The Five Precepts

The Five Precepts are the core ethical commitments that lay Buddhists take on as a foundation for a peaceful, kind life: to refrain from killing living beings, taking what isn't given, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxicants that cloud the mind. They aren't commandments imposed from outside but voluntary training rules you undertake yourself, meant to protect both you and others from harm and to steady the heart for meditation. A simple touchstone: before acting, ask whether what you're about to do would cause suffering to yourself or anyone else — the precepts are five everyday places to pause and choose harmlessness.