This is one of the essential teachings of Buddhism. The first time I heard them was 16 years ago. Although I understood them conceptually at the time, it was only years later that I realized the depth of these teachings.

These points sound very simple, but they have a great importance, because it is from these types of behavior that arises most of the suffering that we experience. This is best explained in the teachings about Karma (action, cause and effect).
(picture from a trip to Ladakh, ladakhi woman, in Lama Yuru village)

The 10 non-virtuous actions

This actions does not refer to a list of prohibitions or commandments; It would be more appropriate to take it as recommendations, as each situation is different. These recommendations can serve as a reference to form a healthy point of view, depending on the conditions, to act for the benefit of more people or beings.

The 10 non-virtuous actions are divided into three categories: body, speech and mind. The following describes the actions that must be taken and the ones that we have avoid.

༼ལུས་༽
A. The three body actions:

༡ སྲོག་མི་བཅོད་པ
1-avoid killing

Instead protecting the lives of all sentient beings. This refers not only to humans, but to all sentient beings, including the life of a small insect.

This point raises the discussion of vegetarianism. In Buddhist philosophy many teachers recommend maintaining a vegetarian diet; However, it is not a fault to eat meat if we have not killed the animal or were not sacrificed for our delight. This permission is based on the fact that if a monk receives as an offering on his plate with a piece of meat, eating the meat will not be a fault.

༢ མ་བྱིན་པ་མི་ལེན་པ་
2- Do not take what was not given

Refers to avoid stealing and protecting the property of others. There are different ways to steal: there may be a robbery through violence, a robbery through scam, or simply taking something that has not been given to us.

༣ ལོག་གཡེམ་མི་བྱེད་པ་
3- Avoiding sexual misconduct

This type of conduct refers to avoid any sexual action that can cause harm to others. The approach is to have a sex conduct with a sense of love and care, where we seek the welfare of the other.

In the Buddhist tradition it is not specifically defined what would be inappropriate sexual behavior, because at this point the social context plays an important role. For example, in a society that practices monogamy, inappropriate sexual behavior would be to be unfaithful. In classical Buddhist texts nothing is said about homosexuality, or other controversial points in today's society. It comes down to reflecting on whether ones actions can cause harm to others or not. For example, in Tibetan culture, which is a Buddhist culture, in certain areas of Tibet there is still a system of matriarchy, in which a woman can marry two or more men (usually two brothers), when having children, no distinction is made as to who the father of each child. All are treated as part of a single family, and the woman owns and manages all the properties.

༼ངག་༽
B. The four speech actions

༤ བརྫུན་མི་བཤད་པ་
4- Do not say what is not true

This point goes beyond of just avoiding telling lies. It refers to not fooling others. Is important that our words be always accurate and valuable. Thus, people will listen carefully to what we have to say.

Many times we say half truths that divert people from reality. Although it is not advisable to say all what is a truth without thinking about their consequences, often the best way is silence, and only talk if what we are going to say is of benefit to others.

༥ ཕྲ་མ་མི་བྱེད་པ་
5- Do not use spliting language

Having a divisive language refers to a conversation where one speaks badly of others, criticizes in negative ways, exposes the faults and weaknesses of others.

As is commonly called "gossip". This point recommends exposing the positive points of others, and using words that reconcile people.

༦ ཚིག་རྩུབ་མི་བཤོད་པ
6- Do not speak harshly and abruptly

It is very easy to hurt with words. We must avoid using offensive language. On the contrary, we must give words of encouragement, speak sweetly and warmly.

I once read an article stating that successful people often use offensive language. The author introduced the case of Steve Job. I disagree with this point of view, I read his biographies and I consider that the author of the article falls into an important bias, because to conclude that correlation is equivalent to causality (that is, not because there are successful people who speak with an offensive language, Implies that if one speaks in the same way, one will be a successful person). I believe that success is only real successes if it is actually achieved through teamwork, with positive synergy and not through fear and abuse.

༧ ངག་འཆལ་མི་བཤོད་པ་
7- Do not talk idle or meaningless

We must avoid talking about things that have no value or purpose. We should avoid losing our time and the time of others. Everything we say must be something well thought, and about some thing that will be of benefit to the listener.

I think the key point in this is that what we say has a purpose. If our goal is to make someone feel good, it would be okay to say something funny, flattering or poetic.

༼ཡིད་༽
C. The three actions of mind

༨ བརྣབ་སེམས་མི་བྱེད་པ་
8- Avoid a greed mentality

We must avoid having a mentality that only seeks self gain. On the contrary, we must maintain a generosity mindset, ready to give what we have for others.

If we look at our mind at that moment we would see that we have an attitude of greed. With this kind of attitude, we go through life with a spirit of lack that leads us to commit negative actions. If we are generous in our mind, there will be a spirit of abundance and we will not feel that we need things to be happy.

༩ གནོད་སེམས་མི་བྱེད་པ
9- Not having a mentality of malice

It refers to thinking of different ways of causing harm to others, or wanting other beings to suffer. Instead, we must have a mindset of love and kindness towards others.

This type of attitude comes easily. For example, if we have an enemy we want for him a life with difficulties and little success. But as one teacher once said: If our enemy is doing very well, he will be happy. Perhaps his negative attitude towards us changes, probably his negative attitude is caused by his difficulties.

༡༠ ལོག་ལྟ་མི་བྱེད་པ་
10 Not holding wrong points of view

It refers to not holding a view of wrong reality, ie not falling into the end of nihilism or the end of existentialism.

This point is closely related to the philosophical vision of Buddhism, where through a philosophical debate, one comes to the conclusion that nothing existed independently and on its own side. The Buddhist view of reality is based on what is called "dependent arising," that is, everything arises depending on causes and conditions. Part of very basic points; For example, that everything is relative to our perception. Thus, large and small is relative, it can not be said that a grain of rice is large or small from its own side. We need a reference to compare it.

Conclusion:

The 10 non-virtuous actions that we must abandon can be applied in our lives without the need to be a religious person. By changing our negative actions for positive actions, our environment in general improves, it facilitates our own life and that of the people around us.

In the previous article I summarized the 10 virtuous actions that we must abandon. I have endeavored to make it clear and concise, with a practical approach. If I have committed any mistake, I apologize. If there are doubts or points that are not clear, I will try to resolve them as much as my knowledge and ability will allow me.