Lately, I’ve been continuing my read of “The Way to Buddhahood” by the famous Chinese master, Ven. Yin-Shun. The first couple chapters were strongly geared toward a Chinese audience (not a Western one), and I found myself not agreeing with his orthodox viewpoint. However, Ven. Yin-Shun was a highly respected monk, and I am not, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and keep reading. Chapters 3 and 4 are much better as he delves into general Buddhism, and covers teachings that run across all sects, Theravada and Mahayana.
In particular, he gives a good explanation of the five moral precepts (panca sīla in old Pāli language), and strongly emphasizes the need to make them a cornerstone of one’s Buddhist practice. But it’s not enough to blindly follow the precepts, there has to be a good reason for doing so. Master Yin-Shun writes:
Not understanding the meaning of keeping the precepts, some people keep them because they want the merit to be obtained from so doing. Though this is good, it is not ideal. From the Āgama Sūtra* and the Dharmapada** to the Mahāyāna sūtras, the Buddha has clearly stated that keeping precepts means “to use one’s own feelings to measure those of others” for the purpose of controlling one’s sensual desires toward others. In the sūtras, using one’s own feelings to measure other people’s (all sentient beings) feelings is called the Dharma of taking oneself as the yardstick against which to measure things. This is the same as the principle of reciprocity in Confucianism.
In other words, the right spirit for following the Five Moral Precepts is one of “treating others as you want to be treated”. This is the essence of Buddhist compassion, and takes away the notion of “accumulating merit” and such.
Of course, being diligent in follow all five precepts is hard at first. I still struggle with them, but my diligence toward the precepts has gotten better over months and years. It all started when Baby was first born, and I resolved to be a good father for her. That’s when I started taking those teachings more seriously, and at least making a mental note each day as to whether I’ve followed them all or not.
Master Yin-Shun discusses the challenges of the precepts later when he writes:
The enormously compassionate Tathāgata (Buddha), however, felt that lay devotees’ habits are so severely contaminated that they cannot immediately accept and keep all the precepts with purity…To allow for their different abilities, the Tathāgata spoke of four groups of devotes: the one-precept upāsakas (lay followers), who have the ability to keep one precept; the few-precepts upāsakas who keep two precepts; the more-precepts upāsakas, who keep three to four precepts; and the complete upāsakas, who keep all five. Among all of the lay devotees, those of the last group are excellent.
Here, this statement is strongly implying that although one commits to the Five Precepts as a Buddhist, they’re not expected to get it right the first time. Instead, it’s a life-long growing process where a person may only follow one precept faithfully for a time, but as they get more confident, they strive to faithfully observe two, three, four and so on. That’s been my experience as well. This was a kind of relief to me, as it didn’t put unrealistic expectations up front.
Anyways, there’s a lot more I want to share from the book (there’s a great section on why not everyone has to be, or should be a monk, to reach spiritual awakening), but I will save that for another post. 
Namo Amida Butsu
P.S. Changed blog theme, if you hadn’t noticed. I like how this one handled quotations better than the previous one.
P.P.S. Also, big congrats to Marcus who recently took the Precepts formally, officially becoming a Buddhist. I haven’t been able to do this yet, but hope to someday.
* – This is the Chinese/Sanskrit version of the Pali Canon, known as the Agamas or the Sarvastivadin Canon. Most of it hasn’t been translated into English, but most scholars agree that it is very similar to the more widely translated Canon, which lends credence to the idea that both “Canons” are accurate representations of what the Buddha taught.
** – Again referring to the Sanskrit/Chinese version, not the Pali version of Theravada Buddhism.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
I feel in any change people make – it’s often a good idea to take it slow. Better to take baby steps you can actually keep up with for a long time than to take leaps and then fall back. True for loosing weight, true for keeping the precepts.
From your perspective as a Jodoshin Shu Buddhist, has the knowledge from knowing the reasons for keeping the precepts increased your appreaciation of Jodoshin Shu?
And following the your experiences and insight from this book, would you recommend focusing on one precept at a time and rather than a broad based change of life on five fronts?
Deep respect
Stephen
Thank you Gerald,
Thank you so much. And what a lovely post. Thank you.
And I love the new layout too.
All the very best,
Marcus
Kantika: Good point. Change does not come overnight, even under traumatic circumstances.
