JUELING · 觉灵
Twenty Questions for Seeing Your Own Conduct
Drawn from the Ten Wholesome Actions in the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections (three of body, four of speech, three of mind) and the four common preliminaries in Patrul Rinpoche's The Words of My Perfect Teacher. For anyone already practising, or wanting to bring the Dharma into ordinary days.
Three things this sheet will not do: it will not score you, rank you, or pass judgement on your attainment.
Awakening is not the kind of thing that takes a number, and no web page can certify anyone's realisation. It only helps you see the three places with the most room right now, and gives each one small action you can finish within a week.
Your answers are never uploaded or stored — everything is computed in your own browser and disappears when you close the tab. So answer as you actually are, not as you would like to be.
How to answer
- Go by the last 30 days, not by what you think you should be.
- When unsure, pick the option closer to the facts. Honest answers are the only useful ones.
- About 3 minutes. When all twenty are answered, the three readings appear below.
Part One · The Ten Wholesome Actions — twelve questions
Source: The Sutra of Forty-Two Sections, Section 4, “Good and Evil Made Clear”
The Buddha said: Beings take ten things to be good, and take the same ten things to be evil. What are the ten? Three of the body, four of the mouth, three of the mind.
The three of the body are killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. The four of the mouth are divisive speech, harsh speech, lying, and frivolous speech. The three of the mind are envy, ill will, and delusion. These ten are not in accord with the Noble Path and are called the ten unwholesome deeds. When these are stopped, they are called the ten wholesome deeds.
Note: in this sutra the three of the mind are envy, ill will, delusion — slightly different from the more familiar “greed, hatred, delusion (or wrong view)” of the Sutra of the Ten Wholesome Ways of Action. This sheet follows the text quoted above. English rendering is ours.
Body · killing, stealing, sexual misconduct
KillingWhen I meet an insect, or a killing I could have avoided, I deal with it without thinking and feel nothing afterwards.
What matters here is whether the flicker of reluctance arises at all — not whether you managed never to kill.
StealingI quietly use what belongs to the company or the public — time, supplies, accounts, other people's work — for myself.
“Taking what is not given” today is rarely theft of objects. It is theft of hours and of credit.
MisconductI consume pornography, or act on interest in someone outside my relationship.
The easiest question to answer well. Nothing is uploaded. Answer as it is.
Speech · divisive, harsh, false, frivolous
DivisiveI pass on what A said to B, in a way that brings one of them closer to me.
The motive is worth more attention than the content.
HarshWhen my temper rises I say things meant to wound — most often to family, partner, or the people who work for me.
The closer they are, the more likely they become the outlet.
FalseTo keep things running smoothly I tell small untruths that seem harmless.
Including promises to clients and deflections at home.
FrivolousThe hours I give to short video, idle chat and useless feeds exceed the hours I give to real work and to stillness.
Frivolous speech today mostly takes the shape of an infinite scroll.
Mind · envy, ill will, delusion
EnvyWhen a peer or friend does well, my first reaction is discomfort, and it takes a while to come round.
The first reaction is not shameful. It is only data.
Ill willI replay the scene of someone wronging me, and get angrier each time round.
Anger always bills the one who holds it, first.
DelusionFacing an important decision, I would rather have my fortune read than lay out the causes and conditions one by one.
Delusion is not stupidity. It is handing what could be seen clearly over to the unknowable.
Overall
IntentionBefore starting something, I pause to ask what it will bring to other people.
Positive item — closer to “already a habit” is better.
BenefitIn the past month I did something concrete purely for someone else, expecting nothing back.
Positive item. Once counts.
Part Two · The Four Common Preliminaries — eight questions
Source: Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher (Kunzang Lama'i Shelung)
The four common preliminaries:
the precious human birth · impermanence · the defects of samsara · the infallibility of cause and effect. The preliminaries are not a warm-up before the real practice. Driving the view into daily life
is the practice.
This part covers only the four common preliminaries and only how far they have landed in daily life. Refuge, bodhicitta, Vajrasattva, mandala and guru yoga are the uncommon preliminaries — they require a living teacher and lineage, and no questionnaire can stand in for that.
The precious human birth
I have actually worked out how many hours a day are genuinely mine, and how many of them go to practice or to others.
Positive item.
“A human birth is hard to obtain” still sounds to me like a polite phrase rather than my own situation.
Impermanence
I have made concrete arrangements for “if I had three years left” — instructions, a will, a reordering of priorities.
Positive item.
The things on my list that are important but not urgent keep getting pushed back.
The defects of samsara
Somewhere inside I believe that once the business succeeds and the money is enough, the suffering will be largely solved.
I can name clearly the pattern I keep falling back into.
Positive item.
The infallibility of cause and effect
When things go badly, I look outward first — the environment, competitors, luck, the times.
I keep some record that lets me see the link between what I do and what follows — a merit ledger, a journal, a review sheet.
Positive item. This is exactly what Liaofan used.
The three worth seeing first
0 / 20 answered — the readings appear once all are done
After the seeing, the conversation
Jueling does not read fortunes, does not awaken anyone on their behalf, and does not certify anyone's attainment. It is simply the one who keeps asking the question with you.
Read The Spirit of the Chinese People →