In Buddhism, there are many teachings ware taught by the Buddha, those, of course, are concerned to human behavior. Many people misunderstand that the Buddha emphasizes on only monk life which considers as the direct way to enlightenment, this is the common misunderstanding, the Buddha himself divides his followers into 4 groups namely the male monks (Bhikkhu), female monks (Bhikkhuni), male lay (Upasaka) and female lay (Upasika). All groups still can be classified into main 2 parts; monks and lay people. All must depend on each other means to support in the different ways. Monks must help lay people by giving the right advice to survive lay life, in turn, monks must get the food and other basic factor supports from lay people. This can show we have to accept that everyone cannot be forced to become monk and especially, to get enlightenment is not limited by social status. The Buddha also advice lay people by many teachings, one of them is Panca Sila or Five precepts.
Right Understanding of Five Precepts
Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit the sexual misconduct and so on are translated and believed among some Buddhists. Unfortunately these are wrong understanding, it is actually nothing wrong so much about this way of translation but it shows the misunderstanding of Buddhist concept. Notably, Buddhism is different from Theism at there is no God, so there is no any commandment too. The Buddha is the ordinary people but he just understands the law of nature called Dharma, is not the one who creates that law, even he himself must follow it suppose to be born, ageing and die (as long as trap in to ignorance). So when he understands this, he suddenly becomes the awaken one and guides us. As a result, there is no any commandment from him, just the advice which belongs to our action. He points the way to bad result and good as well, when we know them, we can should and follow that finally the result will come to us naturally not by anyone who will judge.
When the Five Percepts are considered to be the Buddha’s advice, we are not commanded to do it but because of our knowledge, which think of it result as the suffering for oneself and others, so we intend not to harm all beings and prefer to follow by ourselves. So to avoid from commandment doctrine (translated as don’t), each topic should be retranslated as
1. We will abstain from killing.
2. We will abstain from stealing.
3. We will abstain from committing sexual misconduct.
4. We will abstain from telling lie.
5. We will abstain from intoxicating.
These 5 topics are not identified as only the Buddhist doctrine but should be universal. It means if any society wants to be peaceful, it is necessary to follow this rule. Moreover, these are only the ways to practice (mean) not goal, that is its real purpose is to cultivate the inner moralities which will give the higher results as below;
1. Loving kindness (for all beings) called Metta.
2. Right occupation (in daily life) called Samma Ajiva.
3. Sexual restraint called Kamasamvara.
4. Truthfulness, loyalty called Sacca.
5. Right mindfulness and awareness called Satisampajanna.
It seems to be enough to make society peaceful by this doctrine cultivation because we do not harm each other but it is however should not forget that only the peace of society is not enough if we compare to the human’s ability. Buffalos in the farm are also peaceful but such kind of living is not valuable because of without wisdom. Human being can be happier than that. Even though we stay without harm but we still have many desires that is we still want to be rich, famous and so on. Many people may follow the five precepts but cannot fine the real happiness because their life still must depend on many objects suppose the new house, car, mobile phone etc. As a result, they must normally seek for those needed things. So we have to know that the five precepts are only the fundamental rule for peaceful society but to be more productive, there are still many doctrines to practice step by step namely eight precepts and so on especially the doctrines are concerned to the way of right understanding that it will be discussed later.
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