Borobudur at sunrise · Justine Hong · CC BY 2.0

Buddhism

Tradition·Founded c. 480 BCE·est. ~500 million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Buddhism → 3 branches

Branch
Overview Belief 37How to Live 12Practice 34Stories & Scripture 35Community 10 You × Buddhism Discussion 1
Precept of Buddhism

The Five Precepts.

No killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, intoxication — the lay floor of the path.

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What it asksAbstain from killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxicants that cloud the mind
Who it bindsEvery lay Buddhist — undertaken voluntarily, recited in the first person
Where it bitesThe fifth: whether a glass of wine clouds the mind enough to count, argued in every Buddhist culture that ever made rice beer
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The precepts are not commandments and there is no one to break them against — no lawgiver, no punishment, no sin in the Western sense. They are undertaken in the first person ("I undertake the training rule to abstain from…"), which is why the standard formula is a vow you renew rather than a law you are under. Breaking one is not a transgression to be forgiven but a training failure to be noticed and resumed. The tradition treats them as load-bearing for everything above them: without a settled conscience, concentration will not come, and without concentration, insight will not.

From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited

I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life; from taking what is not given; from sexual misconduct; from false speech; from drink and drugs that cloud the mind.

The Pancasila, recited in Pali (rendered)

Note the grammar: a training rule undertaken, not a law imposed.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Ahimsa at the table. Jainism Go deeper →
The hundred and eighty precepts. Taoism Go deeper →
No sword, no oath, no lawsuit against a brother. The Mennonites Go deeper →
The oath is refused, the war is refused, and so is the lawsuit. The Church of the Brethren Go deeper →
The dharma of one's station. Hinduism Go deeper →
The commandments are how the covenant is lived. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →

The conversation

argument stays attached to the claim it is about All discussion →

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Where next

The Eight Precepts. →the next passage in Buddhism Buddhism's How to Live roomback up one layer Propose a change to this passageone button — it routes to the review pool

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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