All religions provide for a proper code of conduct by which the goal of the religion can be reached. In Buddhism, one's goal is washing away all ignorance, acquiring the truth and attaining Buddhahood. And in the Buddha's words we are all on that path right now, and the right conduct is to maintain the three pillars of compassion, wisdom and meditation. However, unlike most other religions the path is long, very long, hundreds, thousands, millions of lifetimes long. Considering such, what is the mindset that one should keep as they begin their study and training?
The easiest to grasp and also the most important conduct that all people should do is to develop their compassion. Compassion does not require a formal education, economic wealth, a quiet and serene setting, a dutiful teacher, a trained mind, you don't even need to be human, as we see many examples of compassion in the animal world. So in a lifetime, all Buddhists should first and foremost practice compassion to their fullest. So while we should be practicing all three pillars, it is compassion that is the most important and the most accessible.
So how best to practice compassion? The Buddhist ideal is to have no discrimination, so you would see no difference in doing a good deed for one person versus another, or even yourself. For those of us not quite at that point, the most important people to be compassionate to is your parents, which is not always your birth parents, but rather the people that took care of you and raised you. This is so because it should not be a struggle for you to practice this compassion, both emotionally or practically, so your compassion will be able to flourish at its fullest. For those that have children, they must also receive your optimum compassion. As a human we are limited in our ability to practice compassion that do not limit enlightened beings such as Bodhisattvas. For example, Earth Store Bodhisattva can create multiple emanations of himself to aid and guide beings, and Avalokiteshvara can hear all the voices of those than call to her. So if you feel a wish to help more beings than you are capable, it is best to pray to these Bodhisattvas, as their ability can achieve what yours cannot. And for the truly devout practitioner of compassion the goal is to become a Bodhisattva so as to aid the countless beings.
Wisdom in many ways is the most difficult to practice, this is because cannot be achieve just through one's will and effort alone. For example, even the most devout Buddhists may still not practice wisdom if their minds are clouded or limited in some way. One's mind can be limited by lack of intelligence, and conversely their minds can be clouded by too much intelligence but in only the physical arena. As such, someone born with serious learning difficulties will inevitably have difficulty acquiring wisdom, and someone that is a renowned or learned scientist may also have difficulty acquiring wisdom as their minds are filled only with worldly information and with it its limitations. Additionally, one will be unable to practice wisdom if one does not encounter a wise teacher or guide. Just as a baby needs the support of his parents to grow up, a Buddhist disciple needs the support of a teacher to grow in wisdom. Unfortunately, many truly devout Buddhists and practitioners of other religions as well have fallen prey to those merely posing as teachers, and in doing so will suffer immeasurable harm to their practice and karma. Accordingly, one of the greatest misdeeds a person can commit is to denounce or degrade the Buddha dharma because such act is to cause others to ruin as well as oneself. That's why it is very important that the dharma should only be shared with those that are open minded because otherwise it can cause the listener to accumulate much negative karma. This is one reason, that although Buddhism was established before both Christianity and Islam, the spread of Buddhism has been much more limited. Even the Great Buddhist Monarch Ashoka and the mighty conqueror Genghis Khan did not forbid the practice of other religions in their kingdoms. Buddhism and wisdom should not and cannot be forced on to someone unwilling or not yet ready.
How does one practice wisdom? It is important to first realize that wisdom is connected to but not equivalent to education. When we think of education the primary skill is learning, however the primary skill involved in wisdom is thinking. Though lay teachers would hope and instruct their students to think, question and be creative, it is an undeniable fact of modern schooling that people can get an education through just learning and acquiring skills and information from teachers and books. It's just a fact that the world's education system is geared to producing s supply of skilled laborers rather than the next Aristotle or Confucius. Wisdom on the other hand requires some basic education in language, but the vast requirement is that the practitioner apply their own mind and think. If a Buddhist teacher explains a disciple there is no "self" it takes education to know what the word "self" means and it takes training to memorize what the teacher says, however, if the disciple doesn't then think about what was taught on his own, he will develop knowledge but now wisdom. And knowledge like all earthly things is in the end just an illusion. So for an earnest practitioner of Buddhism, it is not enough just to read Buddhist sutras and listen to Buddhist teachers, one must contemplate, think, reason and realize for themselves the truth. In the end, wisdom like happiness can only be obtained within one's self not without.
Meditation is the diligent training of the mind. Much like the muscles of your body need training to be strong the mind also needs to be trained. For novice practitioners, meditation can be truly frustrating because our brain is literally the world's strongest computer. It can think, recall, ponder, question, feel at an astonishing rate. However, that computing power is useless unless you can control and harness that power. To harness that power you have to first learn to control it, that is where meditation comes in. While the brain is the ship, our mind is the captain. We have to train our minds to take control of the ship. If you just closed your eyes for a minute and tried to slow your mind down, you will find that it will literally do the opposite because as there is less stimuli hitting your senses, your brain will try to fill that void, it will feel the smallest tingle, it will recall the silliest memories, it will probe your basest desires because it is uncontrolled. But imagine if instead of your brain running in a hundred different directions, the full power is running in just one direction together. That is the goal of meditation. Meditation can be relaxing, but the goal is not to relax yourself, unless it is what your mind wants to do at that time. Meditation first and foremost is about being able to focus the mind. Once you can focus your mind, your actions for compassion will become clearer, and your thoughts about wisdom will become more coherent.
