Buddhist precepts - A personal challenge - Week #1

No one owns our minds but us.

And Buddhist precepts are a means of realizing this. They are an opportunity to learn how to live that freedom as best as we can.

With that said, let's learn the Buddhist precepts and put them to practice through a personal challenge.

Do your best each week to try and follow one of the five Buddhist precepts. I'll do my best to do it and chronicle my progress and failings as they occur. But here's something for you, the reader - give it a try along with me, and let me know how you do.

This week, we're going to start with the first Buddhist Precept, and vow to bring no harm to any living creature through our words, deeds, or thought, including ourselves. Pay attention to all the living beings in the world that we might normally ignore - whether it be birds, bugs, or even the weeds coming up through the pavement - and believe, me, this time of year we've got plenty along the side of our house.

Let's cultivate a sense of care and reverence for all the living things in the world, and give thought to how they are all buddhas, just like us.

I look forward to the challenge. I hope you do too.