Morality is a 4-letter word in the United States.  Our culture skews hard towards individual rights, which is good, but the downside is that we rarely consider how our actions affect others.  If we feel good about what we’re doing, that’s all the morality we need.  And if other people don’t like it, too bad.

This approach sounds good on paper, but it makes it impossible to live in community.  Our actions impact the people around us, so it’s not entirely wrong for them to have an opinion on how we behave.  Of course, the same is also true in reverse.  So, the trick becomes choosing a form of morality that everyone will adhere too.

Humans have attempted to do exactly that since the dawn of civilization without much luck.  The result is that many people believe having no moral code or having a moral code that changes based on a person’s background is the answer.  They mistakenly believe that living our lives in such a way will give us a sense of freedom.  But this is folly.

Case in point, let’s say we’re sitting at a table, and a scientist puts a serum in front of us that will grant us super-speed.  If we take this elixir, we’ll be able to start in New York, run to San Francisco for breakfast, and return to New York in time to catch the morning train.  It sounds great, but there’s a catch.  Once we start running, the only way to stop is to crash into something.

Said crash may result in minor bumps and bruises, or it might kill us, and everyone around us.  There’s no way of knowing until it happens.  How many of us would drink that serum?

I’m guessing the answer is, “Not many!”  Without the ability to stop, running quickly isn’t fun.  It’s dangerous, and we lose the freedom this power could provide because we can’t safely turn it off.  Living a life without morals works in exactly the same way.  As we move through the world, our sense of right and wrong provides a stopping mechanism that helps us avoid the major pitfalls of life.  It keeps us from hurting ourselves and others.  So, we can run at super-speed without fear.

In this way, a strict moral code provides us with more freedom, not less.  Of course, this begs the question, “How do we decide what’s moral?”  Thankfully, Buddhism provides a good starting point in this regard.  Teachings like the 5 lay precepts, the 6 perfections, and the Noble 8-Fold Path all help us gain clarity regarding what constitutes right behavior.

Unfortunately, we don’t always have time to study these teachings.  In the heat of the moment, we need to make a decision in seconds not hours.  Whenever this happens to me, I ask myself one simple question:

If everyone in the world behaved this way, would life be better, or worse.

I like this question because it removes a lot of wiggle-room.  We can justify anything when we’re only looking at our own behavior.  But things change when we look at the behavior of others.  Would life get better if our spouse cheated on us?  If the answer is, "no", we shouldn’t cheat on them.  Does the world get brighter when we read nasty comments on social media?  If not, we shouldn’t post nasty comments ourselves.

That being said, the ball is always in our court.  We answer this question for ourselves each day.  And we contend with the karma of our choices.  But the more we study the results of our actions, the better we become at making the right decision; the moral decision that serves to end suffering our ourselves and others.

Namu Amida Butsu

 If you enjoyed this essay, you'll love my book!

Morality and the Buddha Dharma