All of us who want to practice Dhamma (the phenomenon of the mind; natural law; the law of liberation; the teaching of an enlightened person) must first respect the primary precept, as I mentioned before. This is sila, because without it there is simply no way to move forward. Sila means abstaining from certain actions, including words, gestures, and any conduct in general that harms another living being. Doing so benefits not only others but yourself first of all, because it is impossible to commit unwholesome acts, whether insulting someone, killing, stealing, or violating another, without generating tremendous agitation inside yourself. These moments of creating and enduring such morally harmful things only breed unhappiness, now and in the future.

The Buddha said:

"Burning now, burning hereafter, the wrongdoer suffers doubly.

Happy now, happy hereafter, the virtuous person rejoices doubly."

(Literally: The evildoer burns now and will burn later, suffering twice over. The virtuous person is happy now and will be happy later, rejoicing twice over.)

We don't need to wait until death to experience heaven or hell; we can experience them here and now, according to how we live. When we experience wholesome things, we experience heaven, and when we don't, hell (metaphorically speaking, since I am an atheist).

Another reason to remain in sila is so the mind can quiet itself, and in that stillness we can go deeper into our own reality. It is impossible to see to the bottom of a swimming pool when the water is turbulent or dirty. By refraining from harmful verbal and physical actions, the mind finally has the chance to settle into a peace deep enough to enter the process of introspection. Sila not only serves us personally; it ripples outward into a society that needs it desperately in order to keep progressing along the path of Dhamma.

Sila also means purifying one's language, and that includes not telling lies, not exaggerating or understating the truth, and not spreading stories that might turn friends against one another. Offensive words, gossip that wastes other people's time and your own: all of this runs counter to what is advisable at this stage. Abstaining from it leaves nothing behind but satisfaction and well-being.

For ordinary people like us who are just beginning to explore Dhamma, only five minimum precepts are asked of us:

1.- Abstain from killing any living being.

2.- Abstain from stealing.

3.- Abstain from sexually improper conduct.

4.- Abstain from lying.

5.- Abstain from intoxicants.

I already mentioned that during the course these precepts are practiced as Buddhist monks on retreat would practice them. I, of course, returned to my normal life: I have sex, I drink a little, I am very outspoken, and I probably go on committing verbal and mimetic errors that I'm not sure I'll ever manage to eradicate. Bearing in mind that I find nothing inappropriate, for any reason, about diverse sexual tastes, as long as two or more adults with their full mental faculties decide together what they prefer sexually, the other precepts concerning stealing, lying, and sexually improper behavior have not, at least for me, been difficult to follow.

I find the sexual freedom we've achieved over recent decades wonderful, and I believe that with Dhamma or without it, we must always keep a liberal and open mind. We should never surrender the rights and justice that have been won in this arena, rights that don't seem to be in as much danger as those in other areas where it feels as though we are sliding backward into a dark age, something medieval.

Experts in these matters say that if you take vipassana meditation seriously and set becoming a Joggi as your life's goal, little by little your sexual appetite will disappear. I confess I have no such ambition, and that this is one of the attachments I have enjoyed and intend to keep enjoying for as long as I can.

My plan is to use this method in a non-extreme way, trying to continue meditating every day for at least half an hour. Doing so makes me feel that it purifies my mind and gives me calm and equanimity. It also makes me feel free, and helps me see many things more clearly.

Another thing that becomes more extreme the further you advance is the way you eat. You abstain from eating after midday. Buddhist monks are supposed to have just one meal in the morning, or two at most each day.

On the material side, you will eventually let go of everything and live on charity. This is another precept I can't quite picture myself following, though I do think it is very healthy to stop accumulating and, for those who have accumulated, to share with those who have less or nothing. Because the proper behavior for someone practicing Dhamma is supposed to be: work to sustain yourself and those who depend on you, but don't fall into excess. One should also try, of course, to do work that helps other human beings rather than harms them, directly or indirectly.

Consider a soldier, who will say he doesn't kill for pleasure and that every country needs protection against the ordinary aggressions that arise with neighboring nations, and that therefore he simply has a job that, when he is ordered to, and out of love for his country, he must carry out. But then, does the cause justify the harm? Are we not all human beings, and can we really not resolve our problems without armies? It seems we cannot, but I want to believe, as the Buddha did, that we can. With enough collective will and enough rejection of force by the majority, we could greatly reduce violence. Because if those of us who have more than enough sacrifice just a little of what we don't need, perhaps there would be far fewer people who lack everything.

Sanuk (Thai: fun, the art of finding joy in what you do).