Blomeley's Five Precepts

The passage above came from the Five Precepts, and the Five Precepts are the fundamental rules of Buddhist ethnics. Most religions contain a set of laws or commandments for its people to either practice or follow. In Buddhism, the Precepts are the main principles that are useful for one’s everyday living, and they are also a guide to the path of enlightenment. However, Buddhists do not have just one distinctive set of Precepts; depending on the teachings, the Precepts vary in numbers. The most basic of the Precepts is the pañcasila , or the Five Precepts as known. In Theravada Buddhism, the Five Precepts are the basic ones for lay Buddhists. Other known Precepts are: The Ten Grand Precepts, The Three Pure Precepts, and the Sixteen Bodhisattva

Buddha’s teachings became the basic guidelines from those that wish to be free from suffering. Of all these teachings, the Five Precepts are the most common ones. Since then, many scholars have been trying to uncover the underlying keys of the Five Precepts. One of the scholars is Christopher Blomeley, and his book, The Ethical Dimension of the Five Precepts, is trying to uncover the different understandings of the Five Precepts. The common point seen through out is that the Precepts “ is a system of moral principles which is ideally good for the individual and good for others.” Blomeley strongly stated that being ethical is not the same as following the laws of land, even if the two ideas intertwine with each other. Ethnic is only a standard that defines the rights and wrongs and can even provide humans with reason. Reason is apply relevant facts, which then helps people to be consistent with their mutual decisions and judgements. Also, the verse of the Precepts, “ I observe the precept of abstaining from,” makes it so that the Precepts are practice on the foundation of willingness; it shows that the Five Precepts are not meant to be instructions. Practicing the Precepts is based on the assumption that human beings always have potential for inner development. Closing off, Blomeley compares the Eastern philosophical views to that of the Western. Western ethics

To put it a simpler way, it is one’s own way of understanding a text, and the understanding vary, not concrete. As a 21st century individual, the passages above encompass a picture of how to live life in harmony with others. Growing up in America, institutions such as school did not teach me about moral ethnic. Usually, the things that I see as right and wrong came from the values I derived from my family’s lifestyle and my religion. School is only tool to give me knowledge, but it did not give me moral. The Precepts are important in the way that its teachings blend in with the values that I hold dear. Reading the passages as Thou enable me to find deeper meaning to the text. Instead of trying to understand the text in the modern day, I try to place and imagine that myself I am from that particular period. By doing so, I am putting on another person’s culture and belief, which will help me to understand why his culture and belief affected his thought. Additionally, I try to find what certain words meant during that time, because I know that certain words provoke different meanings, depending on their usage. For example, in the 21st century, “ taking life” definitely mean that you do not kill anyone, but that only apply to humans. However, “ taking life” in the passage also meant not killing the tiniest creatures on Earth, even if their lives seem so insignificant. Trying to read the passage was