The Five Precepts - A Basic Sense of Humanity

No one can be civilised by merely taking the three Refuges. So, we need to observe precepts, at least five. What are they?

1. Refraining from killing any living being.
2. Refraining from taking what is not given.
3. Refraining from sexual misconduct.
4. Refraining from wrong speech.
5. Refraining from taking drinks and drugs which befuddle the mind and mindfulness.

Some Buddhists may think, " We have observe these five precepts because we are Buddhists." In fact, it is not so. Whoever wants to be a humane person, to civilise oneself and to get a happy life, really needs to practise these precepts.

A Basic Sense of Humanity
Sila or morality is not a set of commandments handed down by the Buddha, and it need not be confined to Buddhist teachings. It is actually derived from a basic sense of humanity. For example, suppose we have a spurt of anger and want to harm another being. If we put ourselves in the other being's place, and honestly contemplate the action we have been planning, we will quickly answer, "No, I wouldn't want that done to me. That would be cruel and unjust." If we feel this way about some action that we plan, we can quite sure that the action is unwholesome (akusalakamma). In this way, morality can be understood as a manifestation of our sense of oneness with other beings.

All beings are afraid of the stick, all fear death. Putting oneself in another's place, one should not beat or kill others.

- Dhammapada verse 129

Similarly, we should think very deeply before we do something. By doing so, we will have a basic sense of humanity. And then we should try to refrain from breaking other precepts also.

Some people defend the use of drugs or alcohol, saying that these substances are not so bad. On the contrary, they are very dangerous. Even in small amounts, intoxicating substances can make us less sensitive, more easily swayed by gross motivations of anger and greed. They can lead even a good-hearted person into forgetfulness. Like accomplices to a crime, intoxicants open the door to a host of problems, from just talking nonsense, to unexplainable bursts of rage, to negligence that could be fatal to oneself or others. Indeed, any intoxicated person is unpredictable. Abstaining from intoxicants is therefore a way of protecting all other precepts.

- Sayadaw U Pandita, In This Very Life