Precepts and the bodhisattva vows
from Hoko
A precept is a guideline for ethical behavior, some kind of instruction about the actions we should take. These are concrete, everyday teachings, not abstract philosophical principles; precepts are about things we do and don’t do. They also completely describe the life of the bodhisattva.
In the Theravada tradition there are hundreds of precepts, and in Soto Zen we take just these ten precepts plus the Three Pure Precepts and Three Refuges. Why? In our tradition, the precepts are said to have existed before Buddha’s awakening and didn’t originate with his teaching, but historically, that's not true: once the early sangha was established and people made mistakes, Buddha said, “You shouldn’t do such a thing again.”
The examples of such admonitions range from broad guidelines like "don’t kill people and steal their stuff" to very specific rules like what colors your blanket has to be, that you can’t have a women unrelated to you washing or sewing your clothes, or that you can’t have a new bowl until your old one has been mended five times.
Buddha’s disciple Upali memorized all these admonitions and the stories of how they happened, and recited them at a meeting of all the monks after Buddha died. This is the source of the Theravada precepts. There were no regulations or precepts until monks made mistakes. Even though they tried to practice and study the dharma, they were human.
The basic idea of the bodhisattva precepts is different; they're not a collection of prohibitions about mistakes. These precepts describe reality. They’re ten ethical aspects of the dharma. In that way, they pre-date the Buddha, who said he didn’t invent the dharma; he awoke to it. Thus these precepts came into being at the time of Buddha’s awakening.
Dogen Zenji says in the very beginning of his Kyojukaimon (Comments on Teaching and Conferring the Precepts): "Receiving the precepts transcends the borders of past, present and future." The basis of the bodhisattva precepts is the reality of all beings to which the Buddha awakened, which is characterized by impermanence, egolessness, and interdependence.
Because everything is impermanent, including this self, we can’t cling to anything. We’re released from attachment to self, possessions, and so on so, for instance, stealing doesn’t make sense because there’s nothing that’s really permanently ours. Likewise, if there is no self that persists through time, it doesn’t make sense to indulge our personal anger, because there’s no self we need to defend.
Because everything is interconnected and arises some something else, we can only exist in relationship with other things and people. That means that if we harm other beings, we harm ourselves. Now we can begin to see the relationship between keeping precepts and carrying out vows. In the bodhisattva vows we chant after every dharma talk, we vow to free all beings, end all delusions, enter all dharma gates and realize (make real) the Buddha way.
Freeing all beings
The precepts might seem restrictive; they’re all about what we’re not supposed to do. Actually, the precepts bring about freedom and liberation. When we keep precepts, we don’t keep churning up our harmful karma, and we don’t keep adding to our own suffering and the suffering of others. We’re not slaves to our thirsting desires and cravings and aversions. We can say that keeping precepts liberates all beings because, if nothing else, they’re liberated from our unskillful actions. However, because of interdependence, our own liberation is also the liberation of others because we’re all in this together within this one unified reality.
If I’m creating safe, wholesome and peaceful circumstances in the world by observing precepts, I’m creating the conditions for other beings also to settle and cultivate wisdom, ethics and concentration. If instead I’m doing whatever I want based on craving, aversion and three poisonous minds, no one is going to feel safe around me. No one is going to settle down and see clearly what’s happening. He or she is just going to get more caught up in anxiety and unskillful responses to my behavior.
Ending all delusions
Likewise, precepts help us recognize and dissolve our delusion because they describe reality as it is rather than as we create it in our minds. If we pay attention to our use of intoxicants, whether that’s drugs or alcohol, food, shopping, or other things, we begin to clear the clouds. If we don’t give way to anger and instead can remain clearheaded, we can see what’s really happening and how we’re being triggered by clinging to delusions about self.
This is of course where our zazen comes in. Zazen and precepts are not separate; they’re complementary in our practice. We need the precepts in order to settle down in zazen and cultivate awakening and insight. If we’re running around being pulled by our karma and our delusions, we’re not creating the conditions for becoming quiet and seeing clearly.
As Okumura Roshi has said, "Our zazen and the precepts are one. In our zazen practice, we put our entire being on the ground of true reality of all beings instead of the picture of the world that is a creation of our minds. By striving to keep the precepts in our daily lives, we strive to live being guided by our zazen."
Precepts describe reality, and zazen is also about seeing reality. We can begin to end our inexhaustible delusions by keeping the precepts.
