Search results for: "The Five Precepts"

1. Play AudioThe Five Precepts for the Mind
    … At the end of the retreat, one of the questions on the very last night was, “How do we carry this practice into our daily lives?” And so he focused on the five precepts: against killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, taking intoxicants. Some of the people were upset. They thought that he was looking down on them, thinking that they, as lay people, were … 
2. Play AudioSpeaking Truth to Defilement
    … And he answered with the five precepts. One of the people organizing the retreats was upset, thinking that Ajaan Suwat was looking down on what this organizer called “lowly laypeople,” that they could only manage the five precepts. But that wasn’t Ajaan Suwat’s point. His point was that the five precepts provide training in the mind and also create an environment in … 
3. Play AudioConcentration Nurtured by Virtue
    … When you work with the virtues of the five precepts, you also have to work with the virtues of the restraint of the senses. They go together. In fact, one of the practices that you can take on in lay life is not only the five precepts but also occasionally taking the eight. The eight precepts add sense restraint to the original principle of … 
4. Play AudioDon’t Be Afraid of Jhana
    … This is why people break the five precepts. Nobody breaks the five precepts over attachment to jhana. There’s an even greater danger that comes when people are told that, after avoiding jhana, they’ve attained some level of awakening, and they haven’t gotten anywhere near. That’s a danger that goes unmentioned. As the Buddha said, it’s not automatic that when … 
5. Play AudioA Meditator’s Environment
    … For the lay people, this means the five precepts and, on occasion, the eight. The five precepts are: not killing, not stealing, not having illicit sex, not lying, not taking intoxicants. When you get away from those activities, you clean up your life and remove a lot of burdens. Take lying, for instance: If you say one thing to one person and give another … 
6. Play AudioThe Perfection of Freedom
    … Even if you hold by the five precepts, the five precepts cover only so much. You can’t be totally sure that you’re not killing anything at all, or that you are not taking anything, that your words are absolutely true all the time. You do your best. And that’s what the precepts are for, to keep working at your best as … 
7. Play AudioSafety All Around
    … With the training in heightened virtue, where you observe the five precepts, you observe them strictly. If you’re consistent in holding to the precepts, you’re providing safety to everybody. They don’t have to fear anything from you. They don’t have to fear that they’re going to be killed or that their things will be stolen by you or that … 
8. Play AudioCleaning up Your Personal Environment
    … How do we bring the practice into daily life? He responded by talking about the five precepts. Some of the people got upset, thinking, “He’s looking down on us laypeople, thinking that all we can do is the five precepts.” But that wasn’t the case at all. He was pointing out how important it is, as you’re meditating, to create the … 
9. Play AudioHow to Feed Mindfulness
    … This is why people in Thailand, before they meditate, sometimes make a vow: “I’m going to observe the five precepts. I’m going to stick with them. And I’m sincere in that resolution.” This is even easier when you already have been following the five precepts. You reflect on your actions, and there is nothing you regret. You don’t have to … 
10. Play AudioHeightened Skillfulness
     … As for virtue, you hold to the five precepts: You don’t kill, steal, engage in illicit sex, engage in lying, or take intoxicants. With the development of goodwill, you try to develop goodwill for all, without exception. You realize if you have ill will for anybody at all, you’re going to act in unskillful ways based on that ill will. That then … 
11. Play AudioWhat Should & Shouldn’t Be Done
     … One of the signs of an awakened person is that he or she would never, consciously or intentionally, break the five precepts. Awakened people are not defined by the five precepts. They don’t define a sense of who they are out of the precepts, but virtue becomes a natural part of the mind. So when you hit a state like that, you have … 
12. Play AudioBasic Wisdom
     … This is actually one of the ways of adding restraint of the senses to the five precepts. All the precepts that are added in going from five to eight have to do with placing some control over your eyes and ears and nose and tongue and body. If you can’t take the eight precepts on a continual basis, at least try it one … 
13. Play AudioRight Action
     … And unlike right speech, all three forms of wrong action find a place in the five precepts. In other words, they’re a basic practice for everybody. You don’t kill anybody, any animal that’s big enough for you to see. You don’t steal anything. You don’t engage in illicit sex. Period. These are vows that you take for yourself. They … 
14. Play AudioThe Wisdom of Merit
     … At the end of the retreat that Ajaan Suwat taught at IMS, someone asked him, “How do we carry over the practice of meditation into daily life?” And Ajaan Suwat said, “You start with the five precepts.” Some people got upset. They thought he was talking down to them, that he didn’t realize that lay people were capable of more than the five … 
15. Play AudioThe Rewards of Stream Entry
     … And we observe the five precepts. What’s the difference?” The difference is that stream enterers have reached a point where they don’t have to keep on maintaining these qualities. They don’t have to work on them. Their attainment is that they’ve seen the deathless. That verifies their conviction in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. They’ve seen that … 
16. Play AudioIndecision
     … Harming yourself starts out by breaking the five precepts: no killing, no stealing, no illicit sex, no lying, no intoxicants. If you break these precepts, the Buddha said, even though you may gain some temporary gain, still the long-term effects are going to be bad. That, he says, is harming yourself. To harm others, you actually get them to break the precepts. So … 
17. Play AudioRespect for Happiness
     … This is why we have things like the five precepts. You don’t kill, you don’t steal, you don’t engage in illicit sex, you don’t lie, you don’t take intoxicants, because doing these things always leads to trouble in one way or another. But there’s a lot in life that’s not covered by the five precepts, and that … 
18. Play AudioA Friend to the World
     … The admirable friend is virtuous—holds by the five precepts—and is generous, is willing to share material things, knowledge, help, advice, forgiveness. And this friend is discerning. Here we’re talking about someone who’s more than just an ordinary, everyday good person but someone who can really see into the causes of suffering and their end. Now, the ideal way to have … 
19. Play AudioAn Environment for Practice
     … This applies not only for the monks’ rules, but also for the five precepts. They’re not general principles that you apply when you want to and forget about when you don’t. You make them a promise to yourself. These are the principles by which you’re going to adhere, no matter what. You’re not going to let your behavior overstep those … 
20. Play AudioThe Joy of Renunciation
     … Under the heading of virtue, you’ve got not only the five precepts, but also the eight, the ten, the 227 precepts that the monks observe. When you compare the five to the eight, you see that the eight basically add the principle of sense restraint to the five. The precept against no eating after noon or before dawn puts restraint on your tongue … 
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