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thinking: A motor 
engineer should use his skill to 
build engines to 
help people in their everyday lives 
rather than 
to build weapons to wage war. 
4. Product of the work doesn't 
lead to sensual obsession: 
Don't go studying the sort of arts 
that 
will stir up the passion of others 
like cabaret 
dancing or strip-tease. 
5. Product of the work doesn't 
lead to illwill or 
vengefulness 
6. Product of the work doesn't 
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lead to aggression: 
Don't engage in arts that will cause 
people to 
seek vengeance such as inventing 
war slogans. 
B.3 Three Categories of Artful 
Application 
Don't think that only artistic 
applications you can 
`see and touch' qualify for 
fulfilment of the Eighth 
Blessing. Such skilfulness can be 
applied to body, 
speech and mind: 
I. Artistic Application in Body: 
This applies to 
various sorts of specialism or 
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applied expertise, 
whether it be plumbing, 
mechanics, painting, 
design, sculpture, photography, 
printing or other 
vocational skills such as gardener, 
farmer, author 
or nurse — and further than that, 
having the 
manners to walk, stand, sit and lie 
down politely, 
dressing appropriately, being 
hospitable, expressing 
respect and behaving in a 
`cultivated' 
way; 
2. Artistic Application in Speech: 
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This applies to 
communication skills, knowing 
what to say and 
how to say it in a way to inspire 
the hearer towards 
virtue (more in Blessing Ten) 
3. Artistic Application in Mind: 
This applies to 
skillfulness in thinking, having 
one's wits about 
one and creative thinking. 
In a nutshell, Artfulness in 
Application is artfulness 
in body, speech and mind. 
C. CULTIVATING ARTFUL 
APPLICATION 
C.1 Transforming Knowledge into 
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Skills 
If you want to transform your 
academic knowledge 
into applied ability, you have to 
possess the following 
qualities (PatthanA Sutta 
A.iii.154): 
1. Believe in what you do 
[saddha]: You have to 
believe that you what you are 
doing is really beneficial 
and virtuous. You should be 
enthusiastic 
about doing it and have the 
confidence that you 
can make a success out of it. Some 
doctors graduate 
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in medical science, but have no 
confidence 
in their ability to heal people. 
Some are more confident 
in their own ability to construct 
buildings. 
In the end, they become building 
contractors! 
They can achieve more success 
that way than 
they ever could by being a doctor! 
You need to 
have to believe in what you are 
doing if you are 
to be able to dedicate yourself to it. 
2. Safeguard your health: Don't 
be the sort of person 
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who bursts into coughs and 
sneezes when 
exposed to the merest cold 
draught. If you let 
your efforts destroy your health, it 
will be hard 
for you to succeed in learning a 
trade. A practical 
way to safeguard your health from 
all the possible 
risks is very simple 
keep the 
Five Precepts 
strictly. If you neglect your health 
and go 
looking for things to destroy 
yourself by doing 
Blessing Eight: Artfulness in 
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Application 115 
unhealthy things, you will find it 
hard ever to 
achieve success in learning a trade. 
3. You must avoid arrogance and 
boastfulness: 
Those who spend all day speaking 
about what 
they will do, but never getting 
round to doing it, 
will never manage to master a 
trade. No-one 
wants to accept someone who is 
boastful as an 
apprentice. The only skill which 
boastful people 
manage to develop is the ability to 
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find fault with 
other people in order to let other 
people know 
how wonderful they are 
themselves. By pushing 
others down they are able to hoist 
themselves 
up in the estimation of others. The 
habit of a 
boastful person is to take a very 
minor virtue or 
ability and magnify it beyond all 
proportion. 
4. You must avoid laziness: If you 
have only knowledge 
but you are too lazy to do anything 
with it, 
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then you will be no more than 
knowledgeable 
for the rest of your life. 
5. Cultivate wisdom: Wisdom is 
cultivated by being 
observant and reflecting on new 
skills and 
techniques. 
C.2 Instilling yourself with 
"Artfulness in Application" 
You cannot acquire wisdom just 
by eating and 
sleeping. You have to be active in 
your search for 
wisdom according to the following 
steps: 
I. Be observant of yourself and 
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(for example our habits of eating 
or sleeping) to 
try to define what is appropriate or 
inappropriate 
and where the point of equilibrium 
lies for 
various factors. If you eat too 
much it will make 
you sleepy. If you eat too little, 
your stomach will 
rumble at night. You have to 
notice what happens 
to us if we go to bed late. You 
have to notice 
what happens to you if you get up 
late. What 
is better for you — to go to bed at 
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ten at night 
and wake up at dawn, or to go to 
bed at midnight 
and to wake up at seven in the 
morning? 
Once you know how to be 
observant of yourself, 
you can gradually extend your 
observation 
to the things around you. We 
notice our clothes. 
How our clothes get dirty at the 
collar or around 
the cuffs. Notice what sort of 
clothes are suitable 
for what sort of situation. We 
gradually extend 
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our mindfulness to the things more 
distant from 
us — noticing how to speak to 
people in an appropriate 
way, how to speak to people to 
inspire 
them instead of making them lazy. 
Notice the 
characteristics of the things around 
you. If you 
train yourself to be observant even 
of yourself, 
the skill will soon be developed 
and wisdom will 
follow. 
2. Train yourself to do everything 
better than best: 
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Never look down on any work that 
comes your 
way. Never think any task you do 
is unimportant. 
Even simple things like your 
handwriting 
should be done with care. From the 
time when a 
child is young, they should be 
trained to write 
neatly whatever they do so that 
`being careful' 
about whatever work they are to do 
in the future 
will be ingrained from the earliest 
age. Some 
people write with such messy 
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handwriting that 
others can only barely decipher 
what has been 
written. Someone who writes like 
that since their 
youth until adulthood will soon get 
themselves 
in the habit of doing everything in 
a shoddy way 
— never achieving anything better 
than `passable' 
quality. If you do everything to the 
best of 
your ability, skills and abilities will 
soon come 
your way without you even having 
to spend time 
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looking for them. Even if you 
don't study the 
specific qualities of a particular art, 
if you are 
always observant of quality, and 
do things 
cleanly and in a detailed way, even 
though you 
cannot produce artwork for 
yourself, you will 
be able to tell quality in the work 
of others. Once 
you have trained your mind to be 
refined and to 
notice details, even the way you 
speak will start 
to be of higher quality — more 
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based on reason 
and more confident (because your 
train of 
thought will be more systematic). 
116 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
3. Be refined in all you do: Some 
might accuse you 
of `nit-picking' but if you insist on 
high quality 
in your work, even in the details, 
before long, 
you will start to pick up artfulness 
in application. 
4. Always look for better ways to 
do the same 
thing: Sometimes you can already 
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do a task, but 
if you always look for quicker, 
more efficient, 
more cost-effective ways of doing 
the same thing, 
it will force you always to improve 
on your skills, 
never sitting on your laurels. 
5. Apprentice yourself to a 
craftsman: Seek out 
craftsmen in the field which you 
want to master 
and become apprentice to them. Be 
respectful 
and helpful to him so that he will 
have the compassion 
to push you further in the direction 
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of 
craftsmanship. 
6. Meditate regularly: The art of 
training our capabilities 
of action and speech is rooted in 
our capability 
to train the mind. Systematic 
thinking 
and observation can only be 
developed when the 
mind is well-trained. Training the 
mind through 
meditation will make the 
acquisition of other capabilities 
easy, because to be able to 
meditate is 
the ultimate skill 
because it 
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