Reasons and benefits of upholding the Five Precepts in Buddhism.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH. LANGUAGE After taking refuge in the Three Jewels, lay Buddhists must live according to the rules that the Buddha invented to advance on the Way. That rule is the Five Precepts. People who follow Buddhism must live according to the Three Refuges and Five Precepts, cannot only accept the Three Refuges without observing the Five Precepts. Those who have made the mind to take refuge in the Three Jewels have stepped on the ladder of liberation, but if they do not keep the five precepts, they will only take the first step and then stop, unable to progress to true liberation. These five precepts not only lead strong people on the path of liberation, but also bring peace and order to the family, country, and society. The Five Precepts are the sure ties to create happiness for individuals and groups, and they are the teachers who prevent us from doing wrong. Therefore, Shakyamuni Buddha had a saying before he entered Nirvana: “After my extinction, a practitioner must respect the precepts as a teacher; Even if I live on earth to teach you thousands of generations, I will add nothing but the precepts.” The precepts that the Buddha invented are very many, because they need to be applied to many types of practitioners: Bhikkhus, Bhikkhus, novices, novices, Particularly for lay Buddhists, there are only five precepts. stop. But if we keep those five precepts, the benefits for ourselves and others are unspeakable. 1. Definition: The Five Precepts are the five prohibitions that the Buddha invented, to prevent evil thoughts, bad speech, and unrighteous actions. The five commandments are: Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not lie, and do not drink wine. These five things are based on compassion, equality, in terms of eliminating personal sins and bringing order and happiness to society. The Buddha did not force us to strictly obey and did not threaten if we did not obey, we would be punished by him. Keeping the precepts is entirely up to us. Buddhism differs from other religions in that the Buddha is not a supreme judge with the power to reward and punish. A thought, a word, a good or bad action has brought with it a seed of reward and punishment. The Buddha is just a very compassionate and very wise guide: He shows us which path is the right path and which is the dangerous path that should not be taken. But if we do not follow the bright path but want to go down the dangerous path, then of course we will bring disaster to ourselves, but the Buddha did not create disaster to punish us. The court is the law of cause and effect. If we do evil, we get bad results; If we do good, we get good results. The five precepts are the five strongholds that prevent us from going astray, the five barriers that prevent us from falling into the abyss, while we are on the way to liberation. YEARS I. The first precept: Do not kill. The first commandment that the Buddha advises us is not to kill life, from humans to animals. The most precious value of life is human life; Killing another life to make up for this life is an evil, unjustifiable act. Buddhism forbids killing for several reasons: a. Respect for fairness: We all consider our lives precious, an absolute treasure. If someone plots harm, I will fight back to protect my life. I already know to value my life, why would I want to trample people's lives? Broadly speaking, animals also know how to value their lives. Like when a cow or a pig is about to be hit on the head, poked blood, we see their fierce resistance, their extreme pain with screams and struggles. In fairness, what we don't want anyone to make us suffer, we shouldn't cause other people or species to suffer. The Buddha said, “Everyone is afraid of the sword, everyone is afraid of death. Therefore, think in your own heart, don't kill, don't tell to kill!" b. Respect Buddha's equality: Beings of each species have different bodies, but they still have the same Buddha nature. Buddha-nature is equal, there can be no reason to say that Buddha-nature in humans is more valuable than in animals, in this class, this skin color, is more valuable than in that class, that skin color. To kill a living being is to kill Buddha nature. c. Nurturing Compassion: The Buddha considered all species as his son, so he did not allow his disciples to kill living things in any case. Because being in the mind of killing lives is cruelty at its peak, compassion is suffocated. Killing an animal for no reason is as cruel as killing a human. To ruthlessly make others or things struggle, groan, writhe in blood, hot tears before taking their last breath, is to kill one's own compassion, to smother the precious seed of love. in our souls. Thus, it is difficult to practice to achieve the right result. Confucius once said: "Wuan Qiqing, being impatient is really shameful, seeing a period of birth, and being impatient with a period of death." (Hearing the animal's cry, he couldn't bear to eat it; seeing it alive, couldn't bear to see it dead.) Thus, people with compassion or compassion are not willing to kill people or things. d. Avoid cause and effect revenge: When we kill a person or an animal, their resentment overflows and is difficult to quell. They were killed because of her strength, because of their weakness, they were killed by me. Meanwhile, they