Please review the Bodhisattva Precepts
Discussion Questions
- How do you practice these precepts in your daily life?
- Is there meaning in doing one’s best, even though one is not able to practice these perfectly in daily life?
- Which of these do you think our world needs most at the present moment?
Honen’s Perspective on upholding precepts (from The Passages on the the Selection of the Nembutsu in the Original Vow)
If the original vow required us to make images of the Buddha and to build stupas, the poor and destitute would surely have no hope of birth, but the fact is that the rich and highborn are few, while the poor and lowborn are exceedingly many.
If the original vow required us to have wisdom and intelligence, the dull and foolish would have no hope of birth, but the fact is that the wise are few and the foolish are very numerous.
Again, if the original vow required us to hear and understand many teachings, those who have heard and understood little would surely have no hope of birth, but the fact is that those who have heard much are few and those who have heard little are very many.
Further, if the original vow required us to observe the precepts and abide by the monastic rules, those who have broken the precepts and those who have never undertaken them would surely have no hope of birth, but the fact is that those who observe the precepts are few, while those who have broken them are exceedingly many.
As for the other various practices, they should be understood in the same way.
We should know that if the original vow required us to perform the manifold practices mentioned above, then those who are able to attain birth would be few, while those unable to do so would be very many.
For this reason, the Tathagata Amida, in the distant past when he was the bhiksu Dharmakara, moved by impartial compassion and wishing to save all beings universally, did not select the manifold practices, such as making images of the Buddha and building stupas, as corresponding to his original vow concerning birth.
Instead he selected the single practice of reciting the nembutsu.
(Honen’s Senchakushu published by the Kuroda Institute, p. 77-78)
The Exclusion Clause in the Primal Vow is intended to discourage committing evil
“As stated in the Forty-eight Vows, those who slander the dharma and those who commit the five grave offenses are excluded; this means that these two kinds of action are the gravest of hindrances. When sentient beings commit them, they plunge directly into Avici hell, where they undergo long kalpas of terror and panic without any means of emerging. The Tathagata, fearing that we would commit these two kinds of faults, seeks to stop us through compassionate means by declaring that we will then not be able to attain birth. This does not mean that we will not be grasped.”
From Shinran’s True Teaching, Practice, and Realization (Kyōgyōshinshō), Chapter on Shinjin, Section 121
From Śakyamuni Buddha’s teaching to the Kalamas
From the Kalama Sutta: To the Kalamas translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
“So, as I said, Kalamas: ‘Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, “This contemplative is our teacher.” When you know for yourselves that, “These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering” — then you should abandon them.’ Thus was it said. And in reference to this was it said.
“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.
From the Kalama Sutta: To the Kalamas translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Further Reading
Posts about Itadakimasu (Words of Gratitude before meals)
An excellent article on the Five Precepts from Tricycle Magazine