Tactfulness: Chapter II

Almost always, when I read this title, I smile at the word Tactfulness.  How tricky it is to be tactful!  As I make my full intention to be tactful in a given situation, I find myself wondering around on the border between truthfulness and deceitfulness.  A little too much this way and I am being deceptive; but then just a little bit back that way and I am such a truthful person!  In some translations the phrase expedient means is used.  Somehow that sounds to me like the deceptive side of the border.  I’ll stick with my son George’s choice, tactfulness.

Chapter II of 26 chapters is considered pivotal in the teaching of the lotus, the teaching of the wonderful principle of cause and effect.  Ah, I see it!  I must be tactful in the intentions I create; otherwise, I might get a result I did not intend.  Today we hear much about the law of unintended consequences.  That’s the dark side of what the Lotus Sutra teaches.  I must dedicate much thought and prayer to the consequences I want to see from my intention, as well as the possible unwanted ones, before I actually make that intention, also called determination.  I must always remember that my intentions determine the tendencies my behavior will adopt  in all my future actions.  After all, it is through my actions that I create my own karma.

Be determined!  Be single-minded!  That’s what my practice tells me.  Without determination and single-mindedness, I could never have made it from Natick, Massachusetts, to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Not at 72!  How grateful I am to my parents and others who helped me become a tactful person.  Just as tactics follow upon strategy in the pursuit of war, so tactfulness follow upon intention and determination in the pursuit of happiness, another word for enlightenment.  A philosophy teacher of mine once said, some years before we actually did it, You can’t get to the moon if you have not first gone there in your mind.  He was teaching us about the function of intentions, strategy, and tactics, a teaching I learn again and again in my daily activities.   I sure have had some very wise people in my life!

Living in a country far away from family and long-time friends, in a place where I neither speak nor understand the language, can’t even read it because it’s a whole other script, if I am not tactful, I can get into a lot of trouble.  I know that among others my sister Patty worries about that.  She knows I am careful, but she probably wonders if I am up to such great challenges here in Thailand.  With my daily Buddhist practice, I am tactful in all things.  Well, once in awhile I haven’t been tactful enough in what I eat or drink!

And that’s why we talk about a spiritual practice.  I must practice it every day, as I did the piano when I was very young….