Attending to Values

When we attend to our values, we might begin by reflecting on the Buddha’s exhortation: ‘Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings’ (Snp. 149). This is not just because kindness is universal and simple, but because it focuses us directly on the quality of heart that has enabled us to survive and grow.

We are born as empathic beings – we’re hard-wired for it with mirror-neurons in our brains – and our success as a species has come from being able to operate as a collective. So a focus on goodwill brings us out of the divisions of nationality, social status, and political systems to connect more directly with a value that can include others.

Development of that empathic sense is an aspect of Buddhist ‘mind-cultivation’, and its aim is to develop that sense in a widening field to include all other living beings. The more inclusive the cosmos, the greater its validity.

And the awakening fact is that this cultivation is also deeply enjoyable.

This inclusive focus is the mode within which the Buddha, prior to his enlightenment, gave careful attention to his mind. Wisely reflecting on their origins and effects, he distinguished which thoughts were ‘for my welfare, for the welfare of others and leading to nibbāna’ (M.19), and by withdrawing from thoughts that went against those criteria, initiated the process that led to his awakening.

Subsequently, his life was an offering of teachings that have benefitted many over thousands of years.

This reflection by Ajahn Sucitto is from the book, Buddha Nature, Human Nature, (pdf) pp. 57-58.