First Buddhist Moral Precept:
Abstaining from Killings

K.Wong

Introduction

The Buddhist Five Precepts (Pañcasīlas) are the five moral injunctions of Gotama Buddha to help a Buddhist  restrain from committing evils. The first moral injunction  is abstinence from killing, destroying any living being or deprivation of life  intentionally or volitionally. Every volitional action constitutes a kamma. Every kamma is  retributed if the intention is evil. The consequence of every kamma is inescapeable. The kamma only perishes after its consequence or fruit (phala) has been actualized. Killing or deprivation of life  is the gravest offence of all offences or crimes. It is the gravest Precept to be transgressed .

The  punishment for the transgression of the first Precept  is rebirth in the world of hell in the next life. Even in the mundane , the penalty is very grave – either capital punishment or whole-life imprisonment. The Vinaya commentary (Vinayațțhakathā) defines killing as the destruction of life faculty, harming it and ending its life duration. Murder, suicide,  abortion and even mercy killing are included.

Human Rights

The Article Three of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that everyone  has the fundamental human  right to life, liberty and security of a person. Hence, it is evident the first Buddhist Precept of abstinence from destroying lives is consonant with the  Article Three of UDHR declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on December 10, 1948. UDHR promotes and fosters the universal values of freedom, dignity, respect, equality, justice, peace  and tolerance. All these universal values are also moral values expounded by the world’s major religions, such as Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The UDHR document is sacred  and divine in the sense that it resonates with the moral precepts or commandments of the promulgation of aforementioned world’s major religions. All religions are like the tributaries canalized eventually to a common river converging to a common destination - the borderless Ocean of Unity.  

Gravest Offence

Killing , murder or deprivation of life is the gravest  (pārājika) offence or crime. Its  social consequences are equally evil and damaging. It arouses anger, hatred, conflict, tension, fight, violence and other malevolent acts of enmity to take revenge in order to get even. Killing or murder of innocent one(s) have widespread  social ramifications. The conflicts in the Middle  east between Israels and Palestines, between the Muslims and Tamils in India, between Sri Lankans and Tamil tigers in Sri Lanka, between Muslims and Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan, between Muslims and Muslims in Iraq, between the Buddhists and Muslims in southern Thailand are concrete ramifications resulted from killings or murders. Monotheistically viewed, since God is immanent everywhere, every human being is a child of God. Deprivation of the life of the child of God obviously is the destruction of the sacredness and innate divinity of Man -  the immanence of  God. The Divine punishment is certainly hell fire upon demise. Buddhistly put, since every sentient being has a n innate Buddha-nature, each and every sentient being is sacred and divine. Thus,  every human being is worth to be respected . Mahayana Buddhism teaches that every sentient being especially human being must be respected because all sentient beings are potentially Buddhas .

Right to Life

The Buddhist first precept of abstinence from life deprivation is  embodied in the Article Three of UDHR. The Article Three of UDHR states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” It mirrors that Buddhist first moral injunction of Goatma Buddha  has a universal application. The religions of Monotheism, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam advocate the God’s commandments that one should love one’s neighbour as one loves oneself. Whoever loves others as he or she loves oneself will avert, at all costs, violent physical injuries done to others. Thus, Non-destruction of any human life or any living creature is a universal value  that restrains an indisciplined one from committing any act of physical violence. For instance, the destruction of fetus or abortion constitutes a transgression of the precept.

Mercy Killings

In addition to destruction of others, self-destruction also constitutes a transgression. For instance, abortion is a destruction of fetus. It is a transgression. Strictly put, the praise of death or self-destruction or suicide for mercy killing or euthanasia of a very ailing patient constitutes also a breach of the non-life deprivation precept. Mercy killings in praise of death or self-destruction to terminate intense suffering include the stopping the supply of medicine, food or oxygen.  If a  close relation or a medical doctor deprives or helps deprive the life of a very ailing patient, he or she is considered to have committed a very grave (pārājika) offence.

Empathy

The power of empathy is useful to avoid transgressing the first precept of non-killing or non-violence. Through empathy, one’s conscience illuminates one’s thought that no one likes to be harmed by others. Hence, it is logical that  since one does not like to be harmed, one should avoid harming others too. Gotama Buddha affirms, “Both self and other yearn for happiness and recoil from pain.” (M.I.341). The golden rule is : Do not  do onto others as you do not want others do onto you. What one does not like should not  be given to other.

Empathy is thinking from the mental frequency and wavelength of other. It is putting one’s feet into the shoes of the other and understand his or her comfort zone .  The power of empathy helps avert breaching the Precept. The Buddhist Five Precepts are not heavy vows. They are Buddhist Ethics of moral restraints. They are human universal duty or social responsibility to treat others well as one treats oneself. Buddhist philosophy of non-violence is constructed upon the universal value of empathy. Buddhist empathy is expounded by Gotama Buddha thus:

For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must so to him also; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me , how could I inflict that upon another?

(S.V.353.4; M.I.97)

Benefiting Self and Other(s)

In the Ambalațțhikā Rāhulovāda Sutta (MN), Gotama Buddha admonishes us that if an act is harmful to others but beneficial to oneself, it should be abandoned. If it is beneficial to oneself and others, it should be acted to benefit others. Killing or murder is certainly harmful to both parties, it should be abandoned.

Four Right Efforts

The four Right Efforts embodied  in the Noble Eight Fold Path should serve as one’s spiritual road map. The first right effort is to extinguish any evil thought that has arisen. The second right effort is to prevent the arising of any evil thought that has not arisen. The third right effort is to develop a wholesome thought that has not arisen. The fourth right effort is to sustain the growth of a wholesome thought that has arisen. The evil intention or motive to kill is an evil thought. The first and second right efforts are pertinent strategies for keeping the first Precept. 

Conclusion

Ethics or virtues are human intrinsic powers to exercise moral restraints. Ethics or virtues are benevolent energies. Benevolent energies dissolve malevolent energies. The benevolent energies are engendered by insightful wisdom developed from knowledge of ultimate Truth. The ultimate Truth is the Unity behind the apparent multiplicity. Insightful wisdom is the mother of sublime virtues. The four Buddhist Sublime Virtues (Brahmavihāras) of lovingkindness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), appreciative joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā) are effective antidotes  to counter the evil motives of killing, murder or violence. Deprivation of life is the deliberate attempt to kill a living being. The determinant of  the offence is the intention or motive (cetanā) to deprive life.

The greatest spiritual power is the liberating power of extinction of volition or intention – the destruction of karma by insightful wisdom. Nibbāna, which is mental emancipation (vimutti), is the complete appeasement of human dispositions or volitions (saṅkhārā). The appeasement of volitions is the intrinsic human insurance to deter evils.  That ethical human insurance system is mental purity - the cankerless mind producing cankerless activities. A cankerless mind is one which is purged of self centric ego. A cankerless mind is developed from wisdom of  discerning the Truth of Impermanence (Anicca) , Suffering  (Dukkha) and  Insubstantiality (Anattā) in terms  of the eternal Principle of Dependent  Genesis or Co-arising (Pațiccasamuppāda).