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9. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the Dharma of no-self, not giving rise to the thought of self and others is called the precept of not giving way to anger.

10. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the one Dharma, not giving rise to the thought of distinction between sentient beings and Buddhas is called the precept of not speaking falsely of the Three Treasures.

Interesting, huh?

SO WHAT’S THIS SAY about Buddhist morality? There are nitwits out there who’ll tell you Buddhism, particularly Zen Buddhism, isn’t concerned with morality, that it’s enlightenment that really counts. They’re wrong. Enlightenment is for sissies. Living ethically and morally is what really matters.

Some of my best friends are people who’ve made it their business to try to solve all the world’s ills—and God love ‘em for it. Most people think this kind of behavior is the most intensely moral thing anyone could engage in. My friends certainly do.

For years and years I labored under the impression that people like this were really “doing something” while I was just sitting around staring at walls or contemplating my navel lint (it keeps coming back—what’s up with that?). But is what they do what it really means to be moral? When you decide that helping feed homeless transgender crack addicts to the baby whales—or whatever—is somehow more worthy than helping your mom clean the dead squirrel out of the gutters, that’s when you get in trouble. It’s not that the “worthy” causes aren’t worth pursuing—of course they are. It’s that all too often our image of “worthy” causes completely obscures the stuff right under our noses—and that’s the stuff that needs our attention, right here and right now.

Probe into it and you start to see that there are plenty of people who run around telling the world they’re “committed” to whatever cause it is they’re trying to make right but who have no commitment at all to handling their lives at this very moment or even treating the people they encounter day-to-day in a civil fashion. Back when my punk friends and I were shouting about America’s ever-increasing and highly illegal incursions into El Salvador, Ronald Reagan’s dangerous policy of nuclear brinksmanship, and the Moral Majority’s war on the freedom of speech—what were our lives really like? We couldn’t even get it together to keep the toilets running. I may have been committed to the El Salvadoran struggle, but where was my commitment to my toilet? Where was my commitment to putting decent food in my body so that my brain could think clearly enough to say something intelligent about the issues that had me so vexed? Where was my commitment to putting my Black Flag records back on the shelf and vacuuming everybody’s cigarette butts off the rug? Where was my commitment to just not being an asshole?

When you’re so committed to the future, it’s real easy to let your life right now turn to shit.

WE’RE CONSTANTLY DRAWING imaginary distinctions between “big” issues and “little” ones. And we think only the “big” issues matter. Actually, though, the tiniest bit of good you do makes the world a better place for everyone. Cleaning those weird orange stains of unknown origin off the toilet isn’t solely going to bring about lasting peace in the Middle East, but it helps. It really does. It’s part of a chain of cause and effect that affects you and affects the universe. And life for everyone gets a little better. A little of that goes a long way. And it’s really impossible to know exactly how or how much.

Chaos theory has it that a butterfly flapping its wings in Central Park can cause a hurricane in South America. Don’t discount the similar effect of smiling genuinely at someone you don’t really like all that much.

Real morality isn’t just refraining from doing stuff that’s outrageously heinous. Real morality encompasses every thing you do every minute of every day. It includes the way you say “good morning” at work, the way you pay your utility bills, the way you deal with