Tokudo recipient Gyosei Lauren Strongin

Tokudo recipient Kongo Craig Eklund

The Five Precepts (Pali: pañca-sīlāni; Sanskrit: pañca-śīlāni)^[1] constitute the basic Buddhist code of ethics, undertaken by lay followers (Upāsaka and Upāsikā) of the Buddha Gautama in the Theravada (practised mainly southeast and south Asia) and Mahayana (practised in China, Korea, and Japan) traditions. Undertaking the five precepts is part of both lay Buddhist initiation and regular lay Buddhist devotional practices.

They are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice

PANCA SILA- Five Precepts

More is the treasure of the Law than gems;
Sweeter than comb its sweetness: its delights
Delightful past compare. Thereby to live
Hear the Five Rules aright:

Kill not- for pity's sake and lest ye slay
the meanest thing upon its upward way.

Give freely and receive, but take from none
by greed, or force or fraud, what is his own

Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie;
Truth (Dharma) is the speech of inward purity.

Shun drugs and drinks which work the wit abuse:
Clear minds, clean bodies, need no Soma juice.

Touch not thy neighbor's wife, neither commit
Sins of he flesh unlawful and unfit.

Such is the Law which moves to righteousness,
Which none at last can turn aside or stay:
The heart of it is Love, the end of it
Is Peace and Consummation Sweet. Obey!