The Five Precepts Totally Explained

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The Five Precepts (Pali: pañca-sīla; Sanskrit: pañca-śīla) 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're 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.

Pali texts

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

Pali training rules

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

1.	I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life.	Pāātipātā veramaī sikkhāpada samādiyāmi.
2.	I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what isn't given.	Adinnādānā veramaī sikkhāpada samādiyāmi.
3.	I undertake the training rule to abstain from sexual misconduct.	Kāmesu micchācāra veramaī sikkhāpada samādiyāmi.
4.	I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech.	Musāvāda veramaī sikkhāpada samādiyāmi.
5.	I undertake the training rule to abstain from drinks and drugs that cause heedlessness.	Surā-meraya-majja-pamādahānā veramaī sikkhāpada samādiyāmi.

Elaboration

In the Pali Canon, the following typifies elaborations that frequently accompany these identified training rules: ť "... 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 isn't given, he abstains from taking what isn't given. He doesn't 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 doesn't 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....

ť "... There is the case where a certain person, abandoning false speech, abstains from false speech. When he's been called to a town meeting, a group meeting, a gathering of his relatives, his guild, or of the royalty, if he's 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's 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...."

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

Motivation

In the Abhisandha Sutta (AN 8.39), the Buddha said that undertaking the precepts is a gift to oneself and others: ť "... In [undertakingthe 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 isn't 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."

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

Chinese texts

The Chinese version as found in the Supplement to the Canon ( Xùzàng Jīng) hardly differs from the Pali:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.

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, but Mahayana schools consider this a beginners view. 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 doesn't mean thou shan't kill. Rather, the precept of not killing highlights with deeper understanding that one can't see things in these terms. That is to say one can't 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. An arahant would rather die than intentionally kill an insect.

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