are sick with hatred, waiting for revenge, or their children and relatives will take revenge. Just like that, every day we sow hatred for people and things, accumulate for a long time that mass of injustice is bigger than our strength, then we will be killed by it. The more you create killing karma, the more you plunge yourself into suffering. The Buddha taught: "Frequently born with the mind to kill, the more the karma of suffering increases, the cycle of birth and death will never come out." The benefits of not killing For these reasons, the Buddha forbade Buddhists to kill. Without killing, there will be the following advantages: a. On the personal side: A person who does not cruelly murder, harm animals, not cruelly shed blood, not skin, butcher, cut off his head, cut his throat..., in his heart there is no remorse, his body and mind is light and relaxed. Sleep is peaceful, face is gentle, clear. b. On the social side: If all humans in this world adhere to this first law of Buddhism, there will be no war and the karma of birth and death will also be liberated. Therefore, the ancient Ancestor said: It is necessary that sentient beings do not kill karma The ten directions of the land of the swordsmen? Households, philanthropic households, The galaxy is unhappy and unsettled? Mean: All sentient beings have no karma to kill Which of the ten directions have sabers? Every home, every place cultivates goodness, What do people worry about not peace? Limitations: Still knowing that killing is a cause of suffering, but people at home still eat salty foods, while doing other jobs, it is difficult to avoid breaking the precept of killing. Here, we don't have to be thorough, just keep the important part of not killing people and big animals like: buffalo, cow, horse, dog, pig, goat. As for the small animals, if they can avoid killing as much as they can, they are precious. We should go slowly rather than surely. Especially should not kill creatures in vain, kill to satisfy the desire to kill. While observing the precepts, we should watch out for the following two things: a. Do not allow ill will to arise: Killing a large animal by accident or in self-defense, its retribution is lighter than killing an ant worm with malicious intent to kill for fun. b. Training in killing situations should be avoided: The children aged 5 and 3 went out to the yard to meet dragonflies, butterflies, and then cut off their heads, broke their wings... if their parents saw it without scolding; until 12, 13 years old, they buy nets to shoot birds, catch fish; until the age of 20, 25, they poked pigs' blood, killed dogs... still uninhibited, later they got used to the brutality, in anger, they could kill people without fear. So not only should we not let our children get used to killing animals, but we should also not let them see the killing scenes in the cinema or in the middle of life. II. The second precept: Do not steal. It is well known that theft is taking things belonging to others without consent, or forcing consent by force or authority. Valuable things such as houses, fields and gardens, money, pearls and ivory, even petty things like vegetable leaves, chili peppers, etc., people don't give, but they intentionally take them as thieves. Robbery has many forms: Using force, gangs to kill people is stealing; relying on the power to take money from the weak is stealing; catching people in poverty to lend usury, selling them at a cheap price is stealing; Speculative hoarding to sell on the black market is robbery. Using tricks to stalk and steal from people is stealing; underweight, under-measurement, evading collection, tax evasion, gaining someone's property without giving it back is also stealing. It can be summed up in one sentence: any form, unjustly stolen by greed, is theft. If, because of poverty, poverty, sick wife, sick children, lack of rice, lack of medicine, so you have to commit fraud, then you still have to look forward to being rich, eat happily, get on a carriage, get off a horse, but also deceive people. stealing property, robbing work to live a regal life on the sweat and tears of the poor, the crime is very heavy. Why did the Buddha forbid stealing? The Buddha forbade theft for the following reasons: a. Respect for fairness: We don't want anyone to take ours, why are we so eager to take someone else's? Our personal property rights, we know how to respect, so why do we trample on people's property rights? It is unfair to do so. A society without justice cannot last long. b. Respect for equality: Everyone has the same Buddha nature, why would we want to make others suffer so that we can be happy? Why do we want to enjoy unrighteous privileges when we are just a human being like everyone else? c. Nurturing Compassion: Once we unintentionally lose something or some money, we are sad, we can't eat well, we can't sleep, so why would we bother to take someone's property and let people cry and suffer for us? People often say: "Money is the lifeline". Thus, the person who robs people is plundering people's bones and blood, killing people's lives. Only people who do not have compassion for others and have a conscience will do such dark things. As for me, being a Buddhist, trying to cultivate compassion, I cannot steal from anyone. d. Avoid the karma of vengeance: In an organized society, respecting justice, theft is always punished. Stealing is