The Five Precepts

(1) Abandoning the taking of life, refraining from taking life, without stick or sword, diligent, compassionate, trembling for the welfare of all living beings.

(2) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, living purely, accepting what is given, awaiting what is given, without stealing.

(3) Abandoning un-chastity. Abandoning sexual relations with women [men] who are protected by their mother, father, mother and father, brother, sister, or relatives; who are protected by their Teachings; who have a husband [wife or partner]; whose violation entails a penalty; or even with one who has been garlanded by a man [woman] as a sign of engagement.

(4) Abandoning false speech, refraining from false speech, a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world.

(5) Refraining from strong drink and sloth-producing drugs (substances that cause heedlessness), the basis for heedlessness.

(Reference: DN 1)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares The Five Precepts providing basic guidance to significantly reduce unwholesome outcomes or results in our life (i.e. unwholesome Kamma).

Gotama Buddha gave us guidance to conduct life without harm to other beings or ourselves. In his Teaching titled “The Five Precepts”, he provides some basic guidance that when learned and practiced, will significantly reduce the harm you are causing in the world. These are not commandments nor rules to follow, rather how to ensure you are not causing harm to others or yourself. By causing harm to others, we cause harm to ourselves by The Natural Law of Kamma. Through practice of these precepts, you will drastically eliminate unwholesome Kamma production and, thus, experience a more peaceful and content existence.

It is The Eight Fold Path that completely and fully extinguishes all unwholesome Kamma through the production of only wholesome Kamma, but here in The Five Precepts, we gain more insight into Right Speech and Right Action to further help us understand The Eight Fold Path. Through making wholesome choices in our life, we will experience wholesome outcomes. Through making unwholesome choices in our life, we will experience unwholesome outcomes. It is always our choice of whether we choose to make decisions based on wholesome or unwholesome Teachings and then we experience the results according to our choices. That is our Kamma or the results of our decisions.

Gotama Buddha’s Teachings are not to control an individual nor dictate what they should or should not do. But instead, provide guidance that when practiced, will lead to Enlightenment, liberation of the mind, a peaceful and content mind and, thus, a peaceful and content life. Everything in this practice is attained through personal free will choices. The Five Precepts will not be a surprise for you as they are all things you have been taught your entire life. The Five Precepts are required as a minimum for realizing the benefits of Enlightenment. You can gradually train the mind towards practicing these Teachings more closely each day rather than feel that you need to make multiple drastic changes at one time. If you have in the past practiced these precepts or are currently doing any of these now, good. If not, you can change or slowly modify your conduct to still seek Enlightenment.

Detailed explanation of The Five Precepts is available in this same book series found in Chapter 7 of the book “Developing a Life Practice: The Path That Leads to Enlightenment” (Volume 1).

The book “Developing a Life Practice: The Path That Leads to Enlightenment” (Volume 1) will help you to learn The Five Precepts in detail and how to apply them into your life practice. The following is to help you understand why these precepts are important and how through practicing them, one is improving the condition of their mind towards the attainment of Enlightenment. There are additional details shared in the following beyond what is shared in “Developing a Life Practice: The Path That Leads to Enlightenment” (Volume 1).

If you have already learned The Five Precepts in (Volume 1), the following content will help you to further understand The Five Precepts and how to apply them in your life practice but it is important that you first learn The Five Precepts in Chapter 7 of “Developing a Life Practice: The Path That Leads to Enlightenment” (Volume 1) before learning the content shared in the following.

(1) Abandoning the taking of life, refraining from taking life, without stick or sword, diligent, compassionate, trembling for the welfare of all living beings.

This Precept, or training guidance, is to help a Practitioner to eliminate anger, hatred, and ill will from the mind. Through training the mind to not cause harm through the bodily actions of taking a life, then loving-kindness and compassion can be deeply cultivated in the mind.

• Loving-kindness (Pāli: mettā) is active goodwill towards all beings without judgment. A genuine interest in seeing all beings be well.

• Compassion (Pāli: karuṇā) is concern for the misfortunes of others.

Notice this precept is not, “preserve all life at all costs”. That is not possible. So, what a Practitioner is doing through learning and practicing this precept is training the mind to live compassionately with concern for the welfare of all living beings.

Insect Infestations

Insects that are in your residence may need to be relocated outside which is the best idea if there aren’t many and they can be easily relocated.

But, there are going to be situations where insects cause an infestation.

There are options available today to eliminate some infestations without taking life, that is ideal but may require more research to find a service provider who is able to accomplish this goal.

In some cases, it is not possible to eliminate an infestation without taking the life of the insects or animals.

