Precepts are voluntary mental trainings which guide us. They are not laws or commandments as the individual must voluntarily undertake these mental trainings. Their purpose is to develop our humanness, which is the first level where true trust, understanding, and faith are possible.
1) Not to take life needlessly
As humans, we are consumers of life in order to exist. It then becomes voluntary mental training as we decide what life we will take for our own use. Breathing in, itself, consumes life. Walking, itself, consumes life. Thus, we realize that we have no control over much of our consumption. What we do have control over, then, becomes "not taking life needlessly." Since all life, itself, has equal value, becoming a vegetarian is a choice and not a rule. Wasting life is the problem.
2) Not to steal
As humans, we become what we do, think, and experience. We will become a thief if we steal and we will become a better thief if we continue to steal. Even a thief does not like his/her things to be stolen!
3) Not to lie
As humans, lying is part of our growing up process. There reaches a point, however, when we can realize the harm in lying. Lying leads one away from Truth. Lying kills Truth.
4) Not to have sexual misconduct
Homosexuality is not sexual misconduct. Sex without marriage is not sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct is the performance of sex with selfish motives, lack of understanding of the other person's willingness or unwillingness to participate, using the immaturity and innocence of another as a means to gain what one wants sexually from that individual, or countless other ways and means of obtaining sexual pleasure.
5) Not to use substances that cause heedlessness
There is no such thing as "recreational drug use," for example. This means that any drug or drink taken that changes how your mind perceives, except necessary prescription medications, is a cause of perceiving inaccurately and thus behaving inappropriately and with distortion becoming predictable. You become what you take into yourself with all of your senses.
The purpose of these Five Precepts is to lead to a clear understanding of the value, interdependency, and impermanency (ever-changingness) of all things. |