So for practitioners that truly want to pursue the way of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas it is important that in this lifetime they practice all three, compassion, wisdom and meditation. Each day you should have acts of compassion, even if just a prayer. Each day you should think about the Buddha's teachings. Each day you should train your mind through meditation. Unlike other religions, there is no divine being to absolve us, there is no awakening or instant realizations, there is no blind faith, in essence we are our own shepherds and there is no substitute for one's own individual effort.
The easiest to grasp and also the most important conduct that all people should do is to develop their compassion. Compassion does not require a formal education, economic wealth, a quiet and serene setting, a dutiful teacher, a trained mind, you don't even need to be human, as we see many examples of compassion in the animal world. So in a lifetime, all Buddhists should first and foremost practice compassion to their fullest. So while we should be practicing all three pillars, it is compassion that is the most important and the most accessible.
So how best to practice compassion? The Buddhist ideal is to have no discrimination, so you would see no difference in doing a good deed for one person versus another, or even yourself. For those of us not quite at that point, the most important people to be compassionate to is your parents, which is not always your birth parents, but rather the people that took care of you and raised you. This is so because it should not be a struggle for you to practice this compassion, both emotionally or practically, so your compassion will be able to flourish at its fullest. For those that have children, they must also receive your optimum compassion. As a human we are limited in our ability to practice compassion that do not limit enlightened beings such as Bodhisattvas. For example, Earth Store Bodhisattva can create multiple emanations of himself to aid and guide beings, and Avalokiteshvara can hear all the voices of those than call to her. So if you feel a wish to help more beings than you are capable, it is best to pray to these Bodhisattvas, as their ability can achieve what yours cannot. And for the truly devout practitioner of compassion the goal is to become a Bodhisattva so as to aid the countless beings.
Wisdom in many ways is the most difficult to practice, this is because cannot be achieve just through one's will and effort alone. For example, even the most devout Buddhists may still not practice wisdom if their minds are clouded or limited in some way. One's mind can be limited by lack of intelligence, and conversely their minds can be clouded by too much intelligence but in only the physical arena. As such, someone born with serious learning difficulties will inevitably have difficulty acquiring wisdom, and someone that is a renowned or learned scientist may also have difficulty acquiring wisdom as their minds are filled only with worldly information and with it its limitations. Additionally, one will be unable to practice wisdom if one does not encounter a wise teacher or guide. Just as a baby needs the support of his parents to grow up, a Buddhist disciple needs the support of a teacher to grow in wisdom. Unfortunately, many truly devout Buddhists and practitioners of other religions as well have fallen prey to those merely posing as teachers, and in doing so will suffer immeasurable harm to their practice and karma. Accordingly, one of the greatest misdeeds a person can commit is to denounce or degrade the Buddha dharma because such act is to cause others to ruin as well as oneself. That's why it is very important that the dharma should only be shared with those that are open minded because otherwise it can cause the listener to accumulate much negative karma. This is one reason, that although Buddhism was established before both Christianity and Islam, the spread of Buddhism has been much more limited. Even the Great Buddhist Monarch Ashoka and the mighty conqueror Genghis Khan did not forbid the practice of other religions in their kingdoms. Buddhism and wisdom should not and cannot be forced on to someone unwilling or not yet ready.
How does one practice wisdom? It is important to first realize that wisdom is connected to but not equivalent to education. When we think of education the primary skill is learning, however the primary skill involved in wisdom is thinking. Though lay teachers would hope and instruct their students to think, question and be creative, it is an undeniable fact of modern schooling that people can get an education through just learning and acquiring skills and information from teachers and books. It's just a fact that the world's education system is geared to producing s supply of skilled laborers rather than the next Aristotle or Confucius. Wisdom on the other hand requires some basic education in language, but the vast requirement is that the practitioner apply their own mind and think. If a Buddhist teacher explains a disciple there is no "self" it takes education to know what the word "self" means and it takes training to memorize what the teacher says, however, if the disciple doesn't then think about what was taught on his own, he will develop knowledge but now wisdom. And knowledge like all earthly things is in the end just an illusion. So for an earnest practitioner of Buddhism, it is not enough just to read Buddhist sutras and listen to Buddhist teachers, one must contemplate, think, reason and realize for themselves the truth. In the end, wisdom like happiness can only be obtained within one's self not without.
Meditation is the diligent training of the mind. Much like the muscles of your body need training to be strong the mind also needs to be trained. For novice practitioners, meditation can be truly frustrating because our brain is literally the world's strongest computer. It can think, recall, ponder, question, feel at an astonishing rate. However, that computing power is useless unless you can control and harness that power. To harness that power you have to first learn to control it, that is where meditation comes in. While the brain is the ship, our mind is the captain. We have to train our minds to take control of the ship. If you just closed your eyes for a minute and tried to slow your mind down, you will find that it will literally do the opposite because as there is less stimuli hitting your senses, your brain will try to fill that void, it will feel the smallest tingle, it will recall the silliest memories, it will probe your basest desires because it is uncontrolled. But imagine if instead of your brain running in a hundred different directions, the full power is running in just one direction together. That is the goal of meditation. Meditation can be relaxing, but the goal is not to relax yourself, unless it is what your mind wants to do at that time. Meditation first and foremost is about being able to focus the mind. Once you can focus your mind, your actions for compassion will become clearer, and your thoughts about wisdom will become more coherent.
So for practitioners that truly want to pursue the way of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas it is important that in this lifetime they practice all three, compassion, wisdom and meditation. Each day you should have acts of compassion, even if just a prayer. Each day you should think about the Buddha's teachings. Each day you should train your mind through meditation. Unlike other religions, there is no divine being to absolve us, there is no awakening or instant realizations, there is no blind faith, in essence we are our own shepherds and there is no substitute for one's own individual effort.