Stephen: The problem with Jodo Shinshu is that the precepts aren’t really emphasized at all, other than people complaining “it’s too hard, take refuge in Amida”. Jodo Shu, as evinced from the writings of Honen, seems to say the same thing. Frankly, I think that’s a terrible way to look at it. I am reminded of the Jodo Shinshu Handbook which says that, if anything, we should live a life worthy of the nembutsu, so the implication is to try your best and if you fail, keep trying. Somehow Shinshu followers forget this and take the “self-power” and “dharma-decline” notions too seriously.
As for me, I do focus on one precept at a time, and make a concerted effort to change my lifestyle to better observe that precept. It sure does take a while though as old habits die hard.
Marcus: Thanks much, Marcus.
Thank you, _/\_.
As to Honen Shonin, he gave precepts to those whom wanted to recieve them. The retired emperor Gotoba, whom exiled Honen and Shinran, and ordered the execution of Anraku and Juren, was one of the emperors whom recieved the precepts from Honen. The ten precepts are still given to followers in Jodo Shu. Actually keeping the precepts is another matter I cannot comment on…
So thank you for your thoughts
Stephen
Hi Stephen, that’s very interesting, and I didn’t know that. I was not aware that the precepts are still given to Jodo Shu followers. I figured Honen might still give the precepts because he still considered himself a monk even after exile, but I wasn’t aware it’s still a practice in Jodo Shu. That’s great to hear.
Thanks Stephen.
Here is an example of Affirmation of Vows given by the Institute of American Buddhism.
I vow to respect all life as sacred. I vow to protect all life and prevent unnecessary destruction of life. I vow to not physically or verbally attack another person, animal or living thing.
I vow to respect that which belongs to others. I vow to be conscious of my actions toward self and others. I vow to become aware of the suffering that may be caused when others are involved in satisfying my wishes. I vow to treat all children with love, patience, and gentleness.
I vow to be truthful and to speak out about injustice. I vow to respect that which another speaks to me and to honor what is shared in confidence. I vow to be sincere and to keep commitments.
I vow to honor the opportunity of being born and to develop the consciousness of my being. In keeping with this vow, I vow to live with mindfulness and to abstain from that which numbs me to suffering of myself and others. I vow to cultivate a life of serenity and through my actions be an example for others to discover their own life of liberation and tranquility.
I vow to increase my understanding of the teachings of the Buddha, to take refuge in the Three Treasures, to remember the Bodhisattva vows, to understand the Four Noble Truths, to follow the Eightfold path, to cultivate the Six Paramitas, and to live by the Five Daily Life Guidelines.
Thanks for the post Gerald. I haven’t read this since January. While these are mostly guidelines, they make for good New Year’s resolutions. My resolution this year was to formally take refuge with a confirmation ceremony and dharma name(Shin Yo).
Hi there,
lovely site, I’m doing (or aiming to do) a dharma talk in our service this afternoon, about Pureland Practice and the precepts and was just googleing some textual references when I found your page.
And – I’m also reading Never Die Alone, we’re studying it in our sutra class on Monday evenings, we’re just up to the last chapter now. My teacher, has a chapter in there as well
It’s clear that Honen saw the precepts as an auxiliary practice – he recommends the nembutsu first, as the key to the Pureland – if one is doing 60 000 nembtsu a day, why do anything else. But at the same time he does encourage people to keep the precepts as best they can, especially those in monastic settings and so on.
“Let the nembutsu stand on it’s own and receive no help from any other quarter. By outside help, I mean that of one’s own wisdom, the observance of the precepts, religious aspiration, deeds of charity and the like. But the good man, and the bad man, as he is too, should seek help nowhere in the nembutsu. But he is is harmony with the mind of the Buddha, who practices [nembutsu] by giving up his wickedness and becoming good. A man who cannot make up his mind but is always thinking himself unfit in this way or that way will not be sure of attaining birth in the Pureland.”
Honen, – Things Honen was always saying, from*Honen Shonin Essential Writings and Official Biography* – Ed. Fitzgerald
Famously there is the letter to 190 of his disciples, a few years prior to his exile in which he encourages them all to keep the precepts.
As Shinran said – Why take poison, just because you have the antidote.
Best Wishes
Kaspa
(green-clouds, on belief net….)
Great Post! The whole ‘merit’ accumulation expedient, has often been mistaken as an end in itself and it is good to see a post which indicates the lesser value of such a ‘mercantile’ motivation, when viewed in the light of the Bodhisattva (or Mahayana) perspective.