Living a Stupid Life

A student went to his teacher and whined, “ I live a stupid life.”
“From the very beginning,” replied the teacher.
Surprised, the student repeats, “from the very beginning?”
“Yes! And I suspect without neglect.”

Although the student whines he or she is awakening to the true situation. It takes a certain glimpse of wisdom to see that we live stupid lives, lives that are anchored in self-centered ignorance. And as the teacher says so emphatically, we do this without neglect. The teacher continues to speak and tell the student that the cry of a stupid life is the cry for freedom. The nurse for such a whine is the milk of loving-kindness, the heart of compassion and the wisdom of the teachings.
To study the precepts is to study the teachings in the middle of stupidity. It, however, requires an alert, responsive and sincere heart to see the wisdom in these teachings. We need not see them as mere rules to measure your self or others, but as food for the moans of stupidity.
Each one helps us wise-up and tend to our liberation.
Seeing for our self that we live a stupid life is a step towards wising up.
Picking up the precepts helps us see how to live wisely, in loving-kindness, and compassionately. They are milk for your cry, not for the cry of someone else.
They are not weapons to be used to judge or harm anyone.