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

  • Meditating and speaking: simultaneously practicing Sila, Samadhi and Panna

    Recorded : February 11, 2018

    The communicative loop of listening and speaking forms a powerful karmic workshop. Language taps into our karmic archive, sankhara. It reaches other people and, if they are listening, there is mind-to-mind contact. Relational contact is intrinsically powerful because humans are intrinsically relational: when we engage together, our mutual responsiveness amplifies our efforts. Speaking and listening…

    Read More

  •

    Nourishing Compassion

    Recorded : January 9, 2022

    His Holiness the Dalai Lama has shared that compassion is not a luxury but a necessity for human beings to survive. There is no more important time to understand and strengthen compassion than right now.

    Read More

  •

    Five tenets of a whole life path

    Recorded : November 19, 2017

    Many long for a way to “integrate” their Buddhist practice with what is often called “the rest of my life.” This often fails. Doesn’t integration refer to separate things that must be brought together? In this talk, Gregory offers what he calls the Five Tenets of a Whole Life Path, a practical, yet demanding, way…

    Read More

  • Dave Smith

    The Gratification, The Danger and The Escape

    Recorded : September 23, 2018

    The triad of gratification, danger, and escape is one of the Buddha’s most concise and simple teachings for investigating everyday lived experience. This formula can be applied to every single aspect of our experience. Many Buddhist scholars point out that this teaching contains the earliest roots of what we have come to know as the…

    Read More

  •

    The Practice of Blamelessness

    Recorded : December 5, 2021

    We are deeply conditioned to blame; it’s a survival strategy. Though it can feel necessary, maybe even fruitful to part of us, blaming arises out of suffering, and leads to more suffering. The process of blame is not required but we don’t always know how to put it down. How do we let it go?

    Read More

  • Wiebke Pausch

    Fierce & Tender: The Dance of Self-Compassion

    Recorded : July 5, 2026

    True Self-Compassion is more than just gentle comfort; it is a dynamic balance of nurturing care and protective, motivating strength. While the tender side soothes our pain, the fierce dimension provides the courage to stand up for our needs and take…

    Read More