Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Search Sangha Live

Precepts as Orientation

With Daigan Gaither recorded on March 27, 2022.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

The 5 precepts often given to lay practitioners are (with positive instructions in parenthesis):

I vow not to kill (Love and support all beings)
I vow not to steal (generosity)
I vow not to misuse sexuality (contentment)
I vow not to lie (compassionate truthfulness)
I vow not to intoxicate self or other (staying mindful)

We can think of precepts as aligning with our deepest intentions, known and unknown. These precepts are not “rules” as much as they are guideposts which can orient our activity in support of our liberation. We can explore them in deeper and deeper ways that encourage us to understand what it means to not kill, not steal, not misuse sexuality, not lie or not intoxicate.  As we practice, our relationship to these goalposts will change, strengthen, and we gain deeper understanding of these vows.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Tags: ethics wisdom

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Dave Smith

    Mindfulness and the Four Noble Truths

    Recorded : July 16, 2023

    Across all Buddhist lineages and traditions, the four noble truths hold the utmost importance. They are the Dharma’s most fundamental teaching. In modern society, the focus of Buddhism often shifts to meditation, particularly mindfulness, as the practice continues to be integrated into contemporary culture. How can we bring the teachings of the four noble truths…

    Read More

  • Tara Brach

    Self-compassion.

    Recorded : June 7, 2015

    Worldwide Insight talk from Tara Brach: “Self-Compassion”. Guided meditation, Dharma talk and Q&A.

    Read More

  •

    Freedom without Expectations

    Recorded : October 1, 2023

    One of the Buddha’s primary realisations was ‘Life is painful and then you die.’ If this is true, then how do we respond to the difficulties of life? This session will explore how we are conditioned to protect, promote and satisfy a ‘self’ which can never be satisfied because ‘we are the slaves of craving.’ There will…

    Read More

  •

    The Whole of the Holy Life: Celebrating Buddhist Community on Māgha Pūjā 2567

    Recorded : February 25, 2024

    This weekend is the Buddhist full moon ritual known as Māgha Pūjā, one of the three great festival days in the Theravāda Buddhist calendar, also known as “Saṅgha Day,” celebrating the spiritual community. The tradition remembers a day when the first 1,250 arahant (fully awakened) disciples all spontaneously returned from their travels and came together with the…

    Read More

  •

    Peace in this very everyday life.

    Recorded : January 31, 2016

    In the best of circumstances the path of life is a bumpy road. The practice of embodied presence opens the possibility to understand and transform our habits of dissatisfaction and distraction, and invites spaciousness and openness in our day-to-day lives. Becoming intimate, moment by moment, with living reality may expand our life-perspective and attune us…

    Read More

  •

    Being a Bodhisattva

    Recorded : October 6, 2019

    What is this incredible archetype? How does it show up in Buddhist history and teachings? How is it relevant to our current times? This talk will explore the idea of beings who commit to waking up in order to respond to the suffering of the world. And might we be one? Or want to?

    Read More