In this case, one needs to look at this clearly. If you have already attempted to figure out how to remove the insects without taking their life, then consider the following:

1.) The insects have been reborn into the animal realm as part of their Kamma, their own decisions. They are unable to attain Enlightenment in that realm and will need to be reborn.

2.) The insects are causing harm through their infestation and due to their choice to cause harm, harm is going to come to them through the need to be killed. This is their Kamma.

3.) This Precept is to guide a Practitioner in eliminating anger, hatred, and ill will from the mind. Notice the precept is not, “preserve all life at all cost”.

So, if a Practitioner is attempting to find a harmless way to remove the insects but is unable to do so, then you are “living compassionately for the welfare of all living beings” and attempting to not harm them. But, due to their Kamma of being an insect and they are choosing to cause harm, one may need to have them removed through killing as the only option. That is their Kamma, the results of their decisions.

Euthanasia and Abortion

There are many options that exist in our lifetime for euthanasia of an animal and even a human. Procedures to perform an abortion of a growing being is also available. There are multiple circumstances that might lead one to consider euthanasia or abortion of an animal or human. There never seems to be a perfect answer and each person needs to make the personal choice that is right for them and their situation.

It is oftentimes challenging and difficult to make these types of decisions when the decision arises. A Practitioner can learn these Teachings and consider what they may or may not do in a given situation prior to the circumstances arriving. Deciding to take the life of another being through euthanasia or abortion is a significant decision and one considering this decision should only do so with deep reflection and thought.

Through reflecting on these Teachings and your life practice before presented with the circumstances where one might need to make a decision on euthanasia or abortion, can help the mind and development of your life practice as one can consider the options without the pressure or need to make an immediate decision. By taking the time now to think through how euthanasia and abortion can affect the mind, you can develop clarity on whether euthanasia or abortion would even be an option should the circumstances arise. The mind will be much better at thinking this through now than when the situation arises.

We use the word euthanasia and abortion to help the mind see these as a medical procedure and help the mind rationalize the decision. But it is important to see this clearly in order to make a sound decision.

Euthanasia and abortion are an intentional killing of another being and produces harmful effects in the world, thus, there will be harm that is returned to a person who chooses to participate in an intentional killing. Oftentimes, a person who decides for euthanasia or abortion can feel they are making the best decision in that present moment. But then later after the procedure and with more reflection, the mind will oftentimes experience deep regret, guilt, shame, and fear. This is the result of one’s decisions also known as unwholesome Kamma. The result of our decisions either wholesome or unwholesome is returned to us and the deep regret, guilt, shame, and fear is part of the consequences of participating in a decision to intentionally take the life of another being.

Deciding to intentionally take the life of another being, an animal, is a decision that is not being made by that being. Choosing to kill an animal due to it being sick or ill is not a decision that the animal is making, that decision is being made by others. An individual is imposing their will on the other being when in reality, the animal may not make that same decision for themselves. But oftentimes, due to the human being having painful feelings due to their cravings/desires/attachments for the animal to be permanently healthy, one might come to the conclusion that to solve their discontent feelings, they could choose to intentionally take the life of the animal.

There is no such thing as a compassionate killing.

If an animal or human is reaching the end of life, allowing that to happen naturally is the best decision. There is no way to take the life of another being compassionately and killing a being prematurely actually causes more harm than good for both the animal or human and the people who are responsible for the decision to take the life.

A being needs to experience as much of their Kamma in each life which will lead to a better rebirth in the next life. To attain Enlightenment and end The Cycle of Rebirth, an animal will need to be reborn into future existences. To attain Enlightenment, one needs to cultivate the mind and extinguish 100% of its unwholesome Kamma in a certain birth. That is impossible in an animal birth so the animal will need to be reborn.

Ending an animal's life prematurely can affect its next rebirth making it more challenging for them to escape The Cycle of Rebirth. An animal could continue to be reborn into the animal realm (or a lower realm) or perhaps it could reach the human realm on its next rebirth if we provide the animal the opportunity to experience its entire life while in an animal existence. If they obtain the human state, which is more likely if they are able to experience their entire natural life, they would then have the ability to attain Enlightenment in that human rebirth ending 100% of all suffering through escaping The Cycle of Rebirth.

But, through being killed prematurely through euthanasia, an animal will have less of a chance to be reborn into a better existence with the opportunity to attain Enlightenment ending the continued displeasure and despair associated with birth, sickness, aging, and death.

Enlightenment is the solution to the problem of death because without birth there is no death. The goal would be for this being to obtain a human rebirth and then attain Enlightenment so they are no longer reborn into displeasure and despair. When there is no birth, the problem of sickness, aging, and death is eliminated.

