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By Root 691 0

the ten precepts are a set of general guidelines describing ten actions that are almost always detrimental to the establishment of good relations among and within human beings. Engaging in any of these activities pretty much ensures that a certain degree of what’s commonly called “bad karma” will follow. “Bad karma” is, by the way, a terrible phrase. The word karma just means “action.” But since we cannot take any action without some kind of consequences following, the word karma has commonly been misunderstood as referring only to the consequences of our actions and not the actions themselves. Actions and their consequences always appear simultaneously, though our brains are stuffed so full of cotton-candy we presume they take place sequentially.

Since Gautama Buddha’s time, all Buddhists have taken a vow to uphold some version of this list of precepts (some lists are longer, some shorter). But aside from these fundamental precepts, there’s a huge of list of other precepts, called the vinaya precepts that some sects also follow.

These came about because during Gautama’s lifetime, people would ask him if some particular thing—sex with cantaloupes, for instance—was right or wrong, and if he said it wasn’t right, one more vinaya precept was added: “Not to have sex with cantaloupes.” It went on and on like this for the over forty years Buddha taught.

Someone would ask: “Is playing the Sonic Reducer on electric guitar bad, O Wise One?” “Only if you play Sonic Reducer so loud it annoys the neighbors,” Buddha would answer rather reasonably. And this was handed down from generation to generation as precept number 1394(a): “Not to play Sonic Reducer on the electric guitar so loud it annoys the neighbors.”

As he was dying Gautama called Ananda, his cousin and longtime assistant in administrative matters, to his side. Gautama said to him that it was important to keep the major precepts, but that the minor ones could be more or less ignored. Unfortunately the sage didn’t go so far as to actually specify exactly which precepts were major and which were minor. Sometime later, though, it was agreed that the ten precepts listed above (or maybe just the first five) were the really important ones. The others have been largely relegated to the history books and certain strict sects of Theravada Buddhism.

IN ZEN, we also have another take on the ten fundamental precepts, from a guy called Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who brought Buddhism to China from India several centuries after Gautama Buddha’s death. He probably actually existed, but probably didn’t do or say all the things attributed to him. But as I mentioned, Buddhists really don’t care one way or the other. Anyhow, Bodhidharma left us a very famous reinterpretation of the ten precepts. His versions go like this (and by the way, the word Dharma below means “the way things are”):

1. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the everlasting Dharma, not giving rise to the notion of extinction is called the precept of not taking life.

2. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the Dharma in which nothing can be obtained, not giving rise to the thought of obtaining is called the precept of not stealing.

3. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the Dharma in which there is nothing to grasp, not giving rise to attachment is called the precept of not misusing sex.

4. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the inexplicable Dharma, not speaking even a single word is called the precept of not telling lies.

5. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the intrinsically pure Dharma, not allowing the mind to become dark is called the precept of not dealing in intoxicating liquors.

6. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the faultless Dharma, not speaking of others’ faults is called the precept of not criticizing others.

7. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the sphere of equal Dharma, not speaking of self and others is called the precept of not being proud of self and slandering others.

8. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the all-pervading true