The Scope of the Precept Against Stealing within the Five Precepts

Stealing means taking what has not been given — seizing as one's own what does not belong to oneself. Whatever one obtains that is not one's own possession falls under stealing. What does its scope include?

For example, in a group, A is the number-one best person, yet B claims to be the number-one best. B takes the reputation of being number-one best as his own possession; A's reputation of being number-one best is thereby appropriated by B. Does B's act constitute stealing A's reputation?

A certain piece of work was clearly done by A, yet B claims he did it himself — has B stolen A's work achievement? In a group, A holds a certain authority, yet B, without realizing it, exercises that authority — has B stolen A's authority? This kind of stealing can also be called false speech. One set of bodily, verbal, and mental actions can touch upon two precepts, violating two precepts at the same time.

In fact, the five precepts involve only body and speech, not mind. No matter what the mind is like, as long as body and speech do not transgress, there is no violation of the precepts. Therefore, the five precepts do not restrain the mind; they only restrain body and speech, belonging to the Hīnayāna precepts. If one watches over the body and guards the mouth, and keeps them well, one's cultivation as a person will be good; in the next life one can continue to be a human being, and one can also eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and attain realization of the fruits. But if one wishes to attain enlightenment, one must additionally receive the bodhisattva precepts and keep the bodhisattva precepts.

If one keeps the five precepts well, one has virtue and personal character cultivation; if one cannot keep the five precepts, one's character is incomplete, one's cultivation is not good enough, and one's human virtue is not perfect. If even an ordinary person's character cultivation is not perfect, it is impossible to eradicate the view of self and become a sage, transcending ordinary human beings.

If one cannot keep even the five precepts well and does not dare to receive them, then how could one keep the several hundred precepts of a monastic? So many lay Buddhists always slander monastics, saying how bad they are — but what about themselves? How great, after all, is the gap between them and the monastics' mental conduct of renouncing and turning away from the worldly, and their mental capacity to accept the restraint of several hundred precepts?

The five precepts consist of only five items; they seem simple and easy, but in fact they are neither simple nor easy. Those who can fully keep the five precepts are extremely rare. The precept against stealing and the precept against false speech are hard to keep, and the vast majority of people do not clearly understand their content and scope.

Keeping the five precepts is simply being a good human being. If one cannot even be a proper human being, what is there to say about fruits of realization or not? In the next life, one falls into the three lower realms. Many people, without even receiving the five precepts, hint to themselves that they have attained realization of the fruits or become enlightened. If one cannot even keep the body and speech precepts of the Hīnayāna five precepts, how can one keep the mind-and-thought precepts of the Mahāyāna bodhisattva? Guarding the mind is the most difficult of all — not creating unwholesome karma in the arising of thoughts is very hard to achieve. Then the bodhisattva precepts in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra are even harder to keep. Without eradicating afflictions, do not even think about it — those are the precepts received and kept by bhūmi bodhisattvas who have eradicated afflictions. They attend only to the arising of thoughts, not to bodily and verbal conduct: as long as it can benefit sentient beings, what should be done must be done; otherwise one violates the bodhisattva precepts. Even pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva) cannot manage such precepts, let alone ordinary sentient beings. Yet quite a few people study these precepts and receive them, not knowing where such a bodhisattva precept substance could possibly be obtained.

Body and speech are the actions of the six consciousnesses; mind refers to the mental conduct of the manas. If one can control the manas, body and speech will inevitably not transgress. Conversely, even if the manas's thoughts are not upright, if the mind consciousness forcibly suppresses them and feigns purity, body and speech can still refrain from transgression; if body and speech do not transgress, the five precepts are not violated. Controlling and subduing the manas is extremely difficult; successfully conditioning the manas so that afflictions are eradicated and it acts automatically and spontaneously without needing control is even more difficult.

If afflictions are not eradicated, mental karma will inevitably be violated. Therefore, eradicating afflictions necessarily means eradicating the afflictions of the manas; only then can one act automatically and spontaneously, without the mind consciousness forcibly suppressing them. If only the mind consciousness's afflictions are eradicated, it can only be counted as suppressing afflictions, not eradicating them. When the mind consciousness becomes careless and negligent, the manas will suddenly manifest afflictions, and the river will burst its banks and flood.