The Five Precepts

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Translations of

pañcasīlāni
English: five precepts,
five virtues
Pali: pañcasīlāni
Sanskrit: pañcaśīlāni
Sinhala: පන්සිල්
Chinese: 五戒
Ng Gye (Cantonese)
wǔ jiè (Mandarin)
Japanese: 五戒
(rōmaji: go kai)
Thai: ศีลห้า
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The Five Precepts (Pali: pañca-sīla; Sanskrit: pañca-śīla)[1] constitute the basic Buddhist code of ethics, undertaken by lay followers of the Buddha Gautama in the Theravada and Mahayana traditions. The Five Precepts are commitments to abstain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. Undertaking the five precepts is part of both lay Buddhist initiation and regular lay Buddhist devotional practices.

The Buddha is said to have taught the five precepts out of compassion, and for the betterment of society. Thus they are to be undertaken voluntarily rather than as commandments from a god. The precepts are intended to help a Buddhist live free from remorse, so that they can progress more easily on the Path.

Contents

[edit] Pali texts

Pali literature provides the scriptures and commentary for traditional Theravadin practice.

[edit] Pali training rules

The following are the five precepts (pañca-sikkhāpada)[2] or five virtues (pañca-sīla) rendered in English and Pali:

1. I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life. Pāṇātipātā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.
2. I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given. Adinnādānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.
3. I undertake the training rule to abstain from sexual misconduct. Kāmesu micchācāra veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.
4. I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech. Musāvāda veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.
5. I undertake the training rule to abstain from drinks and drugs that cause heedlessness.[3] Surā-meraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi.[4]

[edit] Elaboration

In the Pali Canon, the following typifies elaborations that frequently accompany these identified training rules:

"... There is the case where a certain person, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from the taking of life. He dwells with his rod laid down, his knife laid down, scrupulous, merciful, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings. Abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given. He does not take, in the manner of a thief, things in a village or a wilderness that belong to others and have not been given by them. Abandoning sensual misconduct, he abstains from sensual misconduct. He does not get sexually involved with those who are protected by their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters, their relatives, or their Dhamma; those with husbands, those who entail punishments, or even those crowned with flowers by another man....
"... There is the case where a certain person, abandoning false speech, abstains from false speech. When he has been called to a town meeting, a group meeting, a gathering of his relatives, his guild, or of the royalty, if he is asked as a witness, 'Come & tell, good man, what you know': If he doesn't know, he says, 'I don't know.' If he does know, he says, 'I know.' If he hasn't seen, he says, 'I haven't seen.' If he has seen, he says, 'I have seen.' Thus he doesn't consciously tell a lie for his own sake, for the sake of another, or for the sake of any reward. Abandoning false speech, he abstains from false speech...."[5]

According to the Buddha, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and lying are never skillful.[6]

[edit] Motivation

In the Abhisandha Sutta (AN 8.39), the Buddha said that undertaking the precepts is a gift to oneself and others:

"... In [undertaking the five precepts], he gives freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the ... gift, the ... great gift — original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning — that is not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and is unfaulted by knowledgeable contemplatives & priests. This is the ... reward of merit, reward of skillfulness, nourishment of happiness, celestial, resulting in happiness, leading to heaven, leading to what is desirable, pleasurable, & appealing; to welfare & to happiness."[7]

In the next canonical discourse, the Buddha described the minimal negative consequences of breaking the precepts.[8]

[edit] Chinese texts

The Chinese version as found in the Supplement to the Canon (續藏經 Xùzàng Jīng) hardly differs from the Pali:[citation needed]

