What Is the Precept of Guarding the Mind?

Guarding the precepts of the mind means not letting the mind give rise to thoughts and mental activity, not giving rise to the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. This is very difficult; one must eradicate the afflictions to accomplish it. Even suppressing the afflictions is not easy to do, and there are often times when one cannot hold them down. In today's world, even the bodily and verbal precepts are hard to keep; there are many opportunities to violate the precepts, and one slightly loses control and violates the bodily and verbal precepts.

Why do people violate the bodily and verbal precepts? Because of the mind. When the mind has the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, it will drive the body and speech to create karma. If one can guard the mind, then the body and speech will not violate the precepts and create unwholesome karma. If the mind does not violate the precepts, then no matter what the body and speech do, it is not a violation of the precepts, because there are no mental actions of greed, hatred, and delusion. All precepts take the presence or absence of mind as the measuring standard, but ordinary people find it very hard to see clearly into another person's mind, so they take the other person's body and speech as the standard; naturally, there are many occasions when the measurement is wrong.

The precept practice of the Small Vehicle takes bodily and verbal karmic actions as the criterion; as long as the body and speech do not violate the precepts, it is fine, regardless of what the mental actions are like. The Mahāyāna bodhisattva takes the precepts of the mind-ground as the standard; as long as every thought and mental activity is not for oneself, that is good. The true Mahāyāna precepts are very difficult to keep. For example, the bodhisattva precepts in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra were established for bhūmi bodhisattvas at the first bhūmi and above. Pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva) have not eradicated the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion and are unable to keep them; for them, as long as the body and speech violate the precepts, it counts as a violation. Post-bhūmi bodhisattvas (bhūmika bodhisattva) take mental actions as the standard; as long as the mind is for sentient beings, there is no violation of the precepts.