Taking the Precepts as the Code of Conduct

Taking the Precepts as the Code of Conduct
Apr /8/ 2023 – Apr / 9/ 2023

Hello everyone, welcome to our Dharma talk at Dharma Rain Meditation Center.

When studying sociological norms, teachers often say that the law is the minimum universal moral requirements. Can we also say that precepts are a code of conduct for different level cultivators?

What is morality? Literally to say: Tao is a theory and a path, close to the truth, practice it the right way, attain the enlightenment, it called virtue.

Master Tai Xu said: “Be suddenly enlightened means Tao; practice it cleanly and naturally called the virtue.” We can find that Buddhism’s morality takes of the “be suddenly enlightened” in a reasonable way in a very important position. Understood the truth, become enlightened and open-minded, be free from preoccupations and then through practice, benefit oneself, benefit others, and get perfect virtue and wisdom, which includes both solution and practice, the cause and effect. “Be able to” is to know the fruit of good and evil. “Practice” is to stop evil and doing good.

The seven Buddhas chants and hymns of the Dhammapada Sutra said: “Create no evil, cultivate all good, and purify the mind. These are the teachings of the Buddha.” This famous hymn shows the Buddhist precepts’ fundamental spirit, so it called “general precept.” Buddhists have always respected it. There are two meanings of this hymn: The first is “Create no evil, cultivate all good”, which requires people to obey code of conduct, show their kindness. The second is “self-purification,” which goes beyond the secular level and requires purification in the soul. This is also a part of our cultivation.

The Buddhist precepts’ main function is to stop evils, then promote goodness, to transpose the unclean into the pure. What is the standard of good and evil?

A simple summary is:
1. Benefited oneself, and others are good;
2. Benefit others but didn’t benefit oneself is good;
3. Harmed oneself and others are evil;
4. Benefit oneself but harm others are evil.

This ethical morality that respects others’ interest, if we use it in our cultivation, we can call it Random Acts of Kindness. For example, the Mahāvairocana Tantra said: “The bodhichitta is the cause, the great compassion is fundamental, and the convenience is the ultimate way.” This is the spirit of the Mahayana bodhisattva. “Hospice” hopes happy for others. “Compassion behaviors” help others relieve from the pain.

The Intention of Buddha creating precepts was to deal with all beings’ afflictions and bad habits; the purpose was to destroy evil and prosper well. Constrain people’s body, speech, and mind, make them clean Threefold Karma, approach three studies, create certain standards for people’s behaviour, and restraint inappropriate behaviours and turn a regular person into a Noble one. Although people are different between ancient and modern times, they share similar problems. Only a small number of everyday people can turn into a Noble one by following the precepts. There we can see compare with code of conduct from common society, the precept system created by the Buddha is stricter. Keeping precepts properly will not only respect the law but also respect morality. Thus, we are easy to fulfil our moral obligations as individuals. What’s more important is, by taking the precepts as our basic code of conduct, we may guide people to the goodness and become selfless.

Many people think that cultivation is to close the door, enjoy their own world, to meditate and to chant, do not care about the world outside the window. On the contrary, cultivation is every moment of life, not only meditating and chanting time, is in the moment that you generously donated money to the children who are unable to return to school because of the hurricane in Haiti, it is in the moment that you persuade your friends to put down the marijuana and play golf with you, is in sudden rain, you hold an umbrella for the strangers passing by.

The original meaning of precepts is behaviour, habit, character, morality and respect. It is one of the three studies of Buddhism. From the literary content, precepts mean precept rules, all good and evil habits can be referred to be precept rules. Generally, precept means pure precept rules and kind precept rules; there were created for layperson and monks. They stipulate what could do and what is not allowed, with the function of preventing evil promoting virtue. Buddha created different precepts for different groups, the common ones as follow:

The five precepts constitute the basic code of ethics undertaken by upāsaka and upāsikā of Buddhism. The precepts in all the traditions are essentially identical and are commitments to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. The first three precepts are keeping off the body evil; the fourth precept is keeping off the speech evil while the fifth prevents the body and speech. They are the basic code of conduct from Buddhism.

The Eight Precepts are created for the layperson who becomes monk or nun temporarily; they must leave the house at least one day and one night to live in temples to learn the how to live in the temple. Except for the basic five precepts, eight precepts added refrain from eating at the forbidden time (i.e., afternoon); refrain from dancing, singing, music, going to see entertainments, wearing garlands, using perfumes, and beautifying the body with cosmetics; refrain from lying on a high or luxurious sleeping place.

Ten precepts are for Monks and nuns; they are five precepts add they refrain from eating at the forbidden time (i.e., afternoon); refrain from dancing, singing, music, going to see entertainments, wearing garlands, using perfumes, and beautifying the body with cosmetics; refrain from lying on a high or luxurious sleeping place; refrain from lying on a high or luxurious sleeping place; refrain from accepting gold and silver (money).

Upasampadā is full ordination as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni; it also called a big precept, compare with five precepts and ten precepts, it is strict and perfect, so it called full ordination. Bhikkhu has 250 precepts, and Bhikkhuni has 348 precepts.

To sum up, the Five Precepts, the Eight Precepts, the Ten Precepts, and Upasampadā have a common feature: they emphasize the prevention of evil. Mahayana Buddhism attributed them to the “Hinayana precepts”, they created “Bodhisattva Precept” to prevent evil, to promote kindness and virtue. There are so many types of bodhisattva precepts; the most representative is the 58 precepts, including ten major and forty-eight minor precepts. The Ten major are ten kinds of great sins which were designed to prevent evil. Forty-eight minor precepts are light sins, most of them wrote forbidden and promotion behaviour together. They emphasize what not allowed to do, but they also tell people what they should do in this part, even advised the cultivators what they should exactly do. In other words, first of all, precepts stipulate what is evil and what is wrong, established a clear concept of good and evil and tells people what they should do and what they should not do in detail so that peoples can restrain their behavior. By taking the precepts, we can help people prevent evils because precepts clearly tell people what they are supposed to do and prohibited. People understand that if they do evil, they must be punished by karma. Since people have a concept of prevention of evil, they do not dare to do evil; they will avoid the evil behaviors by themselves; Second, the precept is not simply to stipulate people’s behavior, its guide people’s behavior in a spiritual way, if people break any of them, they should confess immediately. Therefore, in addition to prohibiting evil, the function of the bodhisattva precepts also focuses on morality and moral cultivation.

Everyone knows that 2,500 years ago, Buddha used the purest and selfless intelligence in the universe to create the precepts which were forward-looking and practical for modern people; it realized Buddhist morality. It transforms the “Create no evil, cultivate all good” into concrete norms of conduct so that Buddhist morality is no longer a mystical talk. At the same time, Buddha realized that the precepts of the Sangha must have punished measure, so the effectiveness of the precepts is greatly enhanced.

Therefore, taking precepts as the code of conduct, keeping the precepts as the norms of our life and spiritual guide. From the invisible point, we have encouraged the righteousness in the world; it benefits our spirits and souls; from the tangible point, we fulfil the social responsibilities by guiding people to be good, benefit the public, promote progress, and development of the society. What a virtue!

 thank you for the listening!