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In this episode we continue with part 2 of our 3 part series of the Zen Stoic rendition of The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. We discuss the aggregate of morality and conduct. This is based on our outlook on life, how we treat one another, and how we go about sustaining our lives.
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2022-02 Ep. 3
[00:00:00]
Welcome to the Zen Stoic path. And this episode, we're going to be doing part two of our three-part series on the Zen Stoic version of the eightfold path. So in the last episode, we went through the first aggregate of the eightfold path, which is the aggregate of wisdom and understanding. And we're going to quickly recap on what we went through with that last episode, to give a little bit more context to this section of the.
So the first section of the eightfold path of the first aggregate rather is the aggregate of [00:01:00] understanding and wisdom. And in that we went into what is called the integral view, as well as the integral intention. Now in the traditional westernized translation of the eightfold path, it is said to be right view and right intention.
But we didn't really want to go with the words, right? Because that implies that there is a wrong way to do this. And there are ways that. Going to point you further away from yourself and your own liberation. However, we use the word integral because integral allows us to view things in a way where each part of what we discuss is necessary for the complete and total, whole of the experience.
So when we go in. Integral view, for instance, what this is referring to is a complete view, a total view of our lives of ourselves and to unlimit our identities. Now, when we go into this, we talk about something called. Dichotomy of knowing, which is something that we brought up [00:02:00] in the last episode, which is to say that most of the time, what we're viewing our lives through is a lens of beliefs.
And typically these beliefs are going to be rather limited. They're going to be. Distinct on viewing things from a specific angle or vantage point. But when we look at things in the integral view, what we're doing is we're taking a total view of things. We're acknowledging what we don't know. And oftentimes people fear acknowledging the things that they don't know or admitting to things that they don't know.
And we'll. Default into belief systems or what I like to call glorified assumptions, because the reality is we don't really know the truth of most things. The things that we really know are things that are very obvious to us. We know that we're here in this moment right now, but beyond that everything else is going to be a, just a specific bias point of view that we have.
And as we begin to. Get to know ourselves more and get to experience ourselves [00:03:00] more. What we start to notice is that things that we once believed to be truths were actually assumptions. So in the integral view, what we talk about is how a belief is nothing but a feeling of certainty about something that we don't actually know.
And the example that we use is actually one from , which is, if you pulled up both of your hands, you don't believe that you have two hands, you know that you have two hands, you're experiencing this right now. So the integral. Is mainly about acknowledging what you don't actually know and. We brought up a quote from Socrates that when he said that he is the wisest man, because he knows nothing.
And this is where we begin to find our wisdom. It's not in the, uh, the great answers, the profound answers that we can give, but it's in the acknowledgement of what we don't know. And instead asking questions that are expansive with our view. So that was the first part of the aggregate that we discussed in the previous episode.
The second part would be the integral internet. And in this [00:04:00] particular part of the, of the episode, we went through the Zen Stoic intentions and delusions. Now that was brought up because with Zen Stoicism, the core of the philosophy is to say that we can do and say all the right things, however, by doing and saying the right things, this is not necessarily lead to a path that creates peace.
Because why we do and say the things that we choose is going to ultimately determine the quality of the experience that we have and whether or not we're going to have a sense of inner peace and inner peace will come from its fundamental piece, which is the. Ability to self accept the ability to accept yourself in who you are in this moment, without carrying around baggage and regret.
And oftentimes the baggage and regret doesn't necessarily come from the actions that we've taken, but will oftentimes come from intentions that are delusional. So there are four intentions and four delusions that we went through. The four intentions and four delusions are broken up [00:05:00] into pair bonds. So for each intention, there is a.
And the reason why we put them in that way is because an intention is pointing you back to yourself and your humanity. Whereas a delusion is pointing you away from it. It's pointing you in a direction of obscurity. So if we think about the intentions and delusions, the first set is embrace versus resistance.
So embrace versus resistance is actually related to our outlook on ourselves, our lives and other people. It is the globalized beliefs that we carry with people, the absolute beliefs. So if we're looking at things through a lens of embrace, we're accepting what is, we're embracing the environment around us, the present moment as it is, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're condoning it, but we are seeing things as they are.
And having an integral view is very, very helpful when it comes to actually being able to embrace. Your current reality, whereas resistance is in the vein of wishing. Things were different in trying to push [00:06:00] away what is, and trying to deny what is, and this also can be in the way that you view yourself for other people.
We can embrace the emotions and thoughts that we have, or we can resist them and try to push them away. And there's a simple phrase to remember from this, which is what you resist, will persist. And when you think about that, anything that we resist rather than embrace is going to persist. So if it's a thought or emotion that keeps coming our way, we're going to continuously experience it, experiencing it over and over again, until we're able to actually embrace it.
So embrace versus resistance has everything to do with your outlook on life. The next set is understanding versus control. Now, understanding versus control is related to. The way that you interact with people as well, as well as the way that you interact with situations and circumstances. So understanding is to lead with a sense of curiosity, going in with an open mind, leading with questions rather than statements we discussed in the previous episode, how Zen finds its wisdom when it comes [00:07:00] to great questions, rather than profound answers.
It's not trying to give the right answers, but it's trying to ask questions that will allow somebody to wait. From the illusions of the limitations in which they've placed upon themselves, whereas control is using deductive reasoning. It's going in with a conclusion already made up. So going back to integral view, when we think about control, we're going in with the belief we're going in.
An assumption that we've already concluded and accepted as truth and with control the way that we might use control with other people. As we try to impose our beliefs on them, we try to maybe manipulate them into thinking a specific way. When it comes to the situations, we try to keep the status quo. We try to keep things in a way that we understand is familiar to us.
