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• 5 to 1 Precept
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5 to 1 Precept 

I would like to share my understanding about Sila or precept so we do not need to translate from Pali to English word by word.

A Buddhist monk taught me that sila means “usual, normal, ordinary, or common”. Sila is usual for a person not to act and interact unusually to other life forms and to oneself. No one wants to be killed. No one wants to be robbed. No one wants his family to be sad. No one wants to hear a lie. No one wants to loss his mind.

There are many levels of standard of usual. Sila helps us not to reborn in lower realms. If a person want to reborn in human realm, his sila should be the lowest standard. If a person want to reborn in upper realms, his sila should be higher standard.

Sila help a person interact wisely with other person whose sila is higher. Because everyone may have different standard of sila so it is better to always interact with higher standard. Instead of taking one’s standard, it is better to interact with other person’s standard if his sila is higher.

Sila relates directly with karma. If a person acts or interacts with another person who has higher sila, he will receive karma in return at the level of another person’s sila. Please refer to the history in the Buddha period and compare the merit from offering to the noble one with offering the same things to normal people.

Sila relates with the steps of cultivating Dhamma. Sila was sequencing from external-to-internal, from crudeness-to-refiner, from physical-to-psychological, and from body-to-mind.

Hope this helps every Dhamma friends to understand and live easier with sila. Sila has its logic behind.

How do you handle unwanted little creatures in your homes while keeping 1st precept?

Dharma Grandma

How do you handle unwanted VERY little creatures in your mouth and stomach while keeping 1st precept?

I think it is the same answer with Mr. Roach and Mrs. Mouse.

Last updated
01-12-2542