Making a Spiritual Commitment

This Thursday evening, after our meditation period, we will recite together the Five Mindfulness Trainings. We will focus our discussion on ways of approaching or orienting ourselves to the trainings and to other spiritual commitments.

Historically the five mindfulness trainings were a basic code of ethics that lay men and women agreed to abide by when they became students of the Buddha. In taking the trainings, the practitioners publicly made the commitment not to engage in killing, stealing, deception, or sexual misconduct, and not to use alcohol and other drugs that could weaken their resolve. The trainings were very practical. They encouraged civility and steered the practitioners away from entanglements that would interfere with their mindfulness practice. They were also a first step in reducing self-centeredness, which the Buddha saw as the primary impediment to spiritual growth. When we lie, steal, or abuse or killi someone, it is usually because we give priority to our gain, and fail to consider the loss or pain of others.

The five trainings were just the entry level. Over the millennia lay followers of the Buddha have publicly and privately committed to many other trainings and practices. In the Theravadan tradition lay practitioners on retreat often commit to eight trainings or ten trainings. In the Mahayana tradition, practitioners often commit to Bodhisattva vows, committing themselves to work, through this and future life times, for the liberation of all beings. Thich Nhat Hanh’s rewriting of the five mindfulness trainings has widened their scope so that, like Bodhisattva vows, they also focus practitioners on living a life that maximally benefits others. The Kalachakra Empowerment now being offered by the Dalai Lama in Washington is, among other things, an invitation to increase one’s commitment by taking on specific vows and daily practices.

The opportunity to undertake trainings, vows, and other spiritual disciplines may bring up a range of responses..

Perhaps we shy away. Commitments may remind us of painful early experiences in which we were emotionally manipulated by parents, teachers, or religious authorities.

Perhaps we eagerly take take on trainings and vows as self-improvement projects in which we become our own taskmasters, imposing rules and evaluating progress.

Perhaps we see commitment as liberation, allowing us to focus on that which matters most to us.

How do you approach spiritual commitments? Do you find it easy or difficult to formally commit to your own well being and the well being of others? What stories do you tell yourself? What metaphors do you use?

You are invited to join us for our sitting, our recitation, and our reflections on spiritual commitments.

Thich Nhat Hanh's formulation of the Five Mindfulness Trainings is available on our website.

Related excerpts from Thich Nhat Hanh, Ann Morriss, and John Welwood are below.

Warm wishes,

Mitchell Ratner
Senior Teacher

Taking the Five Mindfulness Trainings
from a Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh, July 27, 1998 at Plum Village

From the very moment that you kneel down and receive the Five Mindfulness Trainings, you become a bodhisattva, you become a great being. You may be filled with energy, because you are going out there as a bodhisattva, using your life to bring relief to many people who really need you, instead of allowing yourself to be trapped in that prison of guilt. In your daily life, you can free yourself and become someone full of energy, full of compassion.

Whatever the nature of your suffering, whatever the mistakes you have made, whatever categories they belong to, you can practice the same way. You make a commitment not to do it anymore, and you make a commitment to do the opposite, transforming yourself into an instrument of love and understanding. . . . Transformation can take place right from the very beginning. Many people, at the moment they receive Mindfulness Trainings, feel wonderful, as though they are new beings, because of that energy we call the vow, the determination to live our lives in such a way as to bring relief to many people who suffer.

The Irony of Commitment
by Ann Morriss, from the Starbucks "The Way I See It" series

The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.

Spiritual Superego
by John Welwood from “The Psychology of Awakening.” Trycycle 9, no. 3 (2000)

[ A ] major problem for Western seekers is their susceptibility to the “spiritual superego,” a harsh inner voice that acts as relentless critic and judge telling them that nothing they do is ever quite good enough: “You should meditate more and practice harder. You’re too self-centered. You don’t have enough devotion.” This critical voice keeps track of every failure to practice or live up to the teachings, so that practice becomes more oriented toward propitiating a judgmental part of themselves than opening to life unconditionally. They may subtly regard the saints and enlightened ones as father figures who are keeping a critical eye on all the ways they are failing to live up to their commitments. So they strive to be “dharmically correct,” attempting to be more detached, compassionate, or devoted than they really are, while secretly hating themselves for failing to do so, thus rendering their spirituality cold and solemn. Their self-hatred was not created by the spiritual teaching; it already existed. But by pursuing spirituality in a way that widens the gap between how they are and how they think they should be, they wind up turning exquisite spiritual teachings on compassion and awakening into fuel for self-hatred and inner bondage.