Right. Then having curiosity and asking questions to begin to innovate and expand the situations that we might be in. So this is where this particular set of intentions and delusions would land. The next [00:08:00] set is disciplined versus expediency. And this is one that we're going to actually be interweaving into today's episode because discipline is all about.
The prioritization of meaning over gratification and this at its core has to do with your relationship to your emotions. Our emotions have a lot of wisdom within them. However, we've been taught that when an emotion is good, we need to chase it. We need to go after it. We need to create as much of it as we possibly.
Essentially indulgent. And when an emotion is bad, we need to get away from it as soon as we can. So we've demonized unpleasant emotions and we've glorified, pleasant emotions. And the relationship that we have to these emotions makes us a slave to the emotions. If we handle them in that, in the way that I just described.
So with this. We're not looking at our emotions as dictators, but as indicators, indicators that will give us the ability to start a dialogue with ourselves and ask ourselves, what does this emotion mean? What is it trying to tell me? [00:09:00] What problem does it want me to solve? Or what perspective does it want me to take in this moment?
And so discipline is taking the time to understand the emotions. Okay. Act on them accordingly and move in the direction of what is most important to us. And this is something that we can discover as we'll discuss later today in integral livelihood, as we can discover is. Inclinations do we have towards things?
What naturally grabs our attention? What sincerely grabs our attention. And oftentimes this will lead to what is going to allow us to move with discipline expediency. On the other hand is being a slave to the emotions, being a slave to pain or pleasure and expediency could look like a variety of different things.
It could look like I feel bad, right? And I don't want to feel bad. I want to feel comfortable. So I'm going to go ahead and eat something. I'm going to go ahead and watch TV. I'm going to go ahead and smoke a cigarette or have a conversation with a person who's going to indulge me in these and [00:10:00] the way that we interact with these emotions.
The reason why we call it expediency is because instead of understanding and acting on what this emotion is attempting to signal to you, what you're doing is you're moving as quickly as possible to the next good. So that is prioritizing gratification over meaning. So it's not important to a person who is expedient to get something meaningful.
What is important is to get away from the bad feeling and into the good feeling or to avoid the bad feeling entirely. And then the last set is sincerity versus performance. This has to do with one self-expression and the congruency or the truth that one would bring to their self-expression sincerity, prioritizes a sense of self-respect and congruent.
Over a sense of approval and admiration, whereas performance is prioritizing approval and admiration over that. Self-respect so when you act sincerely, you are doing and saying the things that are true to you, you start to embrace Zen style of action, which is the [00:11:00] acting and deciding simultaneously. The example that we used in the previous episode is that we talked about how archery is a very Zen practice because the art of archery.
Comes down to this idea of being able to decide to release the bow and release the bow simultaneously. So that would be in the category of sincerity. Now, if we move over to performance, performance is not necessarily saying or doing what is true to you, but doing and saying what you believe. Others want you to say.
And so it's looking at the admiration, the appeasement of others as the goal, rather than the expression of what is truest to you. So these are the intentions and that, and previously to that, that is the integral view. No, the reason why these are really important for this next section is because today we're going to be discussing morality and conduct.
In other words, how do we act if we have the right view or the integral view, and we have the integral [00:12:00] intentions that are leading us towards our humanity and ourselves. What do we actually do? What do we put in place when it comes to our actions? And so we're going to be going through three sections today.
We're going to be first going through integral action, which is basically how we conduct ourselves in the world. Then we're going to be going into integral speech, which is how we actually speak to ourselves, how we communicate to ourselves and others. And last week, lastly, we're going to be going into integral livelihood, which is how we garner the resources that we need to sustain ourselves in living this.
So going into the internet. Action. This is more so how we're going to conduct ourselves with ourselves as well as with other people as we live our lives. Now, there are a few things that I like to bring up when it comes to this particular topic. One from stoicism, one from Buddhism that allow us to get a better picture.
Of how we might want to carry ourselves. And the way that I like to start, this is not with the five precepts, which is typically what would go [00:13:00] in this section of the eightfold path. But what I like to do is actually go into the book to a Marcus Aurelius, where he describes the five ways that the soul degrades itself.
So when it comes to. The way of right action or integral action, we can begin to look at the five ways that the soul degrades itself, that Marcus really is described in his journal. And the first way is to see yourself as separate from nature. If we see ourselves as separate from nature, it can be something as simple as getting upset that it's raining outside.
Right. And you had some plans that you wanted to actually go and actually. But seeing yourself as separate from nature can go even deeper into that. It can go deeper into the idea of as a human being. We are social animals and as social animals, it is up to us in terms of our survival. To cooperate with one another.
And if we are acting against one another, we are going against our nature. If [00:14:00] we are finding ourselves in the illusion of the egoic view, where we are viewing life through the lens of our ego, through the lens of our individuality and seeing ourselves as separate from other humans, then we are starting to see ourselves separate from nature itself and in doing so this is one of the ways that the soul begins to degrade it.
According to Marcus Aurelius. Now, the second way that soul degrades itself is when we think about doing something deliberately out of malice, towards another person. So deliberately wanting to hurt somebody or inflict pain is the second way in which we degrade the soul. Now, the reason being is because.
Once again, we're violating that first one, which is to say that we are going against our nature as a human being. If humans are made for each other, if we're made to cooperate. Move in a herd or move in a group in order to get things done in advance our species than us going against ourselves, us killing each other as stealing from each other, [00:15:00] us getting upset and hateful with one another is going against that nature.