Entering all dhama gates
Precepts also help us recognize all the dharma gates we encounter as we move through the world. Once we take the focus off of ourselves and remember that we’re part of an interconnected system, we can notice all the opportunities we have to practice. We can turn every one of the precepts around, from a prohibition to positive action, and right there we can see all the gates we can enter. When the precepts are turned around in this way they’re sometimes called the clear mind precepts. You can see those at the left of this page.
It’s good to refrain from doing the things the precepts warn us against, but we can go beyond that and actively enter into dharma gates they offer us. We can begin to find, recognize and enter myriad dharma gates by keeping the precepts.
Realizing the Buddha way
Finally, precepts lead us to make the Buddha way real, right here and now, moment after moment.
Okumura Roshi says, "In order to nurture the seeds to actualize Buddha, we should strive not to kill. In the same way, the other nine major precepts all show the virtue of the true reality of all beings."
So, how do we keep the precepts? Maybe it’s simply an internal agreement between ourselves and Buddha. We aspire to keep the precepts and help others all we can. Maybe it's with a public declaration and jukai and wearing a rakusu. When we put on the rakusu, we’re wearing the Tathagatha’s teaching, and that's pretty hard to forget. Robes hold us up as well as serving as a reminder and inspiration to others. We’re liberating others by serving as a reminder not to break precepts!
When we take the precepts, we publicly declare our intention to live as bodhisattvas, keep the precepts and free all beings. In a way it’s kind of a big deal and requires some discernment; we recognize that our practice isn’t just for ourselves. We’ve taken vows to free all beings, end all delusions, enter all dharma gates and realize or make real the Buddha way, and now we’re kind of accountable for how we carry them out. Zen is a practice; it’s something we do, so it’s all about our actions and activities. What do we do to carry out our vows? There’s the eightfold path and there’s keeping precepts,
Of course, these are related as well. There’s the sila division of the eightfold path that includes right speech, right action and right livelihood. For example, right speech is about refraining from the four evils: lying, idle or frivolous speech, harsh or abusive speech and divisive speech, or backbiting and malicious gossip. The precepts include not lying, speaking ill of others, or praising self and blaming others.
Right action happens naturally when we see reality as it is. We understand suffering, interdependence, the true nature of self and how these three things are related. There's nothing to learn and no decision to be made. What I do affects others, and what they do affects me; there’s no getting around it. We all have a responsibility to take right action because the consequences are bigger than ourselves.
Precepts are all about taking right action: when we really understand how the universe works, we don’t kill or steal or misuse sexuality or intoxicants. We don’t have to stop ourselves from doing this stuff. It just won’t help or fix anything, so we don’t want to do it. This is why the bodhisattva precepts existed before Buddha: no one has to tell us not to kill because killing just doesn’t arise.
The last item in the sila division is right livelihood. Work is one of the most important practice containers. We spend a lot of time there, and it’s one place we’re likely to be challenged to keep vows and precepts. There’s the work itself that we’re being paid to do: does it move the world toward wholesomeness or unwholesomeness? Is it built on killing, lying, stealing, abusing others, creating ill will? Then there’s our own actions in the workplace. Are we breaking precepts on our own, no matter what the work is?
As is true with just about everything else in Buddhism, precepts, vows and the eightfold path arise together and can’t really be pulled apart. They’re just multiple aspects of the same thing.
When we first encounter the bodhisattva vows, our reaction is usually
“I can’t do that!” so we’re afraid to practice. Sometimes we make mistakes because we’re imperfect human beings. Sometimes we feel called on to break a precept for the greater good, and then we accept responsibility for the consequences.
Our tradition is filled with stories of monks and teachers seeming to break precepts, sometimes in pretty egregious way, like taking and selling or using temple property without permission, or seeming to disparage the teachings. There’s even a story about the Buddha killing himself in a previous life so starving animals could eat his body and survive. Uchiyama Roshi says, "You should know that it’s not enough for a bodhisattva just to uphold the precepts. There are times when you have to break them, too. It’s just that when you do, you have to do so with the resolve of also being willing to accept whatever consequences may follow. That’s what together with all sentient beings means." In these traditional stories, the person breaking the precept usually goes through some pretty hard times and harsh criticism before it becomes clear that he was engaged in skillful action for others that was not for his own benefit.
As Okumura Roshi frequently tells us, vow and repentance are two sides of one practice because our practice will always be incomplete. We just have to keep going and doing our best. The way we do that is by keeping precepts moment by moment.
