Reference: The Happiness Rundown
8. DO NOT MURDER
Most races, from the most ancient times to the present, have prohibited murder and punished it heavily. Sometimes this has been broadened to say, “Thou shalt not kill,” when a later translation of the same work has found it to read “Thou shalt not murder.”
There is a considerable difference between these two words kill and murder. A prohibition against all killing would rule out self-defense; it would tend to make it illegal to handle a serpent coiling to strike the baby; it would put a race on a diet of vegetables. I am sure you can see many illustrations of the difficulties raised by a prohibition against all killing.
“Murder” is another thing entirely. By definition it means, “The unlawful killing of one (or more) human being(s) by another, especially with malice aforethought.” One can easily see that in this age of violent weaponry, murder would be all too easy. One could not exist in a society where oneself or one’s family or friends were at the mercy of some who went about casually taking lives.
Murder justly bears the highest priority in social prevention and retaliation.
The stupid, the evil and the insane seek to solve their real or imagined problems with murder. And they have been known to do it for no reason at all.
Get behind any demonstrably effective program that handles this threat to mankind and push. Your own survival could depend upon it.
The way to happiness does not include murdering your friends, your family, or yourself being murdered.
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Exercise
0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 7-2. Study the precept above.
1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).
(a) “Have you been told or taught to murder?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to not murdering?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you should murder?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with not murdering?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about murdering?”
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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers:
(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Do not murder’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Do not murder’?”
Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.
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3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:
“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Do not murder’?”
If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:
“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”
If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.
“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?”
“Is there any time when you decided that murder was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
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4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely.
”Do you have any reservations about not murdering?”
If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.
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5. Contemplate on the following question.
“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else not to murder?”
If any reservation comes up, then consider the following:
“How would that be a problem?”
Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.
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