And that ultimately degrades our ourselves. When we attack other people, we are attacking ourselves simultaneously because we are part of nature. We are not separate from it. And that is one, one, the. Ways that the soul degrades itself, because it goes against the very nature of our being and how we survive and thrive as a species.
Humans are not the biggest, fastest or strongest animals on the planet, but what sets us apart is our ability to cooperate with one another, our ability to come together and to think rationally and use our reasoning to create solutions, to advance our species, to advance ourselves technologically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically.
And this is how we've been able to be the species that we are. Sure we have our flaws, but. Things that we've achieved as a species are incredible because of our ability to cooperate. So if we go against that, if we intend harm on another [00:16:00] human being, what we really truly doing is going against ourselves.
Now, the third, which is actually really similar to the, uh, the five precepts, the both the third of Marcus Aurelius is material, as well as the five precepts are actually very similar. And you'll see that as we go through this. The third way that the soul degrades itself is by being overpowered by pain or pleasure.
So this is actually talking very similarly to where we were discussing expediency. And actually this is what drew the inspiration for that particular delusion. Now being overpowered by pain or pleasure. What marks really is discusses in meditations is how being overpowered by pain sometimes is almost more understandable, right?
Because we're in pain. We want to get out. It's something that brings our attention to the moment very quickly, very easily. Now, when we are overpowered by pain, what we're doing is we're not thinking in terms of what's important. I'm not thinking in terms of meaning. So what that might lead. If we're in [00:17:00] pain, whether that's emotional or physical pain, what we might do is.
C's to use our rational faculty sees to use our reasoning and maybe go against our nature. Maybe do something bad to someone else, or maybe not consider another person in the equation, in our attempt to get away from the pain. And we might cause more harm, more collateral damage just because we're trying to get out of it so bad, because we are thinking to ourselves that we have to do that.
We're demonizing this, these feelings of pain and that we have to move away from them as quick as. Now being overpowered by pleasure. Marcus really is refers to as, almost worse than being overpowered by pain because in being overpowered by pleasure, what we end up doing is we're almost knowingly doing wrong.
We're almost knowingly indulging in something that we know is maybe not good for us. And when we get overpowered by pleasure, this would lead to things. Deception. This will lead to things like performance, because we think that the pleasure of others [00:18:00] admiration is going to make us feel like enough.
That's going to make us feel good, or we might feel like, well, if I control the situation, right, if I get into a delusion of control and I make everything familiar and I make everything safe and I make it so that I am in, in control and I have sovereignty over every. That might be again, being overpowered by pleasure, which would, might cause us to manipulate.
Somebody might cause us to deceive somebody to lie to them, to lie to ourselves. And so this is what would happen and how it degrades the soul. When we beat, when we become overpowered by either one of these, uh, either pain or pleasure. Now, the fourth way that sold the grades itself is by engaging. What would, what, what we would call false speech engaging in deception purposely.
So again, this very similar and very related to the delusion of performance, we are doing things knowingly deceiving. What we're doing is we're violating the very fabric of reality. [00:19:00] Now, if you've been listening to these episodes, you know, I draw a lot of inspiration from Jordan Peterson and he has one of his rules in his first book.
Uh, well, not his first book, but the 12 rules for life. Where rule number eight is tell the truth, or at least don't tell lies. And the reason why he brings this up is because when we lie, what we're doing is we're attempting to bend the very fabric of reality in our favor, we're trying to do something again, probably because we're being overpowered by pain or pleasure.
So we're trying to manipulate the fabric of reality and how reality works. Now, the problem with this is the reason why it degrades the soul is. Just like we were discussing with the intentions and delusions when we lie, when we deceive others or we try to deceive ourselves, we always know, we always know at some level when we're trying to deceive or manipulate ourselves or other people.
We feel it emotionally, something feels off, there's an agitation, there's an [00:20:00] irritation of some type, some kind, and we feel off in doing so. So when we do this, we degrade ourselves because each time we lie, what we're expressing to ourselves is that we don't trust ourselves. We don't trust ourselves to be able to say the truth and to think that we're going to be okay for doing so and what we are doing.
Basically reinforcing to ourselves that not only do we not trust ourselves, but that we need to trust others over ourselves. And we need to say the things that are going to make. Like us or make them think a certain thing of us. And that is the reason why it becomes very difficult to accept ourselves and to have any sense of inner peace when we engage in deception.
So this is why the soul degrades itself in this way, because it prevents us from being able to have any sense of inner peace, because there is an inability to accept ourselves when we engage in this particular behavior.
Now the fifth way that the soul degrades itself is to operate without aim or purpose. In other words, to [00:21:00] drift through life aimlessly, what Marcus really suggest here is that when we are taking actions, it is very important that we have some form of aim or purpose. Some form of intentionality might say, if we're talking about it through a Zen Stoic lens, now why this is important is because.
Typically when we don't have an aim or purpose, what we default to is a sense of expediency. We default to being overpowered by pain or pleasure, and we simply become a slave to our emotions when we're just simply drifting through life like that. So the counter to that is to have some form of aim, have some form of purpose in the actions and words that we speak now, the way.
Basically guide ourselves as to what the right aims or the right purposes are, is to look at. Things through the lens of the intentions. If we are going to take an action, if we're going to say something, maybe we don't just say things because we feel like we have to say something, [00:22:00] but instead we say things because that is what sincerely exists on our minds and in our hearts, or let's say, we're going to take an action.
Let's say we're going to learn a particular skill set, or you're going to pick up a new sport. Um, one example that I was like to use because I practice it myself is picking up on martial art. If you're going to pick up a martial art. Are you doing it because maybe you want to perform or you want to look cool or be a bad-ass or are you doing it because you know that it's going to be good for you, whether it comes to your health, weight, loss of the ability to defend yourself and moving into it with an aim or purpose of discipline, using that intention.
