The Purport and General Outline of the Precepts

Ordinary sentient beings commit more evil than good, frequently creating evil karma, and drifting along with that evil karma they become frequent visitors to the three evil destinies. In order to enable sentient beings to sever the suffering of birth and death in the cycle of the six destinies, 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 guide 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 saying 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 progressively and deeply receive and uphold the various precepts, perfecting the three untainted studies of precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and gradually attaining buddhahood. The meaning of this general outline is: do not commit any evil deeds, practice all wholesome dharmas, purify your own mind—this is the disciplinary practice taught by the Buddhas of the ten directions.

Severing all evil and cultivating all good—when evil deeds are completely severed and good deeds are perfected, the Buddha Way is accomplished. Within this process are contained the studies of meditation and wisdom, because without meditative concentration (samādhi) one cannot sever evil or cultivate good, and without wisdom one likewise cannot sever evil or cultivate good. With wisdom one can fully recognize and discern good and evil and their karmic retribution, and only then can one sever evil and cultivate good. The deeper and subtler the meditative concentration, the deeper and subtler the evil that is severed and the good that is cultivated; the deeper and subtler the wisdom, the more and subtler the evil that is severed and the more and subtler the good that is cultivated. Therefore, the three untainted studies of precepts, meditation, and wisdom are an inseparable whole; if 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 is practice? Our minds should now be clear about this.

Severing evil and cultivating good is the general outline. Under this general outline are divided many branches, 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, even to the point of none at all. Corresponding to these branches are the various Vinaya dharmas of the greater and lesser vehicles. The coarsest and most basic are the lesser vehicle's five precepts, ten good deeds, and the eight precepts of fasting; deeper and subtler are the lesser vehicle's 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, the monastic bodhisattva precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra. These branch precepts are all inseparable from the general outline, inseparable from the purport of severing evil and cultivating good. The branch precepts respectively correspond to wisdom of varying depths: the wisdom corresponding to the lesser vehicle precepts is the patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) of those from the first fruit through the fourth fruit and the pratyekabuddhas; the wisdom corresponding to the Mahāyāna precepts is the patience of non-arising of the ten abodes through the ten dedications, and the patience toward the non-arising of dharmas from the first bhūmi through the tenth bhūmi.

Different degrees of wisdom result in different degrees of severing evil and cultivating good. This wisdom is manifested in the ability to clearly distinguish and discern good and evil and their boundaries, thereby being able to sever 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, lesser vehicle 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 conduct that harms the interests of others; such conduct may benefit oneself or may not benefit oneself, but in the end it will cause oneself harm. Therefore, 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; 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, and are not easy to discern and perceive; often being habitual behaviors, they 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 afflictions. From this it can be seen that severing evil requires wisdom; without wisdom, one cannot recognize the harm of evil dharmas and their consequences, and cannot subdue the evil mind.

What is a good dharma? Opposite to evil dharmas, all bodily, verbal, and mental actions that benefit sentient beings are good dharmas. And any conduct that benefits sentient beings also benefits oneself. Therefore, doing good that benefits both self and others is conduct 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 teaching as a whole is the dharma that enables sentient beings to sever evil and cultivate good. Upholding the precepts is itself practice, running through the entire process of cultivation: from worldly great evil, to the lesser vehicle's small evil, to the Mahāyāna's subtle evil, until all ignorance is extinguished and one becomes purely good. At the same time, from worldly small goodness, to the lesser vehicle's goodness of selfless liberation, to the Mahāyāna's great goodness of benefiting others, and further to 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, who establish pure lands in the ten directions and deliver all sentient beings, reaching the utmost 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 to practice step by step. 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 drift along with evil habits without knowing it ourselves. 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 has entered the correct track of practice, and will sooner or later attain buddhahood.