The Purpose and General Principles of the Precepts

Ordinary sentient beings all have more evil than goodness, frequently creating evil karma, and as they transmigrate along with evil karma, they become frequent visitors to the three evil paths. In order to enable sentient beings to end the suffering of birth-and-death in the six paths of transmigration, the Buddha gradually established many precepts. 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, saying: Do no evil, practice all good, purify your own mind—this is the teaching of all Buddhas. 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 various precepts, perfect the three untainted studies of precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and gradually attain buddhahood. The meaning of this general outline is: do not commit any evil deeds, practice all good dharmas, purify one's own mind—this is the disciplinary practice taught by the Buddhas of the ten directions.

Eliminating all evil and cultivating all good—when evil deeds are completely eliminated and good deeds are perfected, the Buddha Way is accomplished. This process contains the studies of meditation and wisdom, because without meditative concentration (samādhi) 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 good 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 divided apart, 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, the deeper the wisdom is shown to be, and the lighter the ignorance and afflictions become, even to the point of none. What corresponds to these branches are the various Vinaya dharmas of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna. The coarsest and most basic are the Hīnayāna five precepts, ten good deeds, and the eight precepts of fasting; somewhat deeper and subtler are the Hīnayāna śrāvaka precepts: the śrāmaṇera precepts, śrāmaṇerī precepts, bhikṣu precepts, and bhikṣuṇī precepts; the deepest and subtlest are the Mahāyāna bodhisattva precepts: the lay bodhisattva precepts, monastic bodhisattva precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra. 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 Hīnayāna precepts is the patience with non-arising of those from the first fruit to the fourth fruit as well as the pratyekabuddhas; the wisdom corresponding to the Mahāyāna precepts is the patience with non-arising of the ten abodes through the ten dedications, and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas from the first bhūmi to the tenth bhūmi.

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

In the process of upholding the precepts, being able to accurately distinguish good from evil is extremely important. What is an evil dharma? An evil dharma is a behavior that infringes upon the interests of others; such conduct may benefit oneself or may not benefit oneself, but ultimately it will cause harm to oneself, so evil deeds are afflictive actions devoid of wisdom. Any bodily, verbal, or mental action that infringes upon the interests of others is an evil deed, arising from ignorance. The heavier the ignorance, the heavier the evil deeds; to whatever degree ignorance is eliminated, to that degree evil 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 cause harm to sentient beings that is not very obvious or direct, are not easy to discern and perceive, and are often habitual behaviors that are not easily reflected upon. The subtlest evils require the deepest wisdom to break through; if ignorance is not removed and wisdom is insufficient, one cannot recognize evil and cannot conquer afflictions. From this it can be seen that eliminating evil requires wisdom; without wisdom, one cannot recognize the harm of evil dharmas and their consequences, and thus cannot subdue the evil mind.

What is a good dharma? Opposite to evil dharmas, any bodily, verbal, or mental action that benefits sentient beings is a good dharma, and any behavior 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 good deeds, and the greater the benefit to self and others.

The Buddha's teachings as a whole are dharmas that enable sentient beings to eliminate evil and cultivate good. Upholding the precepts is itself practice, running through the entire process of practice: from worldly great evil, to Hīnayāna minor evil, to Mahāyāna subtle evil, ultimately extinguishing all ignorance and becoming purely good; at the same time, from worldly minor goodness, to the Hīnayāna goodness of liberation through no-self, to the Mahāyāna great goodness of benefiting others, as well as the bodhisattvas' loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity—the unconditioned great loving-kindness and the ten inexhaustible vows—up to the ultimate goodness of all 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 this one whole they evolved into three, as skillful means to gradually guide sentient beings in their progressive practice. Therefore, upholding the precepts is very important. In our daily lives, we should frequently reflect on our own bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and not transmigrate 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 correcting, afflictions and karmic obstructions are subdued, and one embarks on the correct path of practice, and sooner or later will attain buddhahood.