When you're talking with another person, are you aiming to control that person to make them think a specific. Or are you aiming to really understand them and how they might feel in a certain situation? So we can use the intentions as a way of guiding or helping us aim at things, especially in moments where [00:23:00] we're not sure what the goal is.
The point here is that it doesn't need to be a goal. It doesn't need to be oriented around an outcome. In fact, it's better if your intentions are not oriented, oriented around a specific outcome, especially when it comes with people, but instead oriented around. Bringing you back to your own humanity first and foremost, this is not to say that it's not a good thing to have goals, but if we have goals that are intended with delusions or we're going to end up finding is that we create a lot of emotional friction along the way.
We end up creating trouble for ourselves and drama for ourselves by engaging in intentions that are pointing us away from ourselves and our humanity, right? These are going to create unnecessary and excessive suffering. So. Using the four intentions and four delusions as a guide to see where you're aiming at will help with this particular part that would otherwise be what Marcus Aurelius would refer to as a way that this human soul degrades itself.
So that [00:24:00] is the stoic side of this. Now, when it comes to integral action, there is the Buddhist side of this, which is where the original precepts. Now precepts is an interesting word for this particular translation, because these are not commandments what these are our vows that the Buddha had suggested that people take in terms of their morality and how they acted, because they would allow one's way of liberation to be more effortless in how we actually treat each other.
In the previous episode we discussed with the intentions and delusions, how there are both passive and active sides to expressing these things. Now the passive side of expressing is the inaction of something. So the passive side of let's say, for instance, sincerity is maybe not pretending to be something that you're not right.
It's very simple. It's an inaction. Whereas the active side of sincerity, as an example, would be. Being proactive about expressing who [00:25:00] you are and what is true to you. So when we think about the five precepts, they're both active and passive sides
So the first preceptive Buddhism is not to destroy. So, this is a pretty simple one, basically means not to kill. However, this is the passive side. This is the inaction and part of living as a human being and not going against your nature is not to kill each other.
It sounds very obvious, but it's something that is important for us to acknowledge, especially in living this life of liberation. Now it does not necessarily only point to that, because again, that's the inaction, what it really means. To go to the active site is to lead with love, not to engage in malice, not to attack or kill things because you're mad because you're angry because you're hateful.
What this means is instead to avoid malice and instead lead with love, compassion, and kindness. Now, some people will look at this and they'll take it very literally and say, oh, well [00:26:00] the Buddha said not to kill, not to destroy life. And they think to themselves, well, this means that I have to be vegetarian.
And the truth is the Buddha wasn't vegetarian himself. So it really truly means not to take life out of malice, not to do things out of anger, not to do things because you feel that you have the right to control another's destiny or their ability to live and be in this life as a human being. So instead of looking at this very literally in saying, well, it just means not to kill in all circumstances.
What it really means is not to lead with that malice. So for instance, if somebody were to kill because they were high. For food. Let's say that wouldn't be violating this preset because that's not going out of malice. It's not going out of anger. That is going out of a sustained an intention to sustain life.
Now, there are ways that obviously this point can be argued to we're all blue in the face. But the point here is, is that it's not to have the intention of malice. And [00:27:00] instead on the active side of things, it's to lead with love. The second precept is. Not the second precept is not to steal, not to take what is not given now, again, this is the passive side, the inaction here that is going to allow us to live a more liberated life is not to take what is not given.
So the active side of this, which is something that I've I've brought with Zen Stoicism is to be the source of what you seek to experience. Now, this is not a straightforward. Action, or this is not a straightforward, active way to practice this precept. It means a few things, but one thing that I've always found in my own life is that if there's something that I wanted to experience in my life, let's say one example.
That's really good. Here is the experience of love. If I want to experience more love in my life. I can try to take that from people. I can engage in some of these, uh, these violations of what degrades the [00:28:00] human soar. I can engage with some of these delusions by trying to control by trying to perform and get people to love me.
Or I can be loving. I can start by being loving towards other people, towards other living things towards my environment. And I can begin as the source of love. Now, when you are the source of what you see. What you find is that you start to bring it in abundance into your own life. There is a really good Chinese proverb that I really like that points to this, which is if you're always giving, then you'll always have,
so to become the source of what you experienced is to live in that way too. Instead of trying to take things, instead of trying to control the environment or, uh, manipulate the environment into giving you what you want. Or other people for that matter is to become the source of what you seek. Ask yourself.
If I was the source of this, how could I give this to others? How could I give this to the world? And this is a very active way of practicing the precept rather than just abstaining from stealing, which again, that's a great [00:29:00] start, but if you want to take it to that next level and to really embody this perspective become the source of what you seek to express.
The third precept is to not exploit the passions. Now what this is typically translated as which is again, not inclusive of the entirety of its. Is not to commit adultery or not to, uh, not to drink or not to overeat when these all, all these things are included within this particular precept of avoiding the exploitation of the passions.
However, they don't capture the essence of what it really is. And this is extremely similar to Marcus. Aurelius is third way that the soul degrades itself, which is to not be a slave or not be overpowered by pain or pleasure when we exploited the passions, what we're doing. Is we're being expedient. We are maybe having a drink because we're feeling down or maybe we're eating because we're feeling lonely.
What we're doing here is we're exploiting the things that are [00:30:00] beautiful in life. We're exploiting the things that are here for us to enjoy. So if we use, let's say we're having a fight with our spouse and instead of resolving the problems we're going and just having makeup sex. If we're doing that, what we're doing is we're exploiting the passion of sexuality.
