Moving Towards a More Skilful Life.

In the Christian tradition ethics are viewed as commandments and you
are often judged ‘good’ or ‘bad’ depending on your adherence to them, or
not.
In Buddhism, behaviour is not viewed as good or bad but skilful or
unskilful.
Buddhist ethics is more about our natural inclination to act in a way that is
beneficial for ourselves and others. We understand that if we can act
skilfully then this will have a positive and helpful effect on our lives, our
mental states and the people around us.
We are not expected to be perfect. Buddhist morality or ethics is based on
five training principles or Precepts. Sometimes we will fail to live up to
these ideals and that is okay as long as we strive to improve in the future.
We accept lapses in a spirit of kindness to ourselves and others.
The five training principles are:
1. Abstention from harming living beings - cultivating love instead
2. Abstention from taking the not-given - practising generosity instead
3. Abstention from sexual misconduct - cultivating contentment instead
4. Abstention from false speech - cultivating honest, kind, helpful and
harmonious speech instead.
5. Abstention from intoxicants - cultivating mindfulness or awareness
instead
During these six weeks we will be looking at each of the Precepts in
turn and relating them to our daily life in a way that helps us to cultivate

more helpful conditions in our lives. We will be spending two weeks on
speech as it is so important in our connection with others
Open to all over 18 - You don’t need to be a Buddhist or intend to be
one.
No need to book - just turn up when you can.
There is no charge for our classes but please make a donation if
you can. We suggest £12 per class - but please give more or less
according to your means. No one is paid at York Buddhist Centre. Our only
income comes from those who use the centre.