaditthi is total view. Ten commonly held views that contradict full understanding are as follows:
1. akiriyavada - not practical, unwise, foolish
2. annan - other
3. antaggahika - anta = anti; gahi = striving, taking up, grasping for, which has been taken into English as the word "end". Antaggahika is what stands against or faces the starting point
4. antanantika - holding views, particularly about finiteness and infiniteness
5. assada - a = negation + sadiyati (Skt. svad) = to taste, to eat, sweetness, enjoyment, satisfaction. Assada = to not taste the satisfying
6. ahetukavada - a + hetu (from hi = impel) = cause, reason, condition. Ahetukavada = doctrine that denies causality
7. uccheda - ud + chid = breaking up, disintegrating, perishing. Doctrine of annihilation
8. bhava - bhu (Skt. earth) = to become. Doctrine of becoming
9. sakkaya - sa + ka = own, personal identity, one's own. Belief in a self
10. sassatavada - doctrine of eternalism; belief that soul and world are eternal

A teaching given by Sakyamuni Buddha to the Brahmin sage Sonadanda, which is recorded in the Digha Nikaya or Long Discourses volume in the Pali canon (The Qualities of a True Brahmin) involves a lively debate about worldly and spiritual worthiness. The wise Sonadanda, accompanied by a number of others of his caste, is visiting the Buddha when the question of how one can recognize a true Brahmin is introduced. The skill with which the Buddha and Sonadanda debate this volatile issue is admirable. At one point several of the Brahmins feel that Sonadanda has forsaken the truth and is - to use modern language - brainwashed by the Buddha. Sonadanda satisfies their fears by using his nephew as an example, as follows:

"Angaka is handsome, good-looking, pleasing, of supremely fair complexion, in form and countenance like a Brahma, of no mean appearance, and there is none in this assembly his equal except the ascetic Gotama. He is a scholar ... I was his mantra teacher. He is well-born on both sides ... I know his parents. But if Angaka were to take life, take what is not given, commit adultery, tell lies and drink strong drink - what would good looks, or mantras, or birth profit him? But it us because a Brahmin is virtuous, ... wise ...: on account of these two points that he can truthfully declare: 'I am a Brahmin.'"

"But, Brahmin, if one were to omit one of these two points, could one truthfully declare: 'I am a Brahmin'?"

"No, Gotama. For wisdom is purified by morality, and morality is purified by wisdom: where one is, the other is, the moral man has wisdom and the wise man has morality, and the combination of morality and wisdom is called the highest thing in the world. Just as one hand washes the other, so wisdom is purified by morality and this combination is called the highest thing in the world."

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