The Difference Between the Five Precepts and the Bodhisattva Precepts

Question: As a disciple, I previously worked as a bartender 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 receiving precepts, what grade of offense does it constitute? Can it be repented? If one leads people to drunkenness and loss of mental clarity, can the future retribution be dissolved?

Answer: Working as a bartender selling alcohol does not constitute a violation of precepts before receiving the bodhisattva precepts. Among the five precepts, only drinking alcohol is prohibited; manufacturing, selling, and delivering alcohol are not prohibited. The intention arising while selling alcohol belongs to mental karma (kāya-karma of mind). The Small Vehicle does not restrict this, but in the Great Vehicle, the mere arising of such intention violates the bodhisattva precepts. Mental karma is repented for the five precepts, the eight precepts of the fasting day (aṣṭāṇika), and the monastic precepts—as long as bodily and verbal karma have not manifested, mental karma can be repented, because the mind can change, and once changed, the mental karma disappears. However, some serious bodily and verbal karma, once committed, has an impact—like water that has been splashed out, spilled water cannot be gathered back. These precepts mainly guard against bodily and verbal signs; if no concrete karmic action is formed, the retribution will not be too severe.

The bodhisattva precepts mainly guard the mind, and are deeper, subtler, and harder to keep than these Small Vehicle precepts—the moment a thought arises, the precept is violated. When the mind differs, the precepts differ; when the mind changes, the precepts must change as well. Bodhisattvas at different stages also uphold different precepts. The precepts of the Great and Small Vehicles are also different, and at times they are even contradictory: keeping the Small Vehicle precepts means violating the Great Vehicle precepts, and keeping the Great Vehicle precepts necessarily means violating the Small Vehicle precepts. Great Vehicle bodhisattvas take the Great Vehicle precepts as their standard; they would rather violate the Small Vehicle precepts than fail to practice the Great Vehicle precepts. Otherwise, violating the Great Vehicle precepts means one is no longer a bodhisattva, and that 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 matter it creates. A wholesome mind creates wholesome deeds; an unwholesome mind creates unwholesome deeds. Though the surface appearance of the deeds may be the same, their substance differs greatly when the underlying intention differs, and they may even be opposites. When people do the same thing, the very same thing, the results can be vastly different precisely because their aspirations and underlying intentions differ.