Choosing to end the life of an animal prematurely does not allow the opportunity for the animal to experience an improved rebirth and therefore, the decision to euthanize an animal is causing more harm for the animal rather than allowing it to live out its full natural life and experience an improved rebirth in their next life. The choice to kill the animal is hindering its progress on The Path to Enlightenment and will also hinder the progress of the individuals involved in making the decision to take the life of the animal.

Euthanasia is sometimes seen as an ending of the caregiver’s suffering but prolongs the being’s suffering due to extending its time in The Cycle of Rebirth.

But even in the perceived ending of the caregiver’s suffering, one can suffer long after the decision is made to end the life.

Should one participate in euthanasia there is going to be unwholesome Kamma you need to experience as part of that action. Kamma is “cause and effect” or “action and result”, essentially the result of our decisions.

While you may feel you are helping the animal experience less suffering through euthanasia, you will most likely doubt this decision and feel bad about it afterwards because you know that it was your decision that created the death. Where if you allow the animal's life to take its natural course, you are less likely to be left with any feelings of regret, guilt, shame, or fear and you can celebrate the animal’s life appreciating the time you spent together.

You can relax the mind knowing that you provided the animal a good home, it lived its natural life, and it will experience whatever next birth it experiences in a better condition because it more fully experienced its Kamma in this life and you did not participate in its death. You only comforted the animal the best you could. Providing end of life comfort is the best way to practice loving-kindness and compassion not euthanasia.

You need to find the decision that feels right for you. I share this information not to influence your decision but to share what I would consider in facing this same decision.

I would not end the life but rather, allow the animal to experience its full natural life more fully experiencing its Kamma because that will set up the next rebirth in the best way possible for that being and there would be no regret, guilt, shame, or fear that I participated in a death. Instead, focusing on providing end of life comfort will produce the best results because one is practicing generosity, loving-kindness, and wisdom.

This is your decision and you need to find the answer that works for you.

Abortion is going to produce the same results in the mind of the Practitioner as euthanasia.

People who are involved in the decision to take the life of a baby that is still in the womb will oftentimes struggle with regret, guilt, shame, or fear for many years as a result of their decision to abort a child. The decision whether to have an abortion is for the individuals involved to make, not anyone else. Each person will need to make the decision that is best for them in that present moment based on the unique circumstances that only the individuals involved are capable to understand, evaluate, and then make an appropriate decision.

The guidance that is provided here is to help you understand that any residual or long lasting discontent feelings that result from the taking of a life are the unwholesome results of this unwholesome decision. There should be no judgment of individuals who choose to have an abortion, as the decision is theirs to make and only affects the individuals involved in the decision. It is not wise for people outside of a situation to tell others how they should or should not make decisions in their life, as those decisions only affect the people who are making the decision.

This is your decision and you need to find the answer that works for you.

(2) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, living purely, accepting what is given, awaiting what is given, without stealing.

This Precept, or training guidance, is to help a Practitioner to eliminate craving/desire/attachment also referred to as “greed”.

Training the mind to eliminate longing with a strong eagerness for material possessions is highly beneficial to the mind. If a Practitioner longs to acquire material possessions, the mind will experience discontentedness being unable to attain Enlightenment.

(3) Abandoning un-chastity. Abandoning sexual relations with women [men] who are protected by their mother, father, mother and father, brother, sister, or relatives; who are protected by their Teachings; who have a husband [wife or partner]; whose violation entails a penalty; or even with one who has been garlanded by a man [woman] as a sign of engagement.

This Precept, or training guidance, is to help a Practitioner to reduce the fetter/taint/pollution of “sensual desire” from The Ten Fetters while training the mind to be loyal, honest, and trustworthy.

(4) Abandoning false speech, refraining from false speech, a truth-speaker, one to be relied on, trustworthy, dependable, not a deceiver of the world.

This Precept, or training guidance, is to help a Practitioner to develop honesty and be trustworthy so that you can be successful in personal and professional relationships. A Practitioner who deeply practices this precept and the associated guidance on Right Speech, will develop the ability to help others and accomplish goals through well developed communication. People you associate with will come to trust and depend on you viewing you as someone who is reliable.

(5) Refraining from strong drink and sloth-producing drugs (substances that cause heedlessness), the basis for heedlessness.

This Precept, or training guidance, is to help a Practitioner to develop mindfulness or awareness of mind with concentration while practicing harmlessness towards their own body and mind.

A being would have no ability to attain Enlightenment as long as they are using substances that cause heedlessness. Substances that cause heedlessness do not help a Practitioner attain Enlightenment, they only hinder one’s progress. Mindfulness and concentration, along with a practice of harmlessness, is required to attain Enlightenment.

Polluting the mind with substances that cause heedlessness is not going to allow a Practitioner to develop these important qualities of mind towards the attainment of Enlightenment.