From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5FlW5FWjwR4

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

today I want everybody to take the five

precepts now the precepts are really

important when you're doing the retreat

if you break one of the precepts when

you're doing the retreat you will find

that you have exceeding amounts of

restlessness because you have a guilty

feeling for breaking the retreat and

bringing with respect it will interfere

with your meditation a lot a little bit

monks have more

more precepts than laymen I have 227

roles you've got five but even though we

have so many roles that we break one of

those rules while we're doing any kind

of meditation our meditation is not very

good the precepts I'll give them to you

but I want you to understand that this

is serious stuff

don't take the precepts lightly and in

your daily life if you can keep your

precepts without breaking them then your

meditation will improve very quickly if

you insist on breaking a precept you

will have consequences from that this is

a threat in any way is just information

so you know that you are responsible for

your own practice if the practice is

good it's because you're keeping the

precepts very well if it's not good it's

because you break criticize the first

precept is not to harm or kill living

beings on purpose and the key here is on

purpose you can be walking down the

street and you look down and you just

smashed a bunch of ants what was your

intention when you were walking down the

street your intention was go to go from

one place to another unfortunately you

didn't look down and see that there were

some beings there until it was too late

you don't need to feel guilty about that

just try not to do that

if you intentionally hit or kill

mosquitoes any kind of bugs it will

affect your meditation very negatively

you will have a lot of fear arising

you'll have anxiety anxiety arising

while you're doing your meditation and

that's directly because you killed a

living being on purpose

the next precept is not to take anything

that's not given

this means material things take

something

we can say don't steal that's that's a

little bit closer to it actually you

know how it feels when somebody takes

something of yours well if you do that

to someone else that's how they'll feel

your prosperity will disappear when you

take things that are not given

and the things that you take will not

last very long they'll just disappear

or if not they'll break or whatever so

you don't want to break that reason the

next precept is not to have any wrong

sexual activity wrong sexual activity is

sexual activity with someone that's too

young still under the care of their

Guardians sexual activity with another

person's made sexual activity with

prostitutes

outside of these three roles you want to

look at any sexual activity that you

have that causes any other being to have

distress to have dislike then don't be

that means forceful harmful things you

don't want to harm anyone

the next precept is probably the most

difficult precept to keep don't tell any

lies don't gossip and what is gossip

it's saying lies and imagining bad

things about other people and spreading

those those kinds of words

don't slender slender means there's two

different groups and in one group by say

you know this other group they did

such-and-such and they start to get

angry and then they go from that group

to the other group but they say they're

really angry at you because of

such-and-such and they're saying this

and slander means splitting apart so you

don't want to do that and don't use

harsh language that means

person

using really rough speech the speech we

want to develop is the kind of speech

that is soothing to everyone's ears

everyone can appreciate it and they'll

listen to what you say if you start

using curse words people will turn off

they don't like to hear those kind of

words look at your mind if you use a

curse word whatever you like heart and

that's exactly the opposite of what the

buddha was teaching the last precept is

not to take any drugs or alcohol adult

life

you have no idea how many people will

come to me and say well just a glass of

wine with the meal it doesn't really

matter yes it does a little bit of pot

now attend us okay no it's not why

because it does remind up and that

dullness stays for a long time and all

of these precepts are recommendations

that lead to a peaceful calm mind you

can break into those preception one it's

up to you

nobody's going to sit and throw down

lightning bolts and zap you if you break

one of the Greek steps but if you break

one of the precepts as soon as you

recognize that you've done that forgive

yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again with the

determination not to break them the

precepts are real interesting because

the more you keep your precepts without

breaking them the faster your mind

becomes calm

today I want everybody to take the five

precepts now the precepts are really

important when you're doing the retreat

if you break one of the precepts when

you're doing the retreat you will find

that you have exceeding amounts of

restlessness because you have a guilty

feeling for breaking the retreat and

bringing with respect it will interfere

with your meditation a lot a little bit

monks have more

more precepts than laymen I have 227

roles you've got five but even though we

have so many roles that we break one of

those rules while we're doing any kind

of meditation our meditation is not very

good the precepts I'll give them to you

but I want you to understand that this

is serious stuff

don't take the precepts lightly and in

your daily life if you can keep your

precepts without breaking them then your

meditation will improve very quickly if

you insist on breaking a precept you

will have consequences from that this is

a threat in any way is just information

so you know that you are responsible for

your own practice if the practice is

good it's because you're keeping the

precepts very well if it's not good it's

because you break criticize the first

precept is not to harm or kill living

beings on purpose and the key here is on

purpose you can be walking down the

street and you look down and you just

smashed a bunch of ants what was your

intention when you were walking down the

street your intention was go to go from

one place to another unfortunately you

didn't look down and see that there were

some beings there until it was too late

you don't need to feel guilty about that

just try not to do that

if you intentionally hit or kill

mosquitoes any kind of bugs it will

affect your meditation very negatively

you will have a lot of fear arising

you'll have anxiety anxiety arising

while you're doing your meditation and

that's directly because you killed a

living being on purpose

the next precept is not to take anything

that's not given

this means material things take

something

we can say don't steal that's that's a

little bit closer to it actually you

know how it feels when somebody takes

something of yours well if you do that

to someone else that's how they'll feel

your prosperity will disappear when you

take things that are not given

and the things that you take will not

last very long they'll just disappear

or if not they'll break or whatever so

you don't want to break that reason the

next precept is not to have any wrong

sexual activity wrong sexual activity is

sexual activity with someone that's too

young still under the care of their

Guardians sexual activity with another

person's made sexual activity with

prostitutes

outside of these three roles you want to

look at any sexual activity that you

have that causes any other being to have

distress to have dislike then don't be

that means forceful harmful things you

don't want to harm anyone

the next precept is probably the most

difficult precept to keep don't tell any

lies don't gossip and what is gossip

it's saying lies and imagining bad

things about other people and spreading

those those kinds of words

don't slender slender means there's two

different groups and in one group by say

you know this other group they did

such-and-such and they start to get

angry and then they go from that group

to the other group but they say they're

really angry at you because of

such-and-such and they're saying this

and slander means splitting apart so you

don't want to do that and don't use

harsh language that means

person

using really rough speech the speech we

want to develop is the kind of speech

that is soothing to everyone's ears

everyone can appreciate it and they'll

listen to what you say if you start

using curse words people will turn off

they don't like to hear those kind of

words look at your mind if you use a

curse word whatever you like heart and

that's exactly the opposite of what the

buddha was teaching the last precept is

not to take any drugs or alcohol adult

life

you have no idea how many people will

come to me and say well just a glass of

wine with the meal it doesn't really

matter yes it does a little bit of pot

now attend us okay no it's not why

because it does remind up and that

dullness stays for a long time and all

of these precepts are recommendations

that lead to a peaceful calm mind you

can break into those preception one it's

up to you

nobody's going to sit and throw down

lightning bolts and zap you if you break

one of the Greek steps but if you break

one of the precepts as soon as you

recognize that you've done that forgive

yourself for making a mistake

take the precepts again with the

determination not to break them the

precepts are real interesting because

the more you keep your precepts without

breaking them the faster your mind

becomes calm