If we're doing it with food, maybe we feel lonely. So we go and we start to binge eat. We start to have a bunch of. We're exploiting the passion of the pleasure of what it is to eat and we're violating the enjoyment of life. We're violating these things that are meant for us to be able to enjoy and really be present in.
So when we exploit the passions, what we're gonna end up doing is we're going to be built building these bridges of expediency and moving away from ourselves. We're moving away from our emotions and consistently avoiding them. So it actually pulls us away from ourselves. It makes our liberation virtually impossible.
We're continuously exploiting these passions. So we want to keep in mind not to be expedient, not to be overpowered by our pain and [00:31:00] pleasure, but to instead prioritize meaning and prioritizing meaning would be the active side of this when we prioritize meaning it's when we decide what is truly important to us in our life.
What is going to take the priority and making sure that that means saying no to everything that could get in the way or conflict with that priority. Now, what is meaningful to you could change at different areas of your life. There's a lot of talk about life purpose and our destiny and what we've been put on this planet for and whatnot.
And life purpose is an interesting concept, but life purpose is a very fluid thing. It changes. Depending on the phase of life that we're in. So what is most meaningful to one person at one point in their life may be completely different. 10 years later, right? As a kid, maybe what's most meaningful to you is to make friends and have fun.
But as an adult, as a young adult, let's say you're in your early twenties. Maybe what's most meaningful to you is to find a career that brings you a sense of [00:32:00] satisfaction. Maybe as you get older, maybe. Perhaps you have kids or you're married or whatever the case is, maybe what's most meaningful is family.
So when we prioritize, what is most meaningful instead of exploiting the passions, what we do is we realize that this. Is most important. So if let's say my family is most important, I am not going to go and overeat or go drink when I have a problem or a conflict that exists that is existing with the family.
If that's what what's most important, I'm going to prioritize the meaning of making sure that that's stable rather than prioritizing the gratification of avoiding the emotional pain that's coming from that conflict. And we can put this model into anything, but the whole point here is. Is not to exploit the passions on the passive side and then on the active side to prioritize, meaning the forth.
Again, very similar to Marcus Aurelius has list. So you're starting to see some, some parallels here, but the fourth precept is to not engage in false speech. [00:33:00] Once again, very much like we described before, this is not to lie. This is not to deceive. This is not to manipulate in order to get what you want or in order to get the things that are going to soothe your unpleasant emotions.
So the passive, the passive side is not to engage in false speech. Whereas the active side is to communicate sincerely with kindness. And the reason why I added in kindness and respect to this is because we can sometimes say things that we believe are sincere things that are the truth of what we actually think.
But typically what's going to end up happening is that somebody will look at that and they'll say, okay, I'm going to communicate sincerely. That means I'm going to be super blunt with this person and just tell them how I feel, tell them how it is. However, when we do that, what's interesting is that when we're blunt with people, typically it carries the connotation.
I'm going to say what I feel, but I'm also going to sprinkle in a little bit of what my emotions are about the situation, my unresolved emotions. [00:34:00] So there's typically going to be some spice or some sting on what we've said, because we almost want that person who were being. To feel what we're feeling about this problem.
And sometimes the bluntness could be good. It could be well-placed, it could, you know, help a person kind of see through things. But typically speaking, what it's going to do is it's going to make somebody feel judged and it is a form of expediency. We feel this bad feeling. We think that we can get rid of it by being blown.
By putting some sting behind our words. And so therefore we'll be sincere, but we'll do it in a way without actually thinking through what's the most meaningful way to communicate this to this person. So that's why the active side of this is communicate sincerely with kindness and respect, rather than just being blunt and just sprinkling our emotions that are unresolved all over the other person as a way of trying to get rid of them within us.
The final precept, the fifth precept here [00:35:00] is one that is typically been difficult to translate and understand. So I'm going to do my best here as it's one. That seems to be a bit nebulous. It has been translated as not to get intoxicated, to abstain from intoxicated. But the way that I've looked at this and interpreted it myself is it's not necessarily, it's not specifically about intoxication.
Intoxication is one form that can lead to this precept, but really what this precept is saying is not to engage in things that cause inattention. So why that's important to say it in that way today is because sometimes for us to create inattention or non presence, we don't need a substance. Today we have our phones that we can be scrolling through.
And the doom scrolling is a form or a behavior that causes inattention. Now, when we cause inattention, it makes it very difficult for us to wake up and become liberated [00:36:00] from our emotions, from our thoughts, from the things that seem to play our minds.
When we cause ourselves in attention, Take ourselves out of the present, we try to not be here and for us to really experience our highest degree of spirituality, at least in the view of Zen Stoicism, you just to be here now to be perfectly and simply human wholeheartedly without having to keep an eye on ourselves.
And if we're engaging in getting blackout drunk, or getting super stoned, it's going to be really difficult for us to have a sense of attention or a sense of presence here in the most. So it's not specifically not to get intoxicated. What this is saying is not to engage in activities or substances for the purpose of creating inattention for the purpose of trying to escape this moment.
Now I know there there's a joke that I always make with the conscious community or the spiritual community that a lot of the [00:37:00] people that I interact with in that community, not all of them, but there's a lot of, there's a handful of people that I'll interact with sometimes that are always trying to. Not be here, whether that's through tripping on psychedelics so much so that they forget who they are in this moment or in this, this lifetime, or it's, you know, doing these crazy DMT or Iowasca trips, which I have nothing against those things.
