The Benefits of the Five Precepts

A clouded state of mind in which one is forgetful and unaware of one’s surroundings. One of the twenty secondary or minor afflicted mental states (Skt. upakleśa; Tib. nye ba’i nyon mongs).

A Theravāda monk from Sri Lanka who visited Tibet during the fourteenth century ᴄᴇ. No details about his life are known.

One of the three lower realms of existence (Skt. durgati, apāya). Unlike the modern biological classification of life in which humans are classed along with animals, Buddhism in ancient Asia developed its own taxonomic system that divided forms of sentient life (plants excluded) into six (or sometimes five) realms of existence or rebirth destinies (Skt. gati): gods (Skt. deva), demigods (Skt. asura), humans (Skt. manuṣya), animals (Skt. tiryak), hell beings (Skt. naraka), and ghosts (Skt. preta).

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A general term applied to spiritual practitioners who live as ascetic mendicants. In Buddhist texts, the term usually refers to Buddhist monastics, but it can also designate a practitioner from other ascetic/monastic spiritual traditions. In this context śramaṇa is often contrasted with the term brāhmaṇa (bram ze), which refers broadly to followers of the Vedic tradition. Any renunciate, not just a Buddhist, could be referred to as a śramaṇa if they were not within the Vedic fold. The epithet Great Śramaṇa is often applied to the Buddha.

A synonym for “unfortunate rebirth-destiny.” A name for any of the three lower realms of existence, i.e., the realms of animals, ghosts, and hell beings. Occurs often in a formula together with its synonym and its near synonyms “the lower worlds” and “hell” (Pali niraya/naraka; Tib. sems can dmyal ba).

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possession of six auspicious qualities (bhaga) associated with complete awakening. The Tibetan term‍—where bcom is said to refer to “subduing” the four māras, ldan to “possessing” the great qualities of buddhahood, and ’das to “going beyond” saṃsāra and nirvāṇa‍—possibly reflects the commentarial tradition where the Sanskrit bhagavat is interpreted, in addition, as “one who destroys the four māras.” This is achieved either by reading bhagavat as bhagnavat (“one who broke”), or by tracing the word bhaga to the root √bhañj (“to break”).

A small tribal oligarchy belonging to the Vṛji confederacy located between ancient Vaiśālī and Śrāvastī.

A deer park in the city of Suṃsumāragiri, the capital of the tribal oligarchy of the Bhaggas (Skt. Bhargas). The Tibetan translators interpreted this name as a compound where bhesakalā was rendered as sman (“medicine”) and vana as nags (“forest”). On the meaning of the Pali name, see n.­19 in the translation.

Harmful sorcery, or a class of beings prone to perpetrating it. See also n.­40.

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka). Elsewhere translated as “Black Line Hell.” It is so named because the beings reborn there have lines drawn on their bodies with a black thread and are then dismembered along these lines.

Name of one of the great (hot) hells (Skt. mahānaraka). Inhabitants of this hell are boiled in cauldrons, roasted in pans, beaten with hammers, and skewered with spears as their bodies burst into flames. The Sanskrit word for this hell, tapana or tāpana, can mean both burning and, by semantic extension, tormenting or distressing. Elsewhere translated as “Hell of Heat.”

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A cosmic period of time, sometimes equivalent to the time when a world system appears, exists, and disappears. According to the traditional Abhidharma understanding of cyclical time, a great eon (mahākalpa) is divided into eighty lesser eons. In the course of one great eon, the universe takes form and later disappears. During the first twenty of the lesser eons, the universe is in the process of creation and expansion; during the next twenty it remains; during the third twenty, it is in the process of destruction; and during the last quarter of the cycle, it remains in a state of empty stasis. A fortunate, or good, eon (bhadrakalpa) refers to any eon in which more than one buddha appears.

In The Benefits of the Five Precepts, this seems to be a general term, rather than the name of a particular place (unlike the Deer Park outside of Varanasi, where the Buddha first taught the Dharma). Although “deer park” is a common English rendering, it may have referred to a stretch of wilderness or a forest, perhaps within a park, where wild animals roamed freely.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who attend and celebrate the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni and other buddhas and bodhisattvas. In Buddhist cosmology the devas occupy the highest of the five or six “destinies” (gati) of saṃsāra among which beings take rebirth. The devas reside in the devalokas, “heavens” that traditionally number between twenty-six and twenty-eight and are divided between the desire realm (kāmadhātu), form realm (rūpadhātu), and formless realm (ārūpyadhātu). A being attains rebirth among the devas either through meritorious deeds (in the desire realm) or the attainment of subtle meditative states (in the form and formless realms). While rebirth among the devas is considered favorable, it is ultimately a transitory state from which beings will fall when the conditions that lead to rebirth there are exhausted. Thus, rebirth in the god realms is regarded as a diversion from the spiritual path.

