Observing the Five Precepts Is Learning to Be a Person

In fact, the Five Precepts only pertain to the body and speech, not to the mind. Regardless of one's mental state, as long as one does not transgress with body or speech, it is not considered a violation. Therefore, the Five Precepts do not address restraining the mind, only restraining the body and speech. They belong to the Hinayana precepts. By guarding the body and controlling speech well, one’s cultivation as a human being improves, ensuring rebirth as a human in the next life, and even enabling the cutting off of self-view and attaining fruition. However, to cultivate the Mahayana path and seek enlightenment, one must receive and uphold the Bodhisattva Precepts. Maintaining the Five Precepts well cultivates virtue and moral character; failing to uphold them results in an incomplete character, insufficient cultivation, and a lack of human virtue. If even the moral character of an ordinary person is incomplete, it is impossible to transcend humanity, cut off self-view, and become a sage.

If one dares not even accept the Five Precepts, or cannot uphold them after accepting them, how could one possibly uphold the hundreds of precepts for monastics? Many lay practitioners often slander monastics, criticizing them for various faults, but what about themselves? How great is the difference between their own conduct and that of monastics who renounce worldly life, turn away from worldly concerns, and submit to hundreds of precepts? The gap is too vast to describe in detail. The Five Precepts seem simple and easy with only five rules, but they are actually neither simple nor easy. Very few can fully uphold them. The precepts against stealing and false speech are particularly difficult to maintain. The vast majority do not clearly understand their scope and implications, and violators are numerous.

Upholding the Five Precepts is essentially about being a good person. If one cannot even manage that, what is the point of discussing fruition or the three evil paths in the next life? Many people have not even received the Five Precepts yet hint that they have attained fruition or enlightenment. If one cannot even guard the body and speech of the Hinayana Five Precepts, how can one guard the mental precepts of the Mahayana Bodhisattva? Guarding the mind is the most difficult task of all. It is extremely hard to prevent thoughts from arising that create unwholesome karma. Thus, the Bodhisattva Precepts in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra are even more difficult to uphold. Without eradicating the fundamental afflictions, upholding these Yogācāra Bodhisattva Precepts is unthinkable—they are meant for Bodhisattvas on the grounds (bhūmis) who have cut off afflictions. Bodhisattvas focus solely on whether thoughts are wholesome, compassionate, and wise, not on the superficial actions of body and speech. As long as an action benefits sentient beings, it must be done; otherwise, one violates the Bodhisattva Precepts.

As for whether sentient beings can understand this—their level of wisdom certainly cannot comprehend it. Therefore, one should try to prevent them from knowing, because Bodhisattvas have matured into adults, while sentient beings remain like children, with shallow wisdom and little insight. Thus, some matters of adults should not be revealed to children. Such precepts cannot even be upheld by Bodhisattvas below the first bhūmi, let alone ordinary sentient beings. Yet many people study and accept these precepts, unaware of where such a Bodhisattva precept substance could possibly come from. Ignorant people act recklessly.

Body and speech are the activities of the six consciousnesses, while the mind refers to the mental activities of the mental faculty (manas). If one can control the mental faculty, body and speech will naturally not transgress. Conversely, even if the mental faculty harbors unwholesome thoughts, if the conscious mind forcibly suppresses them and feigns purity, body and speech may still remain untainted, thus avoiding violation of the Five Precepts. Controlling and subduing the mental faculty is extremely difficult. Transforming the mental faculty through cultivation, eradicating afflictions, and achieving spontaneous, conscious purity without restraint is even harder.

Without eradicating afflictions, mental karma will inevitably be violated. Therefore, eradicating afflictions must involve eliminating the afflictions of the mental faculty to achieve spontaneous, conscious purity without the conscious mind forcibly suppressing them. Merely eliminating the afflictions of the conscious mind only amounts to suppressing afflictions, not eradicating them. When the conscious mind becomes negligent, the mental faculty will suddenly manifest afflictions, like a river bursting its banks and flooding.