Most Venerable Bhante Walpola Piyananda's 80th Birthday Celebrating - Collected Essays

no rape, no sex trafficking, no adultery, no unwanted pregnancies,
and no guilt about harming or being harmed sexually by another. All
living beings would be free to express their individual sexuality within
the integrity of their conscience and culture, and be at peace with one
another.
I am the Fourth Precept: I undertake the precept to refrain from
lying.
The Buddha teaches us to seek the truth and speak the truth.
This means that I understand that others depend on hearing the truth
from me, and they count on my words being the truth as I know it in the
moment. It also means that I investigate my own mind and tell myself
the truth – never being in denial or allowing delusion to influence my
choices. Imagine a world where everyone practices the Fourth Precept
and told the truth: there would be no need for spies or espionage,
no need for treaties, no need for courts of law or contract litigation,
no need for lie detector tests, or ever having any doubt or uncertainty
about the word of another. All living beings would be illuminated by
confidence in truth as it is spoken, and be at peace with one another.
I am the Fifth Precept: I undertake the precept to refrain from
taking intoxicants.
This means that I will take nothing that interferes with my
clear perception of reality. This also means that I understand that
mind-altering substances will poison my brain, distort my vision,
cloud my meditation, and disable my ability to perceive the truth. It
also means that if I have enlightenment as my goal, taking alcohol and
drugs would prevent me from attaining it; the temporary “high” of
substances is no substitute for the real thing. Imagine a world where
everyone practices the Fifth Precept and there was no drug or alcohol
abuse: there would be fewer wrecked families, people would have a
better chance of reaching their potentials, there would be less physical
and mental disease, there would be no war on drugs, smuggling or
illicit trafficking; there would be fewer car accidents, and there would
be greater conservation of wealth. All living beings would live in the
purity of consciousness, and be at peace with one another.
Conclusion (Presenter)
We have just heard some examples of what would happen
if everyone practiced the Five Precepts – if they were a universal
standard for conscious and ethical behavior; I’m sure you can think
of countless more examples as you ponder this idea. As you can see,
each one of these examples represents one step towards Peace for all
mankind. These steps all start with me and you, each of us. Let us
recommit ourselves to keeping these Five Precepts as guidelines for
our own lives, and become examples for others. Like a ship on the sea,
it rises bit by bit as the water level rises. We each make a contribution
to Peace, raising the water level, by living our lives in accordance with
the Five Precepts. This is how we make a difference in the world. We
become Peace ourselves.
(One by one the Precept presenters bow before the Buddha statue and
repeat their Precept in the Pali language. The presenter bows last and
then stands to lead the Five Precepts from the hall.)
6
Integration of Buddhism into Western Culture
As Asians, we sometimes forget that the teachings of the Buddha
actually have nothing to do with Asia or Asian culture. We were born
into Eastern cultures where images of the Buddha and Buddhist rituals
and teachings were commonplace and, therefore, natural to us. In the
West, however, the Buddhist tradition of Zen is relatively new, brought
here as late as the 1950’s and 1960’s by Western Zen teachers. From
those days it has gradually made its way into the mainstream culture,
but not completely. We still have much more work to do in order to
fully integrate it and make the Buddhist temple as familiar a sight as
the Christian church or the Jewish synagogue.
With the arrival in the West of immigrants who brought their
religion with them from countries such as China, Vietnam, Tibet,
Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka, for example, the
New World became increasingly more exposed to Buddhism and
Buddhist iconography. The monks from these countries soon followed
the immigrants to establish temples that would cater primarily to the
religious needs of these groups, which included the cultural traditions
that accompanied them.
It took a while for the various Asian monks to learn English
and although Westerners were made welcome, their presence is rare in
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