Five Precepts

Training in trust and freedom from fear

AN 8.39 calls these commitments five great gifts. Someone who gives up these actions offers freedom from fear, hostility and oppression to countless beings, and shares in that freedom. The discourse presents them alongside confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha.

Refrain from killing

Undertake the training to abstain from intentionally taking life. Sn 2.14 includes not arranging or approving of killing by others; its concern extends beyond human beings.

Contemporary practice: Pause before acting from anger or disgust. Look for a non-lethal response to an unwanted creature, and consider how your choices can protect vulnerable life. The positive direction is care and safety.

Refrain from taking what is not given

Undertake the training to abstain from stealing. Sn 2.14 also rejects having something stolen or approving its theft.

Contemporary practice: Ask permission rather than assuming something is yours to use. Return borrowed belongings and be honest in exchanges. Generosity is a constructive companion to respecting what belongs to others.

Refrain from sexual misconduct

AN 8.39 names sexual misconduct without explaining it in detail. Sn 2.14 praises celibacy, then tells those not living celibately not to commit adultery, expressed in its historical wording as relations with another man’s wife.

Contemporary practice: Consider freely given consent, freedom from coercion and exploitation, honesty, and existing relationship commitments. These are contemporary ethical applications, not a verbatim definition from AN 8.39. The aim is to protect trust and wellbeing, not to equate all lay sexual activity with misconduct.

Refrain from false speech

Undertake the training to abstain from lying. Sn 2.14 includes private and public speech, as well as getting others to lie or approving their lies.

Contemporary practice: Distinguish what you know from what you assume, including when sharing claims online. Correct a false impression you have created. Truthfulness helps others make informed choices; kindness and careful listening belong to the broader cultivation of speech.

Right Speech · Well-Spoken Words · AN 5.198

Refrain from intoxicants that lead to heedlessness

The fifth commitment is abstention from intoxicating drink, not merely from behaving badly after drinking. Sn 2.14 connects intoxication with heedlessness and harmful actions, including encouraging others to act harmfully.

Contemporary practice: Notice situations in which intoxication weakens attention and restraint, and choose activities that support clarity. Plum Village’s wider attention to media and other consumption, described below, is a modern extension rather than the literal wording of this early precept.

Another early source: the Dhammika Sutta

Sn 2.14, in the Sutta Nipāta, addresses both monastics and householders. Its guidance includes responsibility for what we encourage in others. The summaries above draw on this discourse alongside AN 8.39; the paragraphs labelled Contemporary practice are editorial applications, not translations.

Read Sn 2.14 · Dhammika

Five precepts and eight-precept observance

The five precepts are not identical to the eightfold uposatha observance described later in Sn 2.14. That observance includes celibacy and extra restraints concerning meals, adornment and sleeping arrangements. Do not mistake its celibacy requirement for the ordinary third precept against sexual misconduct.

Plum Village’s Five Mindfulness Trainings

The Plum Village community presents the five trainings developed by Thích Nhất Hạnh as Reverence for Life, True Happiness, True Love, Loving Speech and Deep Listening, and Nourishment and Healing.

Their formulations extend the commitments into contemporary life: protecting people, animals, plants and the environment; generosity and awareness of exploitation; responsibility in sexual relationships; reconciliation through speech and listening; and mindful consumption of food, drink and media.

The first training joins non-killing with compassion and protection of life. The fourth joins truthful speech with listening that relieves suffering. The fifth considers what is consumed through the senses as well as what is eaten or drunk.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings · Plum Village

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