A precept is a guideline for ethical behavior, some kind of instruction about the actions we should take. These are concrete, everyday teachings, not abstract philosophical principles; precepts are about things we do and don’t do. They also completely describe the life of the bodhisattva.
In the Theravada tradition there are hundreds of precepts, and in Soto Zen we take just these ten precepts plus the Three Pure Precepts and Three Refuges. Why? In our tradition, the precepts are said to have existed before Buddha’s awakening and didn’t originate with his teaching, but historically, that's not true: once the early sangha was established and people made mistakes, Buddha said, “You shouldn’t do such a thing again.”
The examples of such admonitions range from broad guidelines like "don’t kill people and steal their stuff" to very specific rules like what colors your blanket has to be, that you can’t have a women unrelated to you washing or sewing your clothes, or that you can’t have a new bowl until your old one has been mended five times.
Buddha’s disciple Upali memorized all these admonitions and the stories of how they happened, and recited them at a meeting of all the monks after Buddha died. This is the source of the Theravada precepts. There were no regulations or precepts until monks made mistakes. Even though they tried to practice and study the dharma, they were human.
The basic idea of the bodhisattva precepts is different; they're not a collection of prohibitions about mistakes. These precepts describe reality. They’re ten ethical aspects of the dharma. In that way, they pre-date the Buddha, who said he didn’t invent the dharma; he awoke to it. Thus these precepts came into being at the time of Buddha’s awakening.
Dogen Zenji says in the very beginning of his Kyojukaimon (Comments on Teaching and Conferring the Precepts): "Receiving the precepts transcends the borders of past, present and future." The basis of the bodhisattva precepts is the reality of all beings to which the Buddha awakened, which is characterized by impermanence, egolessness, and interdependence.
Because everything is impermanent, including this self, we can’t cling to anything. We’re released from attachment to self, possessions, and so on so, for instance, stealing doesn’t make sense because there’s nothing that’s really permanently ours. Likewise, if there is no self that persists through time, it doesn’t make sense to indulge our personal anger, because there’s no self we need to defend.
Because everything is interconnected and arises some something else, we can only exist in relationship with other things and people. That means that if we harm other beings, we harm ourselves. Now we can begin to see the relationship between keeping precepts and carrying out vows. In the bodhisattva vows we chant after every dharma talk, we vow to free all beings, end all delusions, enter all dharma gates and realize (make real) the Buddha way.
Freeing all beings
The precepts might seem restrictive; they’re all about what we’re not supposed to do. Actually, the precepts bring about freedom and liberation. When we keep precepts, we don’t keep churning up our harmful karma, and we don’t keep adding to our own suffering and the suffering of others. We’re not slaves to our thirsting desires and cravings and aversions. We can say that keeping precepts liberates all beings because, if nothing else, they’re liberated from our unskillful actions. However, because of interdependence, our own liberation is also the liberation of others because we’re all in this together within this one unified reality.
If I’m creating safe, wholesome and peaceful circumstances in the world by observing precepts, I’m creating the conditions for other beings also to settle and cultivate wisdom, ethics and concentration. If instead I’m doing whatever I want based on craving, aversion and three poisonous minds, no one is going to feel safe around me. No one is going to settle down and see clearly what’s happening. He or she is just going to get more caught up in anxiety and unskillful responses to my behavior.
Ending all delusions
Likewise, precepts help us recognize and dissolve our delusion because they describe reality as it is rather than as we create it in our minds. If we pay attention to our use of intoxicants, whether that’s drugs or alcohol, food, shopping, or other things, we begin to clear the clouds. If we don’t give way to anger and instead can remain clearheaded, we can see what’s really happening and how we’re being triggered by clinging to delusions about self.
This is of course where our zazen comes in. Zazen and precepts are not separate; they’re complementary in our practice. We need the precepts in order to settle down in zazen and cultivate awakening and insight. If we’re running around being pulled by our karma and our delusions, we’re not creating the conditions for becoming quiet and seeing clearly.
As Okumura Roshi has said, "Our zazen and the precepts are one. In our zazen practice, we put our entire being on the ground of true reality of all beings instead of the picture of the world that is a creation of our minds. By striving to keep the precepts in our daily lives, we strive to live being guided by our zazen."
Precepts describe reality, and zazen is also about seeing reality. We can begin to end our inexhaustible delusions by keeping the precepts.
