Moral Precepts for Meditators
Precepts for
Meditators
by
Pittaya Wong
15 July
2016
The Lord
Buddha taught Buddhists and all humans to be concerned of precepts or moral
disciplines as precepts are significantly correlated to our own minds and
meditation experience. Since meditation
is ‘mental activity,’ meditators who
observe precepts are likely to have better meditation experiences than
meditators who do not observe precepts because the precepts observation results
in better quality of mind which is a good foundation and preparation for
meditation practice.
If our minds
are wholesome and pure, they will result our thoughts, speeches, and actions to
be wholesome, likewise. In return, when we
have meritorious thoughts, speeches, and actions, we will gain the merit energy
which cleanses and purifies our minds causing the minds to be even more wholesome. On the contrary, if our minds are
unwholesome, and we spoil our own minds by allowing the minds to cause bad
thoughts, speeches, and actions further, we will gain the sin energy that
contaminates our minds in return. The
sin energy will worsen the quality of our minds. As we accumulate sin energy in our minds from
mental, verbal, and physical misdeeds, our minds will be darkened and more
likely to bring about more bad thoughts, speeches, and actions. These are the correlations between our minds
and our mental, verbal, and physical actions which are interrelated. We can say that our minds directly affect our
thoughts, speeches, and actions to be either wholesome or unwholesome, and our
wholesome or unwholesome thoughts, speeches, and actions, will affect our minds
to have better or poorer quality in return.
Therefore, all
humans, especially meditation practitioners, are recommended to observe
precepts or moral disciplines which are suitable to their livings such as the 5
precepts for secular daily life or 8 precepts for monastic life, 10 precepts
for novice monks, and 227 precepts for fully ordained Buddhist monks. As we observe moral precepts, the precepts
will secure and control our speeches and actions to be more contented,
peaceful, disciplined, and wholesome. If
we violate the precepts, either mentally, verbally, or physically, the unwholesome
or sin energy will occur in our minds in every moment of misdeeds. So, now we understand how the precepts can
prevent our minds from contamination and secure our minds to be pure and
peaceful up to a level. In addition, the
daily living of those who observe moral precepts will not be troublesome because
of karmic consequences from committing misdeeds.
The 5 precepts for secular daily living are as
follows:
(1) Abstention from killing and harming oneself and
others (2) Abstention from stealing and fraudulent actions (3) Abstention from sexual misconduct (4)
Abstention from lying and false speech and (5) Abstention from drinking alcohol
and consuming narcotics which worsen the quality of one’s mind.
The 8 precepts for monastic living are as follows:
(1) Abstention from killing and harming oneself and
others (2) Abstention from stealing and fraudulent actions (3) Abstention from sexual intercourse (4)
Abstention from lying and false speech (5) Abstention from drinking alcohol and
consuming narcotics which worsen the quality of one’s mind (6) Abstention from having meals after noon until
dawn to prevent oneself from having excessive energy (7) Abstention from decorating oneself with
ornament, making up, singing, dancing, and performing entertainment, which
consequently encourage sensual desires and (8)
Abstention from sleeping on a big bed or seat stuffed with soft
materials in order to prevent oneself from laziness and over comfort.
All meditation
practitioners are recommended to observe either 5 or 8 moral precepts to
enhance their meditation practice.
However, in addition to the 5 or 8 precepts, novice monks’ precepts, and
the fully ordained Buddhist monks’ precepts, we may observe the superior moral precepts
for our thoughts by preventing ourselves from unwholesome thinking. If we have bad thoughts, we should be mindful
enough to cease such thoughts promptly.
Don’t let our bad thoughts grow into bad ideas, speeches, and
actions. So, our thoughts will remain
pure and wholesome always. Then, the
contamination to our minds will be minimized, and our minds will be in good quality
and peaceful always. This is a good
foundation for progressive meditation experience. We may compare our minds to a glass of clean
water which can be used for many beneficial purposes such as drinking and
cooking. However, if we break the moral precepts, it is like adding dirt into
our glass of pure water. As we add more
and more, our water becomes dirty and unclear.
Then, we cannot use the water for drinking or cooking immediately
because it must be filtered or purified first.
In conclusion, all meditation practitioners should observe at least 5 or 8 moral precepts, or we can observe the advanced precepts by keeping our thoughts, speeches, and actions to be wholesome always. As we can do this, our minds will remain pure and ready for further mental development with meditation practice where our meditation experience is likely to be better than those who do not observe precepts.
Note: If you have any question, please ask the guardian of crystal ball on the top of this page.
