One of the three pillars of Boundless Refuge is sila, or ethical discipline. Here we wish to articulate our ethical understanding, practices, and standards.
Sila involves our speech and action with others and is therefore a powerful bridge between our inner and relational life. It is beautiful to consider the implications of an ethical life, for ourselves, for the Boundless Refuge community, and for the whole world.
We understand ethical behavior to flow from and reflect our realization of oneness with life. Any ethical rules and standards we have are conditional rules, devised to provide conditions that naturally develop and support the cultivation of intimacy. This intimacy is having compassion for all life, not controlling or perfecting our human nature and the shortcomings of ourselves and others.
We strive through our commitment to deep retreat practice to help individuals mature into and practice compassion for all life. We see this compassion and this awakening for individuals as the foundation for an ethical community. We also hold Boundless Refuge, and the sila we practice as a group, as a positive force that ripples outwards, promoting and inspiring a compassionate society.
Our overarching precepts we call the Boundless Precepts are North’s interpretation of the Mahayana BuddhaNature Precepts, or Bodhisattva Precepts. These are a poetic expression of the relationship described above between the realization of reality and ethical maturity in all realms of daily life.
Then, on the more concrete level of discipline, we hold the 5 Precepts as an ethical baseline, not only on retreat but in all our activities as an organization.
The 5 Precepts as we interpret them are:
Avoid intentionally killing living beings
Avoid stealing
Avoid causing harm with our sexuality
Avoid lying
Avoid intoxicants to a degree that causes recklessness
All yogis on the retreat commit to an intensified version of the precepts to support ethical sensitivity and meditative absorption. These include the following commitments:
Abstain from sexually engaging others
Abstain from all intoxicants
A higher degree of sensitivity towards the welfare of all, including insects and plant life.
In addition all Boundless Refuge teachers commit to not engage with students sexually or romantically before or during the retreat. The student-teacher relationship must have been clearly and formally ended should a teacher and former student ever enter into a relationship of a romantic and sexual nature.
There is a great joy, which the Buddha called the “bliss of blamelessness,” which we can enjoy and delight in as a result of maintaining these precepts.
All feedback pertaining to ethical harm will be treated with great care and compassion by the Boundless Refuge team. For those closer involved, there is a longer version of this document with clear rules for teachers and processes for feedback of varying degrees. We encourage feedback as opportunities for improvement, and we take feedback very seriously. As much as possible we encourage direct communication.. Boundless Refuge intends to create a culture of compassionate conversation. As much as possible, we will seek to resolve ethical difficulties in a way which deepens trust and understanding amongst all involved. Ethical challenges can be seen as opportunities for uniting rather than dividing.
All who sincerely wish to practice will always be welcomed. The more we can practice with a heart of openness and compassion the more genuinely we can claim to be inclusive. We acknowledge that different people have differing hardships and backgrounds based on their birth and the way society tends to view them and treat them. The dana model and reaching out as widely as possible, supports a diversity of backgrounds and views in our community, which we deeply value.
