Decision+Making+and+Right+Conduct+and+Livelihood;+T-charts

=**Title: Right Action: T-charts**=

Objective:

 * Understand and give real life examples of Right Action/Conduct, Livelihood and Effort
 * Sub-objective: reinforce note taking skills

Materials:

 * Notetaking form. (Any notetaking methodology may be used here).
 * T-chart form [[file:t-chart.pdf]]
 * Pokemon 5%, 10%, 30% pictures


 * Math and Spelling problems sheet

Preparation:

 * Make sufficient copies of Notetaking and T-chart forms. Make T-chart form double sided.

Method:

 * 1) Opening Gassho
 * 2) Introduction
 * 3) Ask for a volunteer, ask everyone to observe carefully, ask volunteer to react naturally.
 * 4) Quickly, clap your hands loudly in front of the volunteer's face.
 * 5) Review what happened w/ class. Keep this short.
 * 6) Remind students that Right View/perception and Right Thought lead to Right Action/Conduct (use whichever students are most familiar with) and Right Livelihood and Right Effort.
 * 7) So the students are now asked to use their Right Perception and Right Effort and take good notes. Hand out notetaking form.
 * 8) Give lecture (below) with stop for activities as noted.
 * 9) Hand out T-chart forms and explain how to use to make decisions. Explain how it is a way to organize your data collection (Right View) and decision making (Right Thought).
 * 10) Have students do a T-chart on their own.
 * 11) Group students (at least 3 per group) and ask the whole class a question: such as "should we go on a field trip to....."?
 * 12) Ask each group to present their conclusions.
 * 13) Review what should be on their notes.
 * 14) Conclude and review by asking each student to give a different example of either Right Conduct or Effort.

Talk:
"Right Conduct, Livelihood and Effort come together as what you do hopefully as a result of Right Views (Perception) and Right Thought come together. It is your expression of what you do along with Right Speech. Right Conduct is what you do." (Draw a circle diagram of Right Views => Right Thought => Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort)

"For us, sometimes choosing what to do is a hard decision. If you have true Right View and you can see all aspects of the problem, this would be simpler! For example, look at this picture. This has only 10% of the picture showing. Now it's a lot easier with more." (Show the two pictures).

"Right Livelihood is what you do for a living. This is relatively easy to follow if you're already employing Right Conduct. Basically, this means to have a job that does not harm or take advantage of others. Traditionally, in India, this was interpreted as not being in a job that would harm others or animals. In Jodo Shinshu, we say that it is impossible to live without harming something/someone, therefore, we express our gratitude and try to minimize the impact as much as we can. We will cover this in more detail when we study Jodo Shinshu."

"Right Effort is not just to put ALL into everything. It is to put the right amount of effort for the task. Under it, you should strive to complete the job in the minimum reasonable time. "work hard when you work, rest when you are tired". But this is very hard to determine! And sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking that we don't need to do much when in fact we do. So I usually fault on the side of caution and give it my all in most efforts. Doing two things or more at the same time is NOT Right Effort." (Pass out two tests first done separately, have the students time themselves for each. Now ask the students to do them one line at a time.)

Evaluation:

 * During conclusion, ask students to give an example of each. Make sure to ask each student.

Note:
This is actually three lessons (Right View lecture & picture, T-charts, Right Effort) that have been combined into one for the High School class. It can be easily be split up and each section expanded to form 2 or 3 lessons.

Author:
Mas Nishimura, nish221@gmail.com, San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin, 2007 ||