Daily Buddhism

The Other Precepts

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A Reader recently wrote:
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As someone is relatively new to Buddhism, I have read about the sixth precept of not eating untimely meals. What does this mean to a western Buddhist?

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And my response:
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We only talked about FIVE precepts, but depending on your group, there may be more. In some cases, there are as many as . . . → Read More: The OTHER Precepts

And today, we can read from one of the ancient Buddhist writings that will recap the five precepts.

Five faultless gifts

“There are these five gifts, five great gifts ‚Äî original, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated, unadulterated from the beginning ‚Äî that are not open to suspicion, will never be open to suspicion, and are . . . → Read More: The Five Precepts: The Five Faultless Gifts

The last rule is to avoid intoxicants.

Why? The first-glance answer is that drunks cause all kinds of suffering. Drug addicts harm everyone near them over and over again. This is bad behavior, and we all know it. Yet, most of us are not alcoholics or drug addicts, but that doesn’t let . . . → Read More: The Five Precepts: The Fifth Precept

Rule number four is to refrain from incorrect speech. Right Speech, if you remember was a step on the eightfold path all by itself. Not only is right speech promoted and valued with Buddhists, but here ‚ÄúWrong Speech‚Äù is singled out for special negative treatment. We all know how damaging our words can be. Buddhism . . . → Read More: The Five Precepts: The Fourth Precept

Rule number three is no sexual misconduct. How do you define misconduct? That depends on where you live. The social rules are different from country to country and region to region, and what’s considered misconduct in America might be completely appropriate elsewhere in the world. That doesn’t matter; the real problem here is . . . → Read More: The Five Precepts: The Third Precept

The Second of the Buddhist precepts is no to take that which is not given. Nope, stealing is a bad thing, but living in a modern civilized society, we already knew that. But just as with the first precept, there’s more to it than it appears at first glance. Remember that one of . . . → Read More: The Five Precepts: The Second Precept

The Five Precepts

Today, we start looking at the last of the main Buddhist ‚Äúlists.‚Äù We’ve talked about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path already. Let’s look at the Five Precepts now. First, I will point out that some groups of Buddhists have eight precepts and some have ten, but these . . . → Read More: The Five Precepts: The First Precept