[Aniplinipsync]

"When we practice awareness and avoid saying or doing things likely to hurt ourselves and others, including the environment, we notice the arising of self respect, of self-confidence and a calmness in the mind. When there is a common allegiance to the precepts of non-harming, to refraining from sexual misconduct, stealing, or lying and taking intoxicants, then a community or society is one in which the highest potential or the fragile flowers of virtue of the mind, can flourish.

It creates an atmosphere which is conducive to the Realisation of Truth, and therefore, a noble and beautiful Way of Life.


Now in talking about Sila, talking about the Precepts and the intentions that we have, there are certain emotional forces or powers of the mind which help us to develop and maintain that purity. These are called in the Pali language, Hiri and Ottappa.

They have been translated in various ways. Hiri is often rendered as a sense of shame or conscience; Ottappa, as moral dread or a fear of evil. When seen in translation, the terms seem rather forbidding, and we don't feel inspired by them, as we do when we see, say, the seven Factors of Enlightenment, Mindfulness, the Investigation of the of Dhamma, or Rapture etc. These are things which we aspire to very readily, but the humble Dhammas of Hiri and Ottappa don't have the same appeal. We tend to confuse them with guilt, repression, and neurotic reactions, even drawing upon our earlier experiences in life to explain them.