taken to the Minor Court, and stealing is taken to the High Court. Before being caught, thieves must find hundreds of ways to escape, living in the dark. When caught, thieves must be bound, interrogated, imprisoned. My fate was exhausted, but my family, parents, wife and children were also sad, ashamed and lost all hope in the future. But if the law of the world does not punish, the thief will not escape the law of cause and effect. Stealing from people will be robbed by thieves, causing hatred and suffering. Buddha taught: “A person who is attached to beauty, who refuses to let go, is like a child who is nostalgic for a bit of honey stuck on a knife net, sticking out his blade, and must be cut off by disaster (Sutta Four Twelve Chapters). Therefore, because of the greed for money, many people have thrown themselves into prison and hell. Let's listen to the warning verse of King Tran Thai Tong: Carving the wall through the wall with the intention of not retiring Thien gives the plan, suffering and honoring the request Kim gave birth to seek forgiveness for the character, Unknowingly, the natural tree of the horse ox Translate: Where to cut the wall and dig the wall, Thousand schemes, hundreds of schemes in vain for greed Of those who have had this life, The other life is always the horse and buffalo life. For these reasons, the Buddha forbade his disciples not to steal. The benefits of not stealing. a. On the personal side: People who are not greedy will have a peaceful life now, are not arrested, imprisoned, imprisoned, everywhere they go, they are trusted by everyone, entrusted with important positions. People who are not greedy will enjoy the blessings of wealth and happiness in the next life, and their descendants will also inherit from the blessings of grandparents and parents to be glorified. b. In terms of unions: If one day in the society no one has the heart of greed, theft, then the house does not need to close the door, the property does not have to be preserved, the lost object is not lost, there is nothing happier! People suffer because they don't have wealth, but those who have much still suffer because they have to take care of it. The person who does not steal means that he has silently given others peace. Confucianism has a saying: "Humans defy the righteous, and the unrighteous things do not receive". What if we are Buddhists go and steal? III. The third precept: Do not commit adultery. Fornication means that we want to talk about lewdness, illegality. The law teaches that people who leave the home world must give up lust, and those who stay at home must not have sexual misconduct. When a husband and wife get married, the ceremony is called main; In addition, sneaking around and doing illegal activities is called Ta. But if the husband and wife are officially married, but sleeping and sleeping are not the place, they are too close to each other, they also belong to adultery. That's to say it's crude. To put it more subtly, all the distractions that are infatuated with color, unrighteous thinking, and leisurely play, are also part of the adulterous category. Buddha forbids sexual misconduct for the following reasons: a. Respect for fairness: Everyone wants his family to be warm and happy, his wife and children are righteous, so why would he destroy his family, humiliate his sect, and put his wife and children on the path of lewdness. b. Protect family happiness: Nothing is more painful and darker than when in a family where the husband or wife has a private heart, adultery. Where is happiness when husband and wife do not trust each other? When a family falls into this situation, the children will be disheveled, ashamed, neglected, orphaned, relatives will not care about, career will be ruined, neighbors will criticize, reputation tarnished. An essential condition for maintaining family happiness is the faithfulness of husband and wife. It is often said: "If the wife agrees with her husband, the East basin will also dry up". Because of the adultery of one of the two companions, jealousy, quarrels, and beatings often occur in the family, sometimes leading to murder. Sometimes for revenge, people often see the scene "He eats cha, she eats spring rolls". A husband who cares about his wife and children, their own wives and children are also trying to cross the fence to other people's houses. If they destroy the happiness of other people's families, the happiness of their families will also disintegrate first. Therefore, forbidding adultery is a necessary condition to build happiness for one's family and another's family. c. Avoid hatred and evil retribution: The Buddha said: "He who embraces lust is like one who carries a torch against the wind, his hands will be burned" (Sutta Four Twelve Chapters). Indeed, a person with an evil mind who indulges in lust will sooner or later be harmed. If he does not lose his home or country, he will also break his leg and lose his life by the point of a gun or a sword. In the past, the tragic and dark results caused by lust infatuation were not lacking, we just need to unload the piles of history books or the daily pages of newspapers and we will see a lot in each article, each paragraph. Among the enmities, none is more powerful than the hatred caused by deception or treachery in love. Murders happen every day, mostly as a result of adultery. The benefits of not committing adultery