But what I've seen is that people use them. An expediency towards their spiritual development, right. They start to engage in spiritual bypass, which is to avoid the here and now to get to the next thing that they perceive as being super profound. So the joke that I always tell people is like, stop trying to not be here.
It's not very spiritual of you because if we are going to engage in our highest degree of spirituality, it's about being here now in the. One thing that I always remind myself of, especially when I feel lost, especially when I feel like deep sense of anxiety or anger or despair, which are emotions that I still have to this day, despite doing all this work is [00:38:00] I remind myself of this and I say, I chose to be here now whether I remember why or not.
And that phrase always brings me back to the present moment, always brings me back to here and. The reason why this is so important is because it allows me to have a perspective and a frame of reference for my life and for my individual subjective experience, where I validate my own existence, simply by the fact that I am here and there is no need for justification.
There's no need for anybody else to validate me in that moment. And this is something that I always can come back to that will not only help me become present, but it also reminds me. Of my own agency, my own choice. Now I can't verify this factually speaking, but it is something that I feel deeply within myself and something that always allows me to be present.
So the active or the passive side of this precept is to not engage in things [00:39:00] that cause inattention or non presence. Whereas the passive side is to be here now in this, whereas the active side is to be here now in this moment. There was the five ways that the soul degrades itself and the five precepts of Buddhism translated in a stoic translated in a Zen Stoic version so the next section of this aggregate is what is called integral speech. Now, integral speech has everything to do with how we speak to ourselves, how we speak to others, how we use our words in our language to describe and shape our experiences. So we've touched on this a bit throughout the precepts, as well as the Marcus Aurelius version of how the solar grades.
By saying not to engage in false speech, not to engage in deception or lies. Now why this is important is because the way that we speak when we are speaking in an integral way, the way that we communicate to ourselves is in a [00:40:00] way that number one does not go against ourselves or others. And to, and on the active side of this is in a way that supports that.
Supports others and points us all back to our humanity. So where I learned this originally, when I learned this idea of speaking in this way, speaking in an integral way was when I read the book, the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. And in that book, he talked about. The four agreements and the first agreement being to be impeccable with your word and what he meant by being impeccable with your word is to speak in a way that does not go against yourself or others, because the word impeccable comes from the Latin word , which means to sin and sin is essentially saying.
To go against oneself or to go against others. So if we're going to point back to our humanity, with our words, with the way that we speak to ourselves and [00:41:00] others is important that we are impeccable with our word, that we have integral speech that we don't use our words to degrade ourselves. We don't use our words to degrade others.
Going again, building off of everything that we've talked about up until this point. If you're maybe violating Marcus Aurelius, his soul degradation, number two, which is to intend malice or try to cause pain. If we're doing that with our words, whether we're beating ourselves up or we're trying to beat someone else up with our words verbally, then we're going against ourselves.
We're going against others. We're going against our entire humanity. Our words are not something that are insignificant. They're actually incredibly important to be able to be conscious of, to be able to use it in a way that is very intentional. And if we don't do this, what we end up doing is we end up creating almost like a prison for ourselves.
One of my coaching mentors, Dr. Mario Garcia of the neuro strategic coaching Institute always says the words you speak, create the house [00:42:00] that you. And this has always been something that's resonated with me because we literally shape our experience through our words, our words, our symbols, that we use to communicate our emotions.
We use to communicate our situations. And the way that we speak can either be in a positive way, a neutral way, which is typically just simply very functional or a negative way, a way that is attempting to degrade. And if we get too caught in speaking negative, And what we're going to do is we're going to create ourselves a prison within our own minds.
That is constantly gonna feel like we're beating ourselves up. So we want to be very intentional with the way that we speak. Now, when I teach this, I like to really get very granular with it. And while it seems like it might be very tedious at times, this way of speaking. Is fundamental when it comes to making changes in our lives.
So one thing that I always talk about with my clients is that people will come in and start [00:43:00] working with them. They'll say things like, I want to have a better relationship. I want more money. I need to do these tasks. I need to be more productive. I need to stop procrastinating. I should, uh, you know, pick up after myself instead of just allow my house to become a mess.
I should work out. I should, uh, work on my book or my. All of these words I want, I need, I should, all of these words or expressing not doing any of these things, all these words are expressing an intention to fail at these things. When we say I want something, what we're expressing is not having, we're expressing a sense of lack.
And we say, I need to do something. We're acknowledging the importance of something, but we're also simultaneously in some ways saying that we're not going to actually. If we say I should do something once again, we can acknowledge that other people think that this is a good idea, but I really don't. And so therefore I'm not going to do it seems a bit harsh to look at our words in this way.
But the point is when [00:44:00] we speak this, when we speak in this way, we condition ourselves to not following through on our word. So there's a massive difference between I want to do something and I choose to do. Um, one thing that I always work on with my clients is this idea of choice of bringing a sense of sovereignty first and foremost, to the way that you speak.
Because one thing that I've noticed a lot of people will do, especially when it comes to matters of personal development. Self-improvement making changes of any kind is that they'll say things, they'll say this one a lot. And I know I had been in a, almost like a hypnosis of my own doing, of saying this, this to myself, which is I have.
I have to do this. I have to do that. And when we say I have to, what we're doing is telling ourselves that we don't have a choice. We are actually denying our own freewill when we use language like I have to, because the symbology of I have to is not having any agency. It's not having any sovereignty.
You [00:45:00] might be trying, you might be intending to say that something's really important, really serious, but when you say half, do we create rigidity within ourselves? We create a level of seriousness that makes it very difficult for us to move and be flexible within our own lives. And we imply to ourselves and condition ourselves to believe that we don't have a choice.
