Dangers to One of Unwholesome Morality

Householders, there are these five dangers to one of unwholesome morality, of failure in morality (moral conduct).

What are they?

In the first place, he suffers great loss of property through neglecting his affairs.

In the second place, he gets an unwholesome reputation for immorality and misconduct.

In the third place, whatever assembly he approaches, whether of Khattiyas, Brāhmins, Householders or Ascetics, he does so without confidence and is fearful.

In the fourth place, he dies confused.

In the fifth place, after death, at the breaking‑up of the body, he arises in an unwholesome state, a bad destination, in suffering and hell.

These are the five dangers to one of unwholesome morality.

(Reference: UD 8.6)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares the five dangers to one of unwholesome moral conduct (i.e. morality).

Wholesome moral conduct is shared in guidance taught as part of The Eight Fold Path. A Practitioner who develops their moral conduct as described in The Eight Fold Path is practicing wholesome moral conduct.

But, if a Practitioner is unknowing of this wisdom or otherwise chooses to practice unwholesome moral conduct for any reason, The Buddha shares five dangers to be experienced by one who is practicing unwholesome moral conduct.

This includes loss of property, unwholesome reputation, lacking confidence and fearful, dies confused, and is reborn in hell.

This is a result of one’s own decisions based on The Natural Law of Kamma. There is no entity or being that judges a being to determine if these things should or should not occur, but instead, these are the results or consequences of one’s own decisions occurring as a result of one’s own decisions.

This Teaching is not shared to guilt, shame, nor fear someone into learning and practicing these Teachings, but instead, The Buddha is sharing the truth of what will occur and then leaves the decision up to the individual of what they will or will not do in this life. Without this wisdom, an individual might make unwise decisions that leads to these outcomes without understanding of why these outcomes occurred.

But with this wisdom, an individual could choose through their own free will whether they are interested in improving their moral conduct or not. A Buddha’s mind is already completely peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy. They have escaped The Cycle of Rebirth and only have interest to help others attain this same mental state, but in order to accomplish that goal, a Practitioner would need decide to pursue and progress on The Path to Enlightenment through their own choices and decisions.

An individual cannot be forced to learn and practice these Teachings to attain Enlightenment, it needs to be a personal choice. The Path to Enlightenment is to eliminate 100% of all discontent feelings which includes: guilt, shame, and fear. A Fully Perfectly Enlightened Buddha would not use guilt, shame, or fear to help an individual eliminate guilt, shame, and fear. That is not possible.

The Buddha shared Teachings based on questions asked of him by his Students. He shared the truth of what will and will not occur based on the interest of Students asking questions. He did not declare, profess, or dictate what would or would not occur, but instead, shared guidance based on the interest of his Students to learn and practice these Teachings.

Students could observe that his mind was completely and entirely peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy at all times. Living closely with their Teacher, if there was any anger, frustration, irritation, annoyance, etc. this would have been observed.

But, for an Enlightened being and surely a Fully Perfectly Enlightened Buddha, there are no discontent feelings in the mind and having observed this over longer and longer periods of time, his Students knew that he had achieved Enlightenment then sought guidance of how to attain this same mental state.

As part of learning and practicing The Teachings that lead to Enlightenment, Students oftentimes have questions about the future to include future rebirth.

A Buddha would have needed to share this information to satisfy the inquisitive mind of his Students but decided to focus his Students on the details of this path that leads to the elimination of discontentedness, to liberation of mind, to peacefulness, to Enlightenment.

So while The Buddha did share Teachings on The Five Realms of Existence and what would and would not occur as part of The Cycle of Rebirth, his core and central Teachings are to learn, reflect, and practice The Path to Enlightenment which involves training the mind on a daily basis.

While some may become overly obsessed with attempting to understand The Five Realms of Existence and rebirth, The Buddha chose to focus his Students on training the mind so that there would not be any rebirth.

If you have been part of a tradition or community of people who used the destination after death as a way to guilt, shame, or fear individuals into believing certain Teachings, you will need to eliminate that conditioning and perspective as it relates to these Teachings from The Buddha.

The Buddha only shared these Teachings to help Students who asked questions and had a curiosity about The Five Realms and who needed to understand The Cycle of Rebirth to connect The Teachings on The Path to Enlightenment to the outcome of their life practice.

While a Buddha applies effort and energy to focus their Students on learning, reflecting, and practicing The Teachings that lead to Enlightenment through training the mind, Students are oftentimes eager to understand all the details of what will or will not occur in their next life.

But for a Buddha, the goal is for their Students to not experience a next life and instead, put an end to their discontentedness in this life so that the mind can experience liberation, peacefulness, and Enlightenment avoiding the continued misery and despair of rebirth.