FOURTH STEP

                            RIGHT  ACTION

  WHAT, now, is Right Action? It is abstaining from killing;

abstaining from stealing; abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse.

  There, someone avoids the killing of living beings, and abstains

from it. Without stick or sword, conscientious, full of sympathy, he

is anxious for the welfare of all living beings.

  He avoids stealing, and abstains from it; what another person

possesses of goods and chattels in the village or in the wood, that he

does not take away with thievish intent.

  He avoids unlawful sexual intercourse, and abstains from it. He

has no intercourse with such persons as are still under the protection

of father, mother, brother, sister or relatives, nor with married

women, nor female convicts, nor, lastly, with betrothed girls.

  This is called Right Action.

  Now, Right Action, let me tell you, is of two kinds: 1. Abstaining

from killing, from stealing, and from unlawful sexual intercourse-this

is called the "Mundane Right Action, which yields worldly fruits and

brings good results. But the abhorrence of the practice of this

three-fold wrong action, the abstaining, withholding, refraining

therefrom-the mind being holy, being turned away from the world, and

conjoined with the path, the holy path being pursued -: this is

called the "Ultramundane Right Action," which is not of the world, but

is ultramundane, and conjoined with the paths.

  Now, in understanding wrong action as wrong, and right action as

right, one practices Right Understanding  [1st step];  and in making

efforts to overcome wrong action, and to arouse right action, one

practices Right Effort  [6th step];  and in overcoming wrong action

with attentive mind, and dwelling with attentive mind in possession of

right action, one practices Right Attentiveness  [7th step].  Hence,

there are three things that accompany and follow upon right action,

namely: right understanding, right effort, and right attentiveness.