But instead when we say things like I choose to, or I will, this language allows us to be impeccable with our word, and it allows us to have an integral sense of speech because by saying, I choose to we're acknowledging our free will. We are acknowledging our own agency and we are being intentional about what we're discussing about what we're talking about.
Now the final section that we're going to be discussing today is what is called integral livelihood. Now, the Buddha basically put this into the eightfold path because what he wanted, the people practicing this way of Liberty. Was for them not to be earning their living or their keep [00:46:00] using nefarious or illegal activities to do so.
In other words, things that would compromise the precepts are compromised, their own morality in doing so. The reason being is because like we've discussed before, deceiving yourself, lying to yourself, being expedient, doing things in a way that is manipulative or controlling are things that even if we get away with them, we always.
So in going into these things with the right intention or the integral intention, as we discussed in this episode, Our livelihood is no different the way that we bring in resources, the way that we earn our keep in order to sustain our lives is very important to make sure that it is done in an integral way, with a sense of intentionality.
Now, what this is to say, is that what you do for work, what you do to earn a living is not conflicting with your liberation. It is not causing you. I feel a lack of acceptance for yourself or an attempt to compartmentalize your actions because they don't actually go with your own moral code. [00:47:00] Personally.
Now this is really important because there are people sometimes that they will be doing their. And there'll be forced to do something for that job if they intend on keeping the job that is, that is going against their own morality going against their own code of conduct. And they will typically default to a statement like I'm just doing my job now, this default to the statement of I'm just doing my job.
Is almost a form of performance, but as well, as well as a form of resistance and expediency, we are resisting our own moral code because we've agreed to do this job. We're performing for the job that is asking us to do something that is not really okay with us. And we're being expedient by not.
Necessarily taking it, taking a moment to decide what's important, or even to ask ourselves, is there another way of achieving the same outcome? Is there another way of fulfilling the same intention that this particular task is asking me to do? So when we default to this, we're not practicing a sense of integral livelihood.
What we're doing instead [00:48:00] is we're actually. Using our livelihood in a way that is performative expedient and resistant to, to, we are as a person. Now there's a few different sources that I drew from to develop what integral livelihood means from a Zen Stoic perspective. And one of those actually comes from the book Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiastes is, is really interesting because it was written by Solomon.
At the time was the richest most successful person. And in this writing, what he discusses is how the person with great ambition and great riches and the person who is poor, both end up meeting the same fate when it comes to their death. Now, this seems like a grim way of describing this in a way that maybe can even allude to the frame of reference that.
What does it matter? How much ambition I have with my livelihood, where we're all just going to die. But that is not at all the case of what we're discussing here, what this is to say in what Solomon was discussing in Ecclesiastics is this idea that our work [00:49:00] is not about accumulating as much riches as we possibly can.
It's not about just enjoying the material pleasures of life because all of those are fleeting. They are, uh, vanities, if you will. Right? And this, this idea of vanities is that vanities are future. Pursuits there, like he would talk about in the book chasing the wind. And the idea here is that it's not about how much we earn.
Or how much material wealth we can bring into our lives, but are we enjoying life or are we having a good time with our lives? Is our life meaningful to us? Is it fulfilling to us? And this goes really well in line with something that Marcus really has said, which is that your only job, your only real job is to be a good human.
And that is the fundamental beginning of this. And when it comes to an integral livelihood, it's about earning your living in a way that allows you to. A good human effortlessly that you don't have to convince yourself to do this. And you're able to actually [00:50:00] enjoy yourself. Now, bringing this into a Zen concept.
Zen talks about this idea of making practice, the goal, which is essentially a way of saying not to be attached to the. But rather than being attached to the outcome fall in love with the process of what it is that you're doing, that is making the practice. The goal is to love the work itself, not just do it because you're attached to the outcome.
When we think about just being attached to the money or the fame or the prestige, that work is going to bring us, that is when we're chasing vanities, when we're chasing the wind. And one thing that is said in Ecclesiastes is that I remember when I read it, it riveted my soul. Keep in mind, like I'm not a religious person.
I don't consider myself a Christian by any means, but I'll still go to texts like Ecclesiastes and read these things because they're fall very in line with this philosophy. And the, the, the quote from it was this better to have one hand full of tranquility than two hands full of toil chasing. Which is reminds me greatly of how I [00:51:00] used to be before I really dove into Zen Stoic full time, which is being immersed in the hustle culture.
Always having work to do, always being busy, trying to go, go, go being, you know, team, no sleep and all these weird cliches that we have these days around work. And when immersed in the hustle culture, I was always working and sure I was making money, but at the same time, I remember I felt like I was losing myself.
Like I was losing myself. In the name of being productive in the name of producing content in the name of producing money, in the name of a producing sales. And I remember the way that I went about this from what a lot of old teachers and mentors would teach me was almost like this high pressure vibe that I always carried with me when it came to my work, I was always, you know, always had this nervous energy that I always had to be moving and doing something and being productive all the time.
And if I wasn't, then I was a failure and I remember this was driving me insane. Because I was basically in my world. Doing all the delusions and [00:52:00] none of the intentions when it came to why I was doing what I was doing, right. I was resisting my own feelings about doing things that I didn't think were right.
I was trying to control the outcome of everything I was using weird sales tactics that made me feel like shit all the time. I was being expedient by always trying to, you know, shortcut and make myself look more prestigious, which, you know, kind of put me into that realm of performance.
And I remember I just couldn't live with myself when I was practicing these things into the, in the attempt to build a business and the attempt to sell, sell things when it came to my coaching and whatnot. So I remember for me, I was not practicing an integral livelihood. It was going against my liberation cause it was making it really difficult for me to accept myself in the whole scheme of things.
