Editing Five precepts (section)

== Practice in general ==
Lay followers often undertake these training rules in the same ceremony as they [[taking refuge|take the refuges]].{{sfn |Getz |2004 |page=673}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Festivals and Calendrical Rituals |date=2004 |publisher=[[The Gale Group]] |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Buddhism |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/festivals-and-calendrical-rituals |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223132321/http://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/festivals-and-calendrical-rituals |archive-date=23 December 2017 |url-status=live |via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Monks administer the precepts to the laypeople, which creates an additional psychological effect.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |p=80}} Buddhist lay people may recite the precepts regularly at home, and before an important ceremony at the temple to prepare the mind for the ceremony.{{sfn |Terwiel |2012 |pp=178–79}}{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |p=80}}
[[File:Thich Nhat Hanh 12.jpg|thumb |left |upright=.5 |[[Thich Nhat Hanh]] wrote about the five precepts in a wider scope, with regard to social and institutional relations.|alt=Asian monk smiling]]
The five precepts are at the core of Buddhist morality.{{sfn|Ledgerwood|2008|page=152}} In field studies in some countries like Sri Lanka, villagers describe them as the core of the religion.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |p=80}} Anthropologist [[Barend Jan Terwiel|Barend Terwiel]] found in his fieldwork that most Thai villagers knew the precepts by heart, and many, especially the elderly, could explain the implications of the precepts following traditional interpretations.{{sfn |Terwiel |2012 |p=183}}

However, Buddhists vary in how strict they follow them.{{sfn|Ledgerwood|2008|page=152}} Devotees who have just started keeping the precepts will typically have to exercise considerable restraint. When they become used to the precepts, they start to embody them more naturally.{{sfn|MacKenzie|2017|page=10}} Researchers doing field studies in traditional Buddhist societies have found that the five precepts are generally considered demanding and challenging.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |p=80}}{{sfn |Gombrich |1995 |p=286 }} For example, anthropologist [[Stanley Tambiah]] found in his field studies that strict observance of the precepts had "little positive interest for the villager ... not because he devalues them but because they are not normally open to him". Observing precepts was seen to be mostly the role of a monk or an elderly lay person.{{sfn |Keown |2017 |p=28}} More recently, in a 1997 survey in Thailand, only 13.8% of the respondents indicated they adhered to the five precepts in their daily lives, with the fourth and fifth precept least likely to be adhered to.{{sfn |Ariyabuddhiphongs |2009 |page=193}} Yet, people do consider the precepts worth striving for, and do uphold them out of fear of bad karma and being reborn in [[hell (Buddhism)|hell]], or because they believe in that the Buddha issued these rules, and that they therefore should be maintained.{{sfn |Terwiel |2012 |p=188}}{{sfn |Spiro |1982 |p=449}} Anthropologist [[Melford Spiro]] found that Burmese Buddhists mostly upheld the precepts to avoid bad karma, as opposed to expecting to gain good karma.{{sfn |Spiro |1982 |pp=99, 102}} Scholar of religion Winston King observed from his field studies that the moral principles of Burmese Buddhists were based on personal self-developmental motives rather than other-regarding motives. Scholar of religion Richard Jones concludes that the moral motives of Buddhists in adhering to the precepts are based on the idea that renouncing self-service, ironically, serves oneself.{{sfn |Jones |1979 |p=374}}

In East Asian Buddhism, the precepts are intrinsically connected with the initiation as a Buddhist lay person.<!--81--> Early Chinese translations such as the ''Upāsaka-śila Sūtra'' hold that the precepts should only be ritually transmitted by a monastic.<!--80--> The texts describe that in the ritual the power of the Buddhas and ''bodhisattvas'' is transmitted, and helps the initiate to keep the precepts.<!--81--> This "lay ordination" ritual usually occurs after a stay in a temple, and often after a [[upasampada|monastic ordination]] ({{langx|pi|upsampadā|link=no|italic=yes}}); has taken place. The ordained lay person is then given a [[Dharma name|religious name]]. The restrictions that apply are similar to a monastic ordination, such as permission from parents.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |pp=80–81}}

In the Theravāda tradition, the precepts are usually taken "each separately" ({{langx|pi|visuṃ visuṃ|italic=yes|link=no}}), to indicate that if one precept should be broken, the other precepts are still intact. In very solemn occasions, or for very pious devotees, the precepts may be taken as a group rather than each separately.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |p=82}}{{sfn |Terwiel |2012 |p=180}} This does not mean, however, that only some of the precepts can be undertaken; they are always committed to as a complete set.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |pp=82–83}} In East Asian Buddhism, however, the vow of taking the precepts is considered a solemn matter, and it is not uncommon for lay people to undertake only the precepts that they are confident they can keep.{{sfn |Harvey |2000 |p=83}} The act of taking a vow to keep the precepts is what makes it karmically effective: Spiro found that someone who did not violate the precepts, but did not have any intention to keep them either, was not believed to accrue any religious merit. On the other hand, when people took a vow to keep the precepts, and then broke them afterwards, the negative karma was considered larger than in the case no vow was taken to keep the precepts.{{sfn |Spiro |1982 |p=217}}

Several modern teachers such as [[Thich Nhat Hanh]] and [[Sulak Sivaraksa]] have written about the five precepts in a wider scope, with regard to social and institutional relations. In these perspectives, mass production of weapons or spreading untruth through media and education also violates the precepts.{{sfn |Queen |2013 |page=532}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Queen |first=Christopher S. | article=Engaged Buddhism |date=2005 |publisher=[[Thomson Gale]] |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion |article-url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/engaged-buddhism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429083440/http://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/engaged-buddhism |archive-date=29 April 2017 |url-status=live |via=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> On a similar note, human rights organizations in Southeast Asia have attempted to advocate respect for human rights by referring to the five precepts as guiding principles.{{sfn|Ledgerwood|2008|page=154}}