No one can be civilized by merely taking the three Refuges. So we need to observe precepts, at least five. What are they?
THE FIVE PRECEPTS
1 Refraining from killing any living being.
2 Refraining from taking what is not given.
3 Refraining from sexual misconduct.
4 Refraining from wrong speech.
5 Refraining from taking drinks and drugs which befuddle the mind and reduce mindfulness.
Some Buddhists may think, “We have to observe these five precepts because we are Buddhists.” In fact, it is not so. Whoever wants to be a humane person, to civilise oneself and to get a happy life, really needs to practise these precepts.
A Basic Sense of Humanity
Sila or morality is not a set of commandments handed down by the Buddha, and it need not be confined to Buddhist teachings. It is actually derived from a basic sense of humanity. For example, suppose we have a spurt of anger and want to harm another being. If we put ourselves in that other being’s place, and honestly contemplate the action we have been planning, we will quickly answer “No, I wouldn’t want that done to me. That would be cruel and unjust.” If we feel this way about some action that we plan, we can be quite sure that the action is unwholesome (akusalakamma). In this way, morality can be understood as a manifestation of our sense of oneness with other beings.
All beings are afraid of the stick, all fear death. Putting oneself in another’s place, one should not beat or kill others.
Similarly, we should think very deeply before we do something. By doing so, we will have a basic sense of humanity. And then we should try to refrain from breaking other precepts also.
Some people defend the use of drugs or alcohol, saying that these substances are not so bad. On the contrary, they are very dangerous. Even in small amounts intoxicating substances can make us less sensitive, more easily swayed by gross motivations of anger and greed. They can lead even a good-hearted person into forgetfulness. Like accomplices to a crime, intoxicants open the door to a host of problems, from just talking nonsense, to inexplicable bursts of rage, to negligence that could be fatal to oneself or others. Indeed, any intoxicated person is unpredictable. Abstaining from intoxicants is therefore a way of protecting all other precepts.
The Pali word kamma literally means action, or volition (cetana). We create our own kamma through body, speech and mind. These actions stem from moral or immoral volitions.
Oh monks, volition (cetana) is what I call action (kamma), for through volition one performs the action by body, speech and mind
Anguttata Nikaya
We ourselves are responsible for our own fortune, happiness and misery. We build our own heavens, or hells. We therefore speak of kamma as the law of cause and effect; action and reaction.
Kamma or Karma
The subject of kamma is deep and complicated. It is not easy to understand. So I would like to touch on this subject in detail, because kamma is a very important subject for a Buddhist to understand as one of the basic teachings of the Buddha.
When beholding this world and thinking about the destinies of beings, it will appear to most men as if everything in nature is unjust. We often ask ourselves why one man is rich while the other man is poor, why one man is handsome, healthy and happy, while the other is ugly, sickly and unhappy. Why is this so? Why do such differences exist in nature? These questions have been answered by religious leaders in accordance with their own religious views. All religions have reasonable answers for these questions. However, for me, these questions are only satisfactorily answered by Buddhism. Buddhists believe that no one can come into existence without a previous cause and the presence of a number of necessary conditions. There will be another life after death. The conditions are known as Kamma in Pali or Karma in Sanskrit.
The word Kamma literally means action; correctly spoken it denotes the wholesome and unwholesome volitions and their concomitant mental factors, causing rebirth and shaping the destiny of beings. These kammic volitions are manifested as wholesome or unwholesome actions by body, speech and mind. Kamma does not mean past actions only; it can be both past and present actions. Many people wrongly interpret kamma to mean its effects. In fact, its effects are called kamma-vipaka, the result of kamma. Volitional action can be good or bad. Good kamma or good action produces good effects while bad kamma produces bad effects. Therefore, we speak of kamma as the law of cause and effect or action and reaction.
We believe that we are responsible for our own fortune, happiness and misery, because we create our own kamma through body, speech and mind. We build our own heavens and hells. As long as one makes actions that produce reaction, the cycle of life will continue to have future existences. This cycle of existences is known as samisāra, the cycle of continuity.
Kamma is not Moral Justice
The theory of kamma is different from “moral justice” or “reward and punishment.” The idea of moral justice is the conception of a supreme being i.e. God, who is a law-giver and sits in judgement, deciding what is right and wrong. Kamma is a law in itself. But it does not follow that there should be a law giver. Inherent in kamma is the potentiality of producing its due effect. The cause naturally produces the effect. Kamma is like a seed that produces the fruit. Therefore, kamma is a natural law and it has nothing to do with the ideas of justice that is governed by God or other mighty beings.
The law of action, according to which good or appropriate acts give rise to good effects, and bad or inappropriate acts to bad effects, is impelling a chain of successive births, each life’s condition being explained by actions in the previous life.