So what I started asking myself was a w which was a way to kind of gut check myself and allow me to leave. In a way that was in integrity was Zen Stoicism was to ask myself this one question where I said, what would it look like? And how would I need to operate if my business was built [00:53:00] completely on referrals.
And what this forced me to do is to really think about how I made people feel when I was servicing them through COVID. It not only talk, uh, it not only made me focus on how I was servicing people when it actually came to the coaching, but also thinking about what is their whole journey into this, this whole practice of Zen Stoicism and into this liberation coaching that I'm taking them through.
And it made me think about how I was selling my services as well as not just how I was delivering, but also how I was selling. And in this whole process of thought, I was able to actually come to a place where, um, Would be very, very sincere in the sales conversations and make sure that the person actually was a good fit, not just that they could pay for the service.
I was, I made sure that I was really intending a sense of understanding and curiosity about their situation. So I was really practicing these intentions and by practicing the intentions that we had talked about before, it allowed me to be [00:54:00] earning a living in a way that didn't just abstain from conflicting in my liberal.
But it also actively supported my liberation because I was able to be me. I was able to be sincere. I knew I wasn't deceiving anybody. I knew I wasn't trying to manipulate things in a way that would just be in my interest, but actually servicing people because at the end of the day, what I learned about referrals and business is that if somebody loves your service, but you made them feel weird in buying your service.
They might love you and what you gave them, but they're not going to refer their friends to that. They're not going to refer the people that they love to that. So for me, in order to really have, uh, a business that operated through. It took me asking that question. It took me coming into this space where I, it wasn't necessarily the path to making the most amount of money, the quickest, but it was the path that allowed me to feel fulfilled and feel joy when it came to my work, rather than feeling like I had to [00:55:00] hustle constantly.
So when you're operating with a sense of integrity, it allows you to actually feel fulfilled in your work. It allows you to actually feel joyful in your work and not to take things so seriously, but to take them sincere. Which there is a massive difference in that when we're taking things super seriously, when it comes to our work, we're intending a sense of control.
We're becoming very rigid and we're allowing ourselves to get angry about things that don't necessarily go our way rather than be able to enjoy the process with the ebbs and flows. Hopefully this episode has good enough editing by the time we're done that you don't see all the logistical mishaps that we had.
On this particular episode, we had the lights flickering. We had, you know, people coughing in the background. We had my dog coming in. We had all kinds of things that didn't happen on our first few episodes. But the whole point of this is, is that if you're doing something. That allows you to live and have an integral livelihood with the way that you operate in your work.
These mishaps don't necessarily upset [00:56:00] you, but you're able just to ride the ebbs and flows of when they do come up, because inevitably things are not always going to go through. And we were able to still enjoy this process, or at least I was, I don't, I don't know about Louis in the back over there, but we were able to enjoy the process despite there being these mishaps, because the whole idea here is if we were to allow ourselves to get super annoyed or get really angry about the fact that things weren't going as planned or things weren't going our way, then that would not be a practice of integral livelihood, those emotions, and those attempts to control and resist what was happening.
Consistently throughout this particular episode would have conflicted with the liberation that we are in pursuit of that we are aiming at each and every day by practicing Zen Stoicism. So when it comes to having this integral livelihood, it's about choosing work, that doesn't conflict with Liberty.
As well as that actively supports your liberation, this is not mean you [00:57:00] need to do things that are your passion in life. You don't have to always do work that you love necessarily as a neutral, it could just be doing work that doesn't conflict with you being you. And that that's fine too. You can work a job that allows you to just earn your keep, but doesn't conflict with your own liberal.
And that is a phenomenal start compared to a job that causes you to go against yourself and feel dead inside every day. That's not what we want. There is a really great video from this YouTube channel called freedom and thought that I love, and I've watched it multiple times. I'll be putting it in the references, but it's about Marcus Aurelius and living a sincere.
And what it talks about. It, it references Marcus Aurelius, but it also tells a story about a businessman trying to learn how to focus from a monk. And what's really interesting about this story and what comes out of it is that living a sincere life allows focus to come easily, [00:58:00] effortlessly, and naturally, whereas living a life where you're doing things that you think you should do, or that you think you have to do is what leads to distress.
In other words, if we're doing work that we think we're supposed to do, or we think is the right thing to do. And we're inevitably going to get distracted each and every time, because our mind is going to wander towards what we believe is worthwhile and Marcus or the Marcus really is quote that's referenced in that video is something to that.
I'm going to paraphrase here cause I don't have it in front of me, but it is something to the degree of does your mind tend to wander? And if it does choose to learn something worthwhile, Is when you learn something worthwhile, your focus will naturally gravitate towards it. I remember for me, when I first started getting into Zen Stoicism, when I outlined these episodes, when I get into coaching with clients,
I'm not thinking about anything else. I'm allowing myself. Go into it and become immersed in the process where I just fall in love with the work itself, [00:59:00] because it's sincerely what I want to do. It allows me to be me in my work and therefore I don't feel the need to be distracted by scrolling through social media or, you know, taking all these breaks.
So if you do, if you live a life where you're doing what you think you're supposed to do, then it will inevitably lead to distraction. If you choose work, that is what you genuinely want to do, and that it's meaningful to you. And that it brings you joy.
You will very naturally allow yourself to be focused and present in the work each and every day. So hope you enjoyed this episode of the Zen Stoic path. We went through Zen Stoic conduct and morality going through integral action, integral speech and integral livelihood. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe to our channel for future episodes.
And I look forward to seeing you on that.