A heaven or paradise, the highest of the five or six realms of existence. See also “deva.”

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

Morally virtuous or disciplined conduct and the abandonment of morally undisciplined conduct of body, speech, and mind. In a general sense, moral discipline is the cause for rebirth in higher, more favorable states, but it is also foundational to Buddhist practice as one of the three trainings (triśikṣā) and one of the six perfections of a bodhisattva. Often rendered as “ethics,” “discipline,” and “morality.”

See “slander.”

The fourth ruler of the Zhalu myriarchy in Tsang. One of the titles he bore was sku zhang (literally “maternal uncle”), which was given to the nobles of Zhalu to indicate that they gave their daughters in marriage to important Sakya hierarchs. Together with his son, Kunga Döndrup (kun dga’ don grub), Drakpa Gyaltsen was an important patron of Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) during the latter’s abbacy of Zhalu monastery. The exact dates for Drakpa Gyaltsen are unknown, but he must have lived during the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries ᴄᴇ. See Skilling 1993, pp. 84–86.

Fifth of the negative actions to be renounced under the five precepts. The Pali majja and Sanskrit madya simply mean “intoxicating [beverage].” The Tibetan chang likewise refers generally to all alcoholic drinks (fermented and distilled). The entire phrase could be interpreted as a “drinking binge” or “carousal.” In ancient South Asia, a fermented alcoholic drink called surā was known and produced for centuries. Surā was mostly made from grain, but other alcoholic drinks were made using fruit and honey (see McHugh 2021).

An ancient unit of measuring distance. Approximately two and a quarter English miles (if taken as a quarter of a yojana), but calculated differently in various systems. The Tibetan literally means “earshot.”

Five moral rules or precepts, observed by all lay Buddhists, that through diligent cultivation will become one’s second nature. The core meaning of the Sanskrit śīla in nonreligious literature is “nature,” “character,” or “habit.” The five are refraining from (1) killing, (2) stealing, (3) sexual misconduct, (4) speaking falsehood, and (5) consuming intoxicants (alcohol in particular). The five disciplines also form a subset of the ten kinds of ethical conduct (Skt. daśaśīla) that are followed by male and female Buddhist novices. The term is used synonymously with “the five precepts” in The Benefits of the Five Precepts.

In The Benefits of the Five Precepts, bslab pa / śikṣā is used in its second main sense as it appears in the Vinaya (the first being “training”), namely, five kinds of right conduct that are observed by all lay Buddhists. They are refraining from (1) killing, (2) stealing, (3) sexual misconduct, (4) speaking falsehoods or lying, and (5) consuming intoxicants (alcohol in particular). The term is here used synonymously with the “five disciplines.”

A term in the Pali Buddhist tradition for five kinds of severe punishments in hell, which those who have committed gravely negative actions will have to endure: (1) tattalohasecana, becoming doused with molten copper; (2) aṅgārapabbatāropana, climbing a mountain of glowing coals; (3) lohakumbhipakkhepana, being thrown into a (hot?) copper cauldron; (4) asipattavanapavesana, entering the forest of blades; and (5) vetaraṇiyaṃ samotaraṇaṃ, swimming across the river Vaitaraṇī (see Stede 1914, p. 37). The fivefold ordeal seems to partially overlap with the ordeals of the four secondary hells. The relationship between these two, as well as between the different versions of the secondary hells in different text corpora, awaits systematic investigation.

Name of one of the sixteen realms that surround the Loud Wailing Hell, where the thorns of a silk cotton tree torture the denizens of that realm. The silk cotton tree (Skt. śālmalī; Pali simbali; scientific name Bombax ceiba) is a large tree native to South Asia as well as southern China, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Its trunk and branches are studded with large conical thorns, and its seed pods are filled with a soft flossy wool reminiscent of cotton, hence its English name. Also characteristic are its long roots that often grow above ground and can envelope entire buildings, as seen, for instance, in the stone ruins of Angkor Wat.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓鬼 e gui.

They are sometimes said to reside in the realm of Yama, but