The Engaged Spiritual Life

I've finished Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriquez, which I enjoyed, and am now reading Donald Rothberg's book The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World. I'm not very far along, but am loving it. I only wish I had someone to read it with, as Rothberg gives exercises that he suggests you do with another person or a group.

He explains that this book is about "both inner and outer transformation." He explains that "our real work is the same whether we attend to ourselves, to our families, to our communities, or to a larger society and ecosystems."

Right now I'm reading the section on the Five Precepts. He focuses first on three of the precepts: the first (non-harming), the second (not taking what is not given), and the fourth (wise speech). Then he groups together the third (not abusing sexuality) and the fifth (not abusing substances).

His approach is systematic in that he takes the precepts and looks at them in three different domains: the personal, the relational, and the collective domains. So for the first precept, he asks us to take three steps that are taking inventory of our patterns, paying attention to these patterns, and then making changes to these patterns in how we live our lives.

Although I'm reading on, I am going to take the exercises one week at a time, which means that this week I will focus on the first precept of nonharming. The actual precept is avoiding killing, but as Rothberg suggests, all the precepts have an implied positive action, not just a negative pattern to avoid. This means that the first precept is about not only not killing and not harming, but also working to assure others are not harmed, in short, taking action to prevent others from harming others.

So I'm off to take inventory.

Metta.