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kingdom improved 
considerably. The king rewarded 
the crippled boy 
by allocated all the money earned 
in taxes from a 
certain province to him as 
pin-money. The cripple 
became a rich man as the result of 
a single skill —
because he put his mind to 
perfecting his skill. 
Blessing Nine: Artfulness in Usage 
119 
A. INTRODUCTION 
A.1 Place of Blessing Nine in the 
order of things 
The Seventh Blessing concerned 
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artfulness in 
knowledge. We should be 
enthusiastic about finding 
any new knowledge either in 
spiritual or 
worldly ways as long as it doesn't 
have any negative 
implications for the human dignity 
of ourselves, 
others or society in general. Once 
you can 
avail yourself of such knowledge, 
then it is a 
blessing in itself. 
The Eighth Blessing concerned 
artfulness in the 
application of knowledge or 
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"artfulness in learning 
skills". We should be enthusiastic 
about learning 
any new skills either in spiritual or 
worldly 
ways as long as they don't have 
any negative implications 
for the human dignity of ourselves, 
others or society in general. Once 
you can avail 
yourself of such skills, then it is 
also a blessing in 
itself. 
Already mooted in the previous 
two Blessings 
has been the difficulty of knowing 
whether the 
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knowledge or skill we are learning 
has any negative 
implications for the human dignity 
of ourselves, 
others or society in general. The 
purpose 
of the Ninth Blessing is to give us 
the guidelines 
we need — to allow us to judge 
our own behaviour 
in action and word, so that the way 
we use 
our intellectual resources and 
craftsmanship 
bring no detriment to society 
around us or to our 
spiritual furtherment. 
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A.2 Objectives of studying 
`Artfulness in Usage' 
In our consideration of the value of 
artfulness in 
usage towards human dignity, we 
must always consider 
three levels of description: our 
own personal 
human dignity, the human dignity 
of others and 
the dignity of the whole economic 
system in society. 
Being disciplined or being "artful 
in usage" has 
benefits on three levels: 
I. Personal Level: Being 
disciplined protects and 
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furthers one's own human dignity 
by protecting 
our health from self-induced 
illness, reducing 
possible obstacles in our spiritual 
vocation 
(especially those arising from 
unintentional blunders 
with the "defilements of action" 
[kammakilesa] 
and allowing us to develop our 
level of 
virtue from mere "discipline" 
[vinaya] to "selfdiscipline" 
[sEla] which is the foundation for 
the 
subsequent development of 
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meditation 
[samAdhi] and wisdom [parinA]. It 
is said that 
being disciplined is the one major 
difference between 
humans and savages - thus by 
preserving 
our level of discipline we protect 
ourselves 
from decline into savagery; 
2. Interpersonal Level: Being 
disciplined protects 
and furthers others' human dignity 
by stopping 
people taking advantage of each 
other. 
3. Social Level: Being disciplined 
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protects and furthers 
the humanity of the fair economics 
in our 
society by promoting compliance 
with the law 
and general harmony for society. 
Blessing Nine: 
Artfulness 
in Usage 
120 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
Of course it is an advantage for the 
reader to know 
about artfulness in usage (or more 
briefly "discipline") 
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and how to acquire it 
but it is 
not until 
you become a disciplined person 
that you will really 
start to gain benefit from this 
Blessing. 
A.3 Knowing where to draw the 
line 
From person to person the 
intellectual resources and 
the level of craftsmanship may not 
be the same —
however, the more the knowledge 
and skills a person 
has, the more potential damage 
they can do to 
themselves, others and society if 
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they have no ethical 
discretion about how to use that 
knowledge and 
skill. Thus it is vitally important 
that everyone has 
"virtue" to go hand-in-hand with 
their knowledge 
— specifically the virtue to know 
the negative implications 
of any deeds they may do or words 
they 
may say. In society in general, we 
tend tothink that 
if what we do or say is not illegal 
then it is acceptable 
to our human dignity — however, 
the Law is 
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really only a very loose guideline 
for what should 
or should not be done in society. 