Keeping the precept against sexual misconduct will have the following benefits: a. On the personal side: The Ten Thien Sutra says: "People in the world who are dry and depraved in wrong conduct will enjoy four benefits as follows: - The six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind) are perfect. - Lifetime is respected by people. - Eliminate all distractions and disturbances. - Lifetime love that no one dares to infringe. b. In terms of unions: In a society that also does not commit adultery, the family will be happy and peaceful, the common sense of moral failure will disappear, the scenes of enmity and killing will not happen again; If children are well cared for and nurtured, society will be prosperous. In short, this unclean, suffering Saha world will turn into a pure and happy world. IV. The 4th precept. Not to tell the truth. There are four ways to tell the truth: lying, fabricating, double-tonguing, and cruel words. a. Lying (or lying): is to tell the truth, whether to say no or not to say yes; the right to say the wrong, the left to say the right; what is heard not heard, what is not heard heard; or fake praise in front, criticism behind; Or when you like it, it's sweet and fragrant, when you hate it, it's bitter and sour. In short, the idea that words, words, and actions before and after are contradictory, different from above and below, inside and outside are inconsistent, all belong to lies. b. Spoken talk: it's less talk to make people angry; refine speech, raise and lower the voice to make it smooth and soft to seduce listeners, make people passionately infected; sometimes it is satirical, sarcastic, and stinging, making the listener miserable. In short, how many words that are not true and true, added or subtracted, until polished frivolous literature make the listener's mind confused, causing affliction, they are all called gossip. c. Two-way tongue-talking: or more simply saying "two-way shock" means that when you come here, you go to this side to talk bad about the other party, when you come to the other side, join that side to talk bad about this side, making Friends who are close to each other turn against each other, benevolent people oppose, hate each other. d. To speak cruelly: to speak vulgar, gruff, vulgar language, to make the listener suffer, sad, and afraid. Why did the Buddha forbid telling the truth? The Buddha forbade falsehood for the following reasons: a. Respect the truth: Buddhism is the Tao as it really is; Buddhist followers must respect the truth. People who are used to lies and do not know how to find the truth can hardly witness the results. We are living in delusion, the main job of a cultivator is to try to break that illusion to see the original; If you can't do that, but on the contrary, you pile up that illusion with lies and deceit, it's extremely unethical. b. Nurturing Compassion: The main motivation of lies is selfishness, cruelty, wanting to harm people to satisfy their dark desires. People who are deceived or deceived must suffer for themselves, sometimes have to have enmity and hatred, sometimes they have to break up their family. Cultivators who do so have exhausted their conscience and have already strangled the love in their hearts. Once compassion no longer exists, which means that the main motivation is lost, the practice is only false, deceiving people and of course never having good results. c. Preserving loyalty in society: In a family, a union, a society where no one believes in anyone, every effort from small to large will fail. Confucianism, Duc Confucius has taught: one of the five basic virtues is trust: "People do not believe in themselves". Family and social happiness cannot be found in lies, suspicion, jealousy. d. Avoid the karma of suffering: Speech is not a blade, but it is more dangerous than a blade because it has two points, one that pierces others and the other that pierces the person who wields it. Anyone can't forget the story of the shepherd boy who wanted to fool the village by shouting "Fire! Fire!" but it only fools people once; next time his house really burned, even though he cried out, no one came to fix it. See, a liar only causes harm to himself, so the Buddha taught: "The sorcerer deals with the government in the middle of the mouth, the reason for slaying the body is due to the evil language", that is: Everyone in the world, the sharp tongue lies ready. in his mouth, the reason he cut himself was because of evil words. I had to say that the spies say that distorting is to harm people, but when they have harmed people, people will always harm them back. "Evil retribution for evil" is like that. To avoid enmity, avoid bad karma, we should not lie and lie. The benefits of not lying. a. On the personal side: Being respected and trusted by others, no one holds any grudges; Wherever you go, people around you will give you a feeling of intimacy and welcome. In business, honest people have many clients and are entrusted with many precious responsibilities. b. In terms of unions: Family and society are united in trust. All joint works are promoted with good results. Humans love and understand each other more. Limitations: Lying is a great disaster for you and the society. However, there are also some cases when it is advisable to lie. That's when out of compassion you have to lie to save people or things. Lying is a crime in cases where