The Purpose and General Principles of the Precepts

Ordinary sentient beings all have more evil than good, frequently creating evil karma, and following that evil karma they become frequent visitors to the three evil destinies. In order to free sentient beings from the suffering of birth and death in the cycle of the six destinies, the Buddha gradually established many precepts. At the time when the Buddha had just attained the Way and the conditions for establishing precepts had not yet appeared, in order to restrain His disciples' bodily, verbal, and mental actions and lead them onto the correct path of practice, the Buddha admonished His disciples: 诸恶莫作，众善奉行，自净其意，是诸佛教。This statement is the general principle guiding practice, as well as the purport and general outline of the precepts; from this general outline, specific branches and detailed items can be further expanded, to guide sentient beings to gradually and deeply receive and uphold the various precepts, perfect the three untainted studies of precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and progressively attain buddhahood. The meaning of this general outline is: do not commit any evil deeds, practice all wholesome dharmas, purify one's own mind — this is the disciplinary conduct taught by the Buddhas of the ten directions.

Eliminating all evil and cultivating all good — when evil deeds are completely eliminated and wholesome deeds are perfected, the Buddha Way is accomplished. Within this process are contained the studies of meditation and wisdom, because without meditative concentration one cannot eliminate evil or cultivate good, and without wisdom one likewise cannot eliminate evil or cultivate good. Only with wisdom can one fully recognize and discern good and evil and their karmic retribution, and only then can one eliminate evil and cultivate good. The deeper and subtler the meditative concentration, the deeper and subtler the evil that is eliminated, and the deeper and subtler the wholesome dharmas that are cultivated; the deeper and subtler the wisdom, the more and subtler the evil that is eliminated, and the more and subtler the good that is cultivated. Therefore, the three untainted studies of precepts, meditation, and wisdom are one inseparable whole; if they are separated, the Buddha Way cannot be accomplished. The notion of wanting only wisdom while rejecting precepts and meditation is extremely biased and devoid of wisdom. Then what exactly does practice cultivate? Our minds should now be clear about this.

Eliminating evil and cultivating good is the general outline. Under this general outline, there are many branches ranging from coarse to subtle, from shallow to deep. The deeper and subtler the branches become, the deeper the wisdom is shown to be, and the lighter — even to the point of none — the ignorance and afflictions become. What corresponds to these branches are the various Vinaya dharmas of the Great and Small Vehicles. The coarsest and most basic are the Small Vehicle's five precepts, ten wholesome deeds, and the eight precepts of abstention; somewhat deeper and subtler are the Small Vehicle's śrāvaka precepts: the śrāmaṇera precepts, śrāmaṇerī precepts, bhikṣu precepts, and bhikṣuṇī precepts; the deepest and subtlest are the Great Vehicle bodhisattva precepts: the lay bodhisattva precepts, monastic bodhisattva precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra. All these branch precepts cannot depart from the general outline, cannot depart from the purport of eliminating evil and cultivating good. The branch precepts respectively correspond to wisdom of varying depths: the wisdom corresponding to the Small Vehicle precepts is the patience with non-arising of the first fruit through the fourth fruit as well as that of the pratyekabuddha; the wisdom corresponding to the Great Vehicle precepts is the patience with non-arising of the ten abhūmis through the ten dedications stages, and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas from the first bhūmi to the tenth bhūmi.

Different degrees of wisdom mean different degrees of eliminating evil and cultivating good. This wisdom is manifested in being able to distinguish and discern good and evil and their boundaries, thereby being able to eliminate unwholesome dharmas and practice wholesome dharmas. When sentient beings are deeply mired in ignorance and lack wisdom, they cannot recognize what is an unwholesome dharma and what is a wholesome dharma, nor can they attend to the consequences of wholesome and unwholesome actions. Wisdom is divided into worldly cognitive wisdom, Small Vehicle cognitive wisdom, and Great Vehicle cognitive wisdom; with different degrees of wisdom, the understanding of wholesome and unwholesome dharmas also differs.

In the process of upholding the precepts, being able to accurately distinguish good from evil is extremely important. What is an unwholesome dharma? An unwholesome dharma is conduct that harms the interests of others; such conduct may benefit oneself or may not benefit oneself, but in the end it will cause harm to oneself, so evil deeds are afflictive actions devoid of wisdom. All bodily, verbal, and mental actions that harm the interests of others are evil deeds, arising from ignorance; the heavier the ignorance, the heavier the evil deeds, and to whatever degree the ignorance is eliminated, to that degree the unwholesome dharmas are lightened. The coarsest evil deeds cause the greatest harm to sentient beings, and sentient beings can generally discern and perceive them; slightly subtler evil deeds do not harm sentient beings in a very obvious and direct way, are not easy to discern and perceive, and are often habitual behaviors that are not easy to reflect upon. The subtlest evil requires the deepest wisdom to break through; if ignorance is not removed and wisdom is insufficient, one cannot recognize evil and cannot conquer the afflictions. From this it can be seen that eliminating evil requires wisdom; without wisdom, one cannot recognize the harm of unwholesome dharmas and their consequences, and cannot subdue the evil mind.

What is a wholesome dharma? Opposite to unwholesome dharmas, all bodily, verbal, and mental actions that benefit sentient beings are wholesome dharmas, and any conduct that benefits sentient beings also benefits oneself; therefore, doing good that benefits both self and others is an act of wisdom. Without wisdom one cannot do good; the deeper the wisdom, the greater the wholesome deeds, and the greater the benefit to self and others.

The Buddha's teaching as a whole is the dharma that enables sentient beings to eliminate evil and cultivate good; upholding the precepts is itself practice, running through the entire process of cultivation — from the great evil of the worldly, to the small evil of the Small Vehicle, to the subtle evil of the Great Vehicle, until all ignorance is extinguished and one becomes purely good; at the same time, from the small good of the worldly, to the good of the Small Vehicle's liberation through no-self, to the great good of the Great Vehicle's benefiting others, as well as the bodhisattvas' loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity — the unconditional great loving-kindness and the ten vows without end — up to the ultimate good of the Buddhas, establishing pure lands in the ten directions and delivering all sentient beings, reaching the ultimate perfection of goodness. Precepts, meditation, and wisdom are inherently one inseparable whole; from one whole they evolve into three, as skillful means to gradually guide sentient beings in progressive practice. Therefore, upholding the precepts is very important. In our daily lives, we should frequently reflect upon our own bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and not flow along with evil habits without being aware of it. Self-awareness is a very important link in practice; only after knowing can one correct oneself, and after correction, the afflictions and karmic obstructions are subdued, and one steps onto the correct track of practice, sooner or later attaining buddhahood.