Question

Can you please give some explanation about the Paramis Truthfulness and Morality? What do they mean in Buddhism, what is important to consider about them?

Answer

Truthfulness is more than just speaking true words. That is one part but there is much more in that. Basically when we think of Truthfulness, being truthful to your direction in life is very important. If you have made a commitment, stick to it. Don't say one thing and then do something else, but be truthful to your direction. Often, especially if you go back home, your friends, your relatives want you to do something different to what you feel is your direction. This is where you have got to hold on to your direction stronger, being truthful to your direction, and being determined to stick to your direction.

Morality has a kind of straight definition in Buddhism in the sense of not killing, not stealing, not having sexual misconduct and such, but there is also a sense of Morality as to social laws, so to speak. It's like here in Thailand one, two hundred years ago, people could have multiple wives. In the Buddha's day the same thing was true. It was accepted, it was not against Morality to have that because it was part of the social Morality. But the Morality we are looking for is a little deeper than just the social Morality. It is concerned with not harming, to have compassion. We don't kill because we have compassion for others, we don't steal because we have compassion for others, we don't want to abuse our mind and cloud our mind because we have compassion for ourselves and others. So when you look at Morality, bring the word compassion in there for your own standard. Then as you grow, your standard may change in some way. But what society says that it's ok to do, may not be okay considering our own deeper Morality.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.