To give a firm example, 
if a person can perpetrate a 
murder, but has 
no witnesses, he cannot be 
prosecuted in a court of 
law. Furthermore, the Law from 
country to country 
is different — does this mean that 
the ethics can 
also be localized? In some 
countries, the Law might 
even be undemocratic — so the 
Law alone doesn't 
give us sufficient guidelines for the 
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preservation of 
human dignity at any of the levels 
of description. 
More detailed guidelines were 
provided by the 
Buddha in the form of a checklist 
of four items to 
be considered in order from the 
first to the last: 
I. The Five Precepts: Does the 
action or speech contradict 
break the Five Precepts 1. killing; 
2. stealing; 
3. adultery; 4. telling lies, and; 5. 
drinking 
alcohol (see below) — i.e. the 
baseline of humane 
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behaviour? This form of discipline 
is spiritual 
discipline, concerning our quality 
of mind and 
the quality of mind of those who 
share society 
with us. We find that these Five 
Precepts are at 
the heart of codes of discipline of 
many different 
religions, whether it be the 
Christian Ten 
Commandments, Islamic law, the 
16 rules of 
Hindu conduct. 
2. The Five Virtues: Does the 
action or speech contradict 
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the Five Virtues [paiicadhamma] 
of 1. compassion; 
2. right-livelihood; 3. 
sexual-restraint; 
4. truthfulness, and; 5. awareness? 
— see Blessing 
Sixteen. This form of discipline is 
spiritual 
discipline, concerning our quality 
of mind and 
the quality of mind of those who 
share society 
with us. 
3. Local Law: Does the action or 
speech contradict 
the local law? This form of 
discipline is worldly 
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or material discipline, concerning 
our quality of 
life and the quality of life of those 
who share society 
with us. 
4. Local Custom: Does the action 
or speech contradict 
the local custom? This form of 
discipline is 
worldly or material discipline and 
concerns social 
harmony and solidarity. 
Thus if an action goes against the 
Five Precepts, 
even if it doesn't break the Law, it 
should not be 
done. Also, even if it doesn't break 
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the law notto 
do something, but omitting to do 
something goes 
against the local custom, perhaps 
this is a good reason 
to comply, at least for harmony on 
the local level 
(but of course, it should not break 
the Five Precepts). 
B. DEFINITIONS 
B.1 Definition: Artfulness in 
Usage 
The root of the Pali word for 
`artfulness in usage' 
or `discipline' is `vinaya' comes 
from two stems `vi' 
and ney' Wey' means something 
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that leads you. 
`Vi' can mean any of three things: 
`good', `revealed' 
or 'different'. Thus in compound 
the definition of 
the word ' vinaya' means `leads 
you to good' or 
`leads you to brightness' or `leads 
you to something 
different'. Leading one to 
goodness, means that it 
takes you away from evil. Leading 
one to revelation 
means that it allows us to see a 
person as they 
really are. Leading one to be 
different means that it 
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raises one above people in general. 
The actual meaning of the word is 
`rulesor regulations 
to restrain ourselves in body and 
word to 
avoid causing suffering to 
ourselves or others'. Notice 
that `vinaya' doesn't restrain the 
mind directly, 
but in effect, it has a positive effect 
on the mind too 
because bodily action and speech 
originate in the 
Blessing Nine: Artfulness in Usage 
121 
mind. When we can avoid causing 
suffering to ourselves 
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or others, we set ourselves on the 
path to 
goodness, revelation and 
difference from others in 
general. Vinaya' will be the virtue 
that tells us what 
is appropriate and inappropriate to 
do or say or look 
at or eat. 
B.2 Definition: Self-Discipline 
When people think of Precepts, 
they often mistakenly 
think that Precepts are nothing 
more than prohibitions. 
In fact the meaning of the Pali 
word for 
`Precepts' i.e. `stla' means `the 
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norm' or `cooling'. 
Precepts mean the level of virtue 
that is normal for 
human beings to have. It is a norm 
that distinguishes 
men from savages or from animals. 
It is for 
this reason that we differentiate 
`vinaya' from `sEla' 
by calling the latter 
"self-discipline". As we shall 
see "self-discipline" is the result of 
training yourself 
in "discipline". It is a state of mind 
rather than a 
set of rules to follow. 
B.3 The Difference between 
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