I wanted to talk to day about practice as protection. It’s something I noticed when I began Buddhist practice and meditation, which for me was in my early 20s. I met with a group in Oakland, California, and they were kind of a serious group, many of whom were going to Burma every year to practice. They often talked about sila, which are the ethical practices that we take in Buddhist training.
The essence of Buddhist practice is to not harm others, to help others and to train the mind through meditation. Becoming mindful and conscious of how we conduct ourselves in the world is a way of celebrating these simple virtues.
I saw someone ask on some social media post, “Is there an objective morality?” The practice of sila, or the five precepts, are an objective morality. There are a lot of things that are a subjective morality, that come from conditioning or that are imposed. The objective morality within Buddhism is, “Does this cause harm?” Direct, observable harm. For example, killing somebody – that’s very clear harm. As is stealing from somebody, or lying to them.
So I was conscious about practicing sila in the beginning of my practice, which I hadn’t been before. Because of that, I probably had caused harm, because I was not always aware of how my energy affected the world around me. And becoming aware, I began to see these changes that were so powerful for me. I was a seeker before I began Buddhist practice — I was reading a lot, traveling, and looking for something that was satisfying. When I started practicing sila, I really saw how it was bringing me clear benefit. Right away I felt a feeling which I couldn’t have verbalized at that time, but it was a feeling of safety and protection. The more conscious I become about how I was behaving in the world, the more safe I began to feel.
Melissa Mckay, excerpt from her talk The Practice of Virtue