  1. As the Buddha refrained from killing until the end of his life, so I too will refrain from killing until the end of my life.
    如諸佛盡壽不殺生，我某甲亦盡壽不殺生
  2. As the Buddha refrained from stealing until the end of his life, so I too will refrain from stealing until the end of my life.
    如諸佛盡壽不偷盜，我某甲亦盡壽不偷盜
  3. As the Buddha refrained from sexual misconduct until the end of his life, so I too will refrain from sexual misconduct until the end of my life.
    如諸佛盡壽不淫欲，我某甲亦盡壽不邪淫
  4. As the Buddha refrained from false speech until the end of his life, so I too will refrain from false speech until the end of my life.
    如諸佛盡壽不妄語；我某甲亦盡壽不妄語
  5. As the Buddha refrained from alcohol until the end of his life, so I too will refrain from alcohol until the end of my life.
    如諸佛盡壽不飲酒，我某甲亦盡壽不飲酒

[edit] Traditional praxis

The laity undertake to follow these training rules at the same time as they become Buddhists. In Mahayana countries a lay practitioner who has undertaken the precepts is called an upasaka. In Theravada countries any lay follower is in theory called an upasaka (or upasika, feminine), though in practice everyone is expected to take the precepts anyway.

Additionally, traditional Theravada lay devotional practice (puja) includes the daily taking of refuge in the Triple Gem and undertaking to observe the five precepts.

[edit] Interpretations

The precepts are considered differently in a Mahayana context to that of the Theravada school of thought.

According to Theravada, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and lying are never skillful[9], but Mahayana schools consider this a beginners view.[10] The reason for this is because Theravada rejects any realisation of non-duality in favour of the Pali Canon alone. In the written form, the precepts may appear to be similar to the Judeo-Christian commandments. However to the Mahayana schools, the first precept for example does not mean thou shall not kill. Rather, the precept of not killing highlights with deeper understanding that one cannot see things in these terms. That is to say one cannot find anything fixed to call a victim, nor a specific entity that one can call a killer. In fact, one can find nothing fixed at all. It is this flux that the precepts point to. By engaging these precepts, one is engaging in the effort to be awake in the non conceptual, non dualistic reality.

Contemporary Theravada scholar monk Bhikkhu Bodhi takes that position that, while non-dualistic philosophies assert that enlightened beings are beyond the proscriptions of conventional moral codes, in the Pali canon the Buddha's teaching maintains a clear distinction between moral and immoral behaviors, a distinction that applies as much to the arahant as to the layperson.[11] An arahant would rather die than intentionally kill an insect.[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ In Pali and Sanskrit, "five precepts" is more literally translated as pañca-sikkhāpada and pañca-sikśāpada, respectively. Thus, for instance, Harvey (2007, p. 199) translates pañca-sīla as "five virtues."
  2. ^ As indicated in the translation below, sikkhāpada is also translated as "training rule" (e.g., Gunaratana, 2007) and "rule of training" (e.g., Harvey, 2007, p. 199; and, Khantipalo, 1982/95).
  3. ^ Based on Gunaratana (2007). Gunaratana includes this translation of the Five Precepts within the context of what he refers to as the Eight Lifetime Precepts.
  4. ^ The Pali can be found, for instance, in Elgiriye Indaratana (2002), p. 2.
  5. ^ AN 10.176 (Thanissaro, 1997b).
  6. ^ Thanissaro (2006). Thanissaro, in part, references MN 9, Sammā-diṭṭhi Sutta, to support this statement.
  7. ^ AN 8.39 (Thanissaro, 1997a).
  8. ^ AN 8.40 (Thanissaro, 1997c).
  9. ^ Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "Getting the Message" article link at Access to Insight
  10. ^ For instance, Aitken (1984), pp. 16 passim., refers to three frameworks used by Zen teachers:
    • the Hinayana or "literal" view
    • the Mahayana or "compassionate" view
    • the Buddha-nature or "essential" view.
    Aitken (1984, p. 16) cautions though that these terms "should not be confused in this usage with sectarian or geographic interpretatons. They refer to attitudes, not necessarily to beliefs of people living in Sri Lanka or Japan."
  11. ^ Bodhi (1994-95/98). In referring to "philosophies of non-duality," Bodhi parenthetically identifies "particularly in Hindu and Buddhist Tantra" and subsequently alludes to the notion of "crazy wisdom" that, for instance, was popularized by Chogyam Trungpa.

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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