Panca-Sila or Five Precepts

Ven. Galayaye Piyadassi

Managing Trustee of World Buddhist Foundation, President of Sri Lanka Educational & Welfare Foundation. Head of Vihara-Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre. London, United Kingdom

The Buddhist way of spiritual training has three stages, i.e., Sila or Virtue, Samadhi or Concentration and Panna or Understanding. It beings with the first and culminates with the third. The first opens up the way to the second, and the second to the third and last stage.

The Sila has various grades, and it has two main divisions. Gahattha-Sila is meant for laymen and Bhikkhu-Sila for monks. The fundamental grades are to be observed by laymen and the higher grades by monks. The Panca-Sila is the first step to the Buddhist training. Uposatha-Sila which is also meant for laymen also has several grades: Five precepts, Nine Precepts, Ten precepts etc. Panca-Sila is to be observed by laymen in every day life, Uposatha-Sila on Uposatha days, i.e. Full moon, New moon and eighth days of the waxing and waning moon. The Bhikkhu-Sila which is to be practised by monks, also has two grades, i.e. Samanera-Sila and Upasampada-Sila. First is meant for Novice monks and the second for those who have received higher ordination.

The Buddhists spiritual life beings with the Panca-Sila. No one who has not practiced five precepts has a right to claim a Buddhist. Merely because one has been born in a Buddhist family one does not become a Buddhist; one may be a nominal Buddhist because of that reason, but not a true Buddhist. It is essential to practice five precepts if one is to be a true and complete Buddhist.

Now let us see what these five precepts are:

The first is to refrain from killing living beings. No one has the right to take the life of a living being; nor the life of his own. Whether the life is of another being nor the that of one's own, it makes no difference. What is important is that it is a life. To take any life is wrong and sinful. Thus, one who commits suicide does commit the sinful act of depriving a living being of its life.

The second is to refrain from possessing anything except that, is one's own and that is willingly by given by another. One should not take possession of any property belonging to another person by way of either stealing, seizing, looting, robbing, plundering, cheating, black-mailing or extorting bribes.

The third is to refrain from the wrong way of enjoying sensual pleasures. A laymen is not totally prohibited from appeasing his senses; never-the-less, he must be moderate and must not exceed the limit. The senses are five in number: - senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. Their respective objects are material forms, sound, smell, taste and touch. They are admitted through the doors of eye, ear, nose, tongue and outer covering of the body respectively. One should know where to draw the line in enjoying sense objects. Excessive enjoying causes harm to oneself as well as to the others. It would bring about damaging results not only in this world but also in the world beyond. This precept enjoins the laymen to guard against craving for excessive enjoyment of sensual pleasure.

The fourth is to refrain from uttering lies. It is sinful to utter falsehood even for joke. Much graver are the lies uttered in other respects such as perjury. One must not utter a lie even for the sake of one's life. Uttering lies through ill-will, hatred, jealousy, lust, fear or prejudice would bring about harmful results not only in the present life but also in the future lives.

The fifth and the last is to refrain from intoxicating drinks and narcotic drugs. This brings about harmful effects physically as well as mentally. Once a person uses any of them, there is a tendency to become addicted to it. Hardly any hope is left for one to recover when one becomes and addict. Gradually, he becomes a miserable person and finally a total wreak. Moreover once a person is so intoxicated he loses his normal self. He forgets himself. He is unable to control his temptations and thus becomes apt to commit offences. Hence, the fifth precept totally prohibits the use of them except for medicinal purposes.

Panca-Sila is the basic requirement for once to become a true and complete Buddhist.