The Perfection of Ethics for a Life in the Law

Ordinarily, when I think of ethics they either feels legalistic, like the rules of professional conduct, or else I think of the rules I learned in Sunday school.

 Mindfulness offers an invitation to consider ethics in a different way: not so much as rules but more as a way of life that feels right and has better all-around consequences.

 For me, the motivation to discover that life is more motivating than the Model Rules or the Ten Commandments.

 It also feels more optimistic.

Transcript

Wake Up Call #361: The Perfection of Ethics for a Life in the Law

Hi everyone, it’s Judi Cohen and this is Wake Up Call 361. We’ve explored a bunch of perspectives on the perfection of generosity, which is the first of the six paramitas, or perfections of heart and mind. Today let’s begin looking at the second paramita, which is called “ethics,” or “morality,” or sila, in Pali, the language of the ancient mindfulness texts.

Before we do, I want to say again that the six paramitas – generosity, ethical or moral conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditation, and understanding or wisdom, don’t go in order. One isn’t any more important than another. They all connect, and practicing one supports the practice of the others. All of the paramitas can be studied and practiced, at any time, or even better, all the time.

So, sila, which again, translates as ethical or moral conduct: I like “ethics” because we already have codes of ethics in the law, so as lawyers we’re used to thinking about ethics. Legal ethics, like the California Rules of Professional Conduct and the Model Rules, are comprised of a set of pretty definitive, absolute, rules. For example, it’s not ok to deposit a client’s retainer or settlement funds anywhere except in our client trust fund. It’s not ok to lie to a client. It’s not ok to have sexual relations with a client. 

If we break the rules of ethics, there can be severe consequences. I don’t know about you but I tend to think of those consequences as inuring to myself, as in, if I break the rules I can get sued, or disbarred. 

Sila also offers a set of rules, with consequences for not following them, but the invitation is to think about the rules a little bit differently. First, the rules. One set is the ten precepts. According to Google, a precept is “a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought,” and the example given just happens to be, "the legal precept of being innocent until proven guilty." So again, following the precepts is one way of understanding sila. There are others which maybe we can look at later.

Of the ten precepts, the first five are for ordinary folks and aren’t so different from some of the legal ethics rules: don’t cause harm (although already that can be a tall order in the law), don’t steal (sometimes phrased as don’t take anything that’s not freely offered – interesting for us to consider that), don’t engage in inappropriate sexual activity, don’t use unwise speech (there’s a lot of nuance to this one, which we’ll look at), and don’t use intoxicants to cloud the mind, sometimes phrased as, “don’t use intoxicants that cloud the mind,” which actually feels different to me.

The second five precepts are generally for monastics. They include prohibitions against eating after midday, attending entertainment, wearing jewelry or perfume, sleeping in luxurious beds, and handling money. Probably not relevant or attainable if we’re not living a life of seclusion, although a few of them more or less happened during the pandemic.

The first five precepts are also similar to the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth  of the Ten Commandments. Which I did have to look up to get them strait and are – just in case a refresher is helpful for you as well - don’t kill, the sixth commandment, which is similar to not causing harm; no adultery, the seventh commandment, which is similar to no inappropriate sexual activity; don’t steal, the eighth commandment, which is the same as the second precept; and don’t bear false witness, the ninth commandment, which is a component of not speaking unwisely and probably matches up even more closely if more broadly interpreted, which maybe it is. I’m definitely not an expert on the Ten Commandments. 

So in various ways the five precepts, which form the backbone of sila, or ethical conduct, are probably not new to many of us. And even if you have no connection to legal ethics or the Ten Commandments, the five precepts may align with your own moral code: don’t harm others, don’t steal, don’t misuse sexuality, don’t speak unwisely, and don’t get intoxicated, at least not to where your mind is clouded.

But however familiar the precepts, or ethical rules, may be, the perfection of sila, or sila-paramita, is an invitation to think about ethics differently. Rather than thinking about the perfection of ethical conduct as following a set of rules for the sake of the rules, the invitation is to consider ethical conduct from the perspective of cause and effect: what happens, and how it feels, when we do live in alignment with sila, and when we don’t. In other words, karma. 

Which is all karma is, in the everyday sense: when I stand up for, or beside, someone, motivated by generosity and love, they’ll probably feel a little bit safer and more loved, and I’ll feel glad they feel that way. Cause and effect. That said, there’s much more to karma like the karma of successive lifetimes, that I’m 100% unqualified to talk about and the ancient mindfulness texts even admonish against, saying, “don’t try to understand karma because it will drive you crazy.” 

But let’s take a minute with everyday karma. Dale Wright writes, in The Six Perfections, “the Indian vocabulary of karma evolved out of agricultural metaphors. Karma is conceived as a ‘seed’ that ‘ripens’ into a specific ‘fruit’. A seed of one kind can only ripen as a fruit of that particular kind….acts…done with volition, intention, or purpose…generate consequences [in accordance with that volition, intention, or purpose] shap[ing] the character of the actor.”

Over the next few weeks, I want to suggest that we play with this idea. And here are some questions that might help:

-        Can we use our mindfulness practice to pay attention to our intention or volition when we speak or act? 

-        When we do, can we notice wholesome, real-time, consequences when our intentions are wholesome? 

-        What about unwholesome, real-time consequences when our intentions – however subtle – are in contravention of the five precepts – in other words, if we intentionally harm someone or take what isn’t freely offered or misuse sexuality or speak unwisely or become intoxicated? And do we need to broaden the definition of intention, or harm, in order to explore this question?

-        If we can notice unwholesome intentions or consequences, does that matter to us? Honestly, maybe it doesn’t. What if a government lawyer loses their promotion because you win your immigration case?

-        But if it does matter, how can we attend to our intentions and better align with the five precepts, so that there are fewer unwholesome consequences to our words and actions, and more wholesome ones? 

Let’s sit. 

[Play the John Lennon Imagine video at the end of the Paramitas – whenever that is! (It’s bookmarked under Music.)]

“Ethics” is either a legalistic word that makes me think of 

the California Rules of Professional Conduct,

or the rules I learned in Sunday school in the 1960’s. 

Mindfulness has a set of ethics as well, aka precepts.

The invitation is to look at those precepts not as rules, 

but as a way of life, which, if lived honoring them, 

feels better and makes others feel safer around us. 

For me this is a better motivation than anything I can come up with 

in the Model Rules or the Ten Commandments. 

In fact it’s such a powerful and optimistic motivation

that I’m excited to dig into this exploration.

I’d love for you to join me.