greed, hatred, and delusion are motivated. On the contrary, if motivated by compassion and must lie, then there is no crime. V. 5th precept: Do not drink alcohol All things with intoxicating yeast or toxic substances are not allowed. If you don't drink, you can't, but you can't force others to drink, force others to drink, and encourage others to drink, the sin is worse than drinking yourself. When he is seriously ill, taking medicines that do not heal, the physician must use alcohol to "mix with the medicine and use it temporarily. But before using it, let them know. When the disease is over, do not continue to take the medicine mixed with alcohol. For what reasons did the Buddha forbid drinking alcohol? The Buddha forbade drinking alcohol for the following reasons: a. Preserving the seeds of wisdom: Alcohol is more dangerous than poison. A cup of poison we drink, we die immediately, but we only die in the present body, but drinking alcohol makes us lose our wisdom, we have to die over and over again for countless kalpas. Therefore, in order to preserve the precious seed of wisdom, the Buddha forbade drinking alcohol. b. Preventing the causes of sin: Alcohol itself is not a sin such as killing, stealing, or adultery, but it can cause the other sins to be born. When drunk and intoxicated, any crime can be committed. Here is a story to prove it. A farmer was plowing the field in the middle of the field, when suddenly appeared in front of him a huge, strange god threatening to kill him. He was terrified, crying and begging for his life. The villain reported: "If you do one of these three things, I will spare you: either kill your father, or beat your mother, or drink all the wine on your table." The farmer thought for a moment and then replied: - Please allow me to drink that liter of wine. After listening to the evil god, he seemed satisfied and then disappeared. At noon that day, the farmer came home, saw a liter of wine that his father had bought and left it on the table to prepare to treat guests, because the house was about to have an anniversary, he quickly grabbed it and took a breath. His father saw his son being insolent, grabbed a stick and charged at him. The magic has penetrated, he no longer knows right and wrong, snatching his father's staff, fighting back to death immediately. The mother ran to hug the mule, he had not yet unleashed his anger on her. The vegetarian village again forced him to take him to the official for killing his father and beating his mother. When he woke up, he knew that drinking was the heaviest of the three things that the evil god had forced him to do. Bottom line: Alcohol causes a lot of sin. Here are 10 harmful effects of alcohol that in; sutra said: - Lost wealth; - Increase in killing intent; - Intellectual decline; - Unsuccessful career; - Body and mind much suffering; - Body or disease; - The mind of anger is impulsive, likes to argue; - Virtue dissipates; - Lifespan is reduced; - The end of the network to hell. Benefits of alcohol prohibition a. On the personal side: Those who do not drink alcohol can avoid the above 10 harms: no loss of money, less illness, no evil, killing, less anger, increased wisdom, longer life expectancy, etc. b. In terms of unions: The family is happy, the children are less sick, the society is harmonious, the race is strong. GENERAL CONCLUSION 1. A Buddhist who does not keep the precepts is not a Buddhist. We have seen the practical and beneficial use of the five precepts on an individual and corporate level. If the Three Refuges are the foundation, then the Five Precepts are the five steps of lay Buddhists to gradually step up to Buddhahood. In the first step, if a Buddhist can make a vow to keep all the Five Precepts, the better; If, because of many attachments, we can't keep all the Five Precepts, we can keep some of the precepts that we find practicable such as: not drinking, not lying. Then with diligence and strong bodhicitta, we continue to vow to keep other precepts such as not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct... But having made a vow to keep any precept, we must keep it firmly, don't there's one step forward, two steps back, it's never going to get anywhere. If a Buddhist does not observe any precepts, how can he be called a Buddhist? Ordinary people, not following Buddhism, can still maintain the right conduct such as not drinking alcohol, not stealing, let alone a Buddhist? We come to Buddhism because we want to go beyond the ordinary life of the world. If we have entered the Tao and still continue with the old floating life, or worse than the ordinary life of the world, it is because we want to tarnish the Tao, not to admire it. Therefore, Buddhists must try to keep the precepts to be worthy of their name, to bring happiness to themselves and to sentient beings. 2. Non-Buddhist people should also keep precepts. The five precepts mentioned above are not sublime and mysterious. That is a common citizen lesson that any society, any country that wants to be prosperous and powerful cannot ignore. So these 5 laws are not only applicable to Buddhists but also to all those who want to live a healthy, happy, respectful and progressive life. A society in which all members can observe the Five Precepts is the most exemplary, fair, civilized and prosperous society in the world.END=NAMO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.24/6/2021.