Around this time each year we begin to look ahead to precept study. The precepts are an essential practice in the life of a person of the Way. They guide us towards what is most essential for living an awake life and are an important expression of commitment in Buddhism. Such a commitment strengthens and propels our practice and is at the very heart of fulfillment. We step forward into the timeless aspect of being human and this becomes our basis for choosing, relating, and contributing to the well-being of all life.
The first five precepts allow us to experience how helpful committing, in front of our spiritual community, is to specific standards of behavior. This is how we naturally behave when we are awake to our place in all of life. This is how we take refuge in the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
The precepts are hard to keep. Thus they are guides, rather than absolutes. As such, they help us to understand the spirit of practice, which is not rigid or absolutist. We’re always subject to changing conditions and needs of the whole community.
After we have continued in practice with these as our guide for awhile, we may then decide to receive the full sixteen precepts. At this point, we enter into the Buddha’s family and receive a name that inspires our practice. The sixteen precepts ceremony, Jukai, is also known as lay ordination we are ordained us into our life. We take the same precepts when becoming ordained as a monk, once more at the Transmission ritual of becoming a teacher in the lineage, and then again when they make up the core of the funeral service. We are also reminded of our precepts during our full moon Fusatsu ceremony.
I encourage everyone to join in studying the precepts together on Tuesday nights, beginning on June 20. Anyone who is considering formally receiving them during our September ceremony should contact me. There is additional preparation involved.