Entering all dhama gates
Precepts also help us recognize all the dharma gates we encounter as we move through the world. Once we take the focus off of ourselves and remember that we’re part of an interconnected system, we can notice all the opportunities we have to practice. We can turn every one of the precepts around, from a prohibition to positive action, and right there we can see all the gates we can enter. When the precepts are turned around in this way they’re sometimes called the clear mind precepts. You can see those at the left of this page.
It’s good to refrain from doing the things the precepts warn us against, but we can go beyond that and actively enter into dharma gates they offer us. We can begin to find, recognize and enter myriad dharma gates by keeping the precepts.
Realizing the Buddha way
Finally, precepts lead us to make the Buddha way real, right here and now, moment after moment.
Okumura Roshi says, "In order to nurture the seeds to actualize Buddha, we should strive not to kill. In the same way, the other nine major precepts all show the virtue of the true reality of all beings."
So, how do we keep the precepts? Maybe it’s simply an internal agreement between ourselves and Buddha. We aspire to keep the precepts and help others all we can. Maybe it's with a public declaration and jukai and wearing a rakusu. When we put on the rakusu, we’re wearing the Tathagatha’s teaching, and that's pretty hard to forget. Robes hold us up as well as serving as a reminder and inspiration to others. We’re liberating others by serving as a reminder not to break precepts!
When we take the precepts, we publicly declare our intention to live as bodhisattvas, keep the precepts and free all beings. In a way it’s kind of a big deal and requires some discernment; we recognize that our practice isn’t just for ourselves. We’ve taken vows to free all beings, end all delusions, enter all dharma gates and realize or make real the Buddha way, and now we’re kind of accountable for how we carry them out. Zen is a practice; it’s something we do, so it’s all about our actions and activities. What do we do to carry out our vows? There’s the eightfold path and there’s keeping precepts,
Of course, these are related as well. There’s the sila division of the eightfold path that includes right speech, right action and right livelihood. For example, right speech is about refraining from the four evils: lying, idle or frivolous speech, harsh or abusive speech and divisive speech, or backbiting and malicious gossip. The precepts include not lying, speaking ill of others, or praising self and blaming others.
Right action happens naturally when we see reality as it is. We understand suffering, interdependence, the true nature of self and how these three things are related. There's nothing to learn and no decision to be made. What I do affects others, and what they do affects me; there’s no getting around it. We all have a responsibility to take right action because the consequences are bigger than ourselves.
Precepts are all about taking right action: when we really understand how the universe works, we don’t kill or steal or misuse sexuality or intoxicants. We don’t have to stop ourselves from doing this stuff. It just won’t help or fix anything, so we don’t want to do it. This is why the bodhisattva precepts existed before Buddha: no one has to tell us not to kill because killing just doesn’t arise.
The last item in the sila division is right livelihood. Work is one of the most important practice containers. We spend a lot of time there, and it’s one place we’re likely to be challenged to keep vows and precepts. There’s the work itself that we’re being paid to do: does it move the world toward wholesomeness or unwholesomeness? Is it built on killing, lying, stealing, abusing others, creating ill will? Then there’s our own actions in the workplace. Are we breaking precepts on our own, no matter what the work is?
As is true with just about everything else in Buddhism, precepts, vows and the eightfold path arise together and can’t really be pulled apart. They’re just multiple aspects of the same thing.
When we first encounter the bodhisattva vows, our reaction is usually
“I can’t do that!” so we’re afraid to practice. Sometimes we make mistakes because we’re imperfect human beings. Sometimes we feel called on to break a precept for the greater good, and then we accept responsibility for the consequences.
Our tradition is filled with stories of monks and teachers seeming to break precepts, sometimes in pretty egregious way, like taking and selling or using temple property without permission, or seeming to disparage the teachings. There’s even a story about the Buddha killing himself in a previous life so starving animals could eat his body and survive. Uchiyama Roshi says, "You should know that it’s not enough for a bodhisattva just to uphold the precepts. There are times when you have to break them, too. It’s just that when you do, you have to do so with the resolve of also being willing to accept whatever consequences may follow. That’s what together with all sentient beings means." In these traditional stories, the person breaking the precept usually goes through some pretty hard times and harsh criticism before it becomes clear that he was engaged in skillful action for others that was not for his own benefit.
As Okumura Roshi frequently tells us, vow and repentance are two sides of one practice because our practice will always be incomplete. We just have to keep going and doing our best. The way we do that is by keeping precepts moment by moment.
