The Difference Between the Five Precepts and the Bodhisattva Precepts

Question: I used to work as a bartender, mixing and selling alcohol. When selling alcohol, I would think: "Everyone drink more—the more you drink, the more I earn." If this behavior occurs both before and after taking precepts, what grade of offense does it constitute? Can it be repented? By leading people to drunkenness and loss of mental clarity, can the future retribution be eliminated?

Answer: Working as a bartender mixing and selling alcohol does not constitute a violation of precepts before receiving the bodhisattva precepts. Among the five precepts, only drinking alcohol is prohibited; making, selling, and delivering alcohol are not prohibited. The intention arising while selling alcohol belongs to mental karma (kāya-karma of mind); the Hīnayāna does not prohibit it, but in the Mahāyāna, the mere arising of such intention violates the bodhisattva precepts. Mental karma, with respect to the five precepts, the eight precepts of the fasting day (aṣṭāṅga-śīla), and the monastic precepts, is all subject to repentance. As long as bodily and verbal karma have not manifested, mental karma can always be repented, because the mind can be changed, and once changed, the mental karma disappears. However, some serious bodily and verbal karma, once committed, has its effects—like water that has been poured out, spilled water cannot be recovered. These precepts mainly govern bodily and verbal conduct; if no concrete karmic action is formed, the retribution will not be too severe.

The bodhisattva precepts mainly govern the mind, and are deeper, subtler, and harder to keep than these Hīnayāna precepts—the mere arising of a thought constitutes a violation. When the mind differs, the precepts differ; when the mind changes, the precepts must change as well, and bodhisattvas at different stages uphold different precepts. The precepts of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna also differ, and are sometimes even contradictory: keeping the Hīnayāna precepts may violate the Mahāyāna precepts, and keeping the Mahāyāna precepts will inevitably violate the Hīnayāna precepts. Mahāyāna bodhisattvas take the Mahāyāna precepts as their standard; they would rather violate the Hīnayāna precepts than fail to practice the Mahāyāna precepts. Otherwise, violating the Mahāyāna precepts means one is no longer a bodhisattva, which is a very serious matter.

When the mind is empty, the matter is empty; when the mind is not empty, the matter is not empty either, because matters are created by the mind—whatever the mind is, that is the kind of thing it does. A wholesome mind does wholesome deeds; an unwholesome mind does unwholesome deeds. When the underlying intention differs, even if the outward appearance of the deed is the same, the substance is vastly different, and may even be the opposite. Doing the same thing, performing the very same action, yet the results differ greatly—this is precisely because the initial resolve and underlying intention differ.