The Seventh Grave Precept

The Seventh Grave Precept

This precept says that we vow not to praise self and slander others. This precept points us to treating everyone as equals, a very challenging precept to put into practice. Equality is a key reality from a Zen Buddhist point of view. When we see our true nature as One, than how can we not see others as ourselves and treat them as ourselves? The need to elevate ourselves is a need of the ego. By slandering others, insecure people feel they are placing themselves on a better footing. When if fact, that footing is illusion.

As we witness a person mistreating another, do we feel some bit superior? We would not do that. As we speak to a waiter or waitress, how do we speak to them? As equals?

We practice to become sensitive to our own internal processes and do the work we need to do as a result of what we discover.

Equality demands that we trust each of us is able to listen and process what we communicate and is communicated to us; it demands that we do not hold others, accountable for our own feelings, and that we will trust ourselves to deal with them.In the end,, practice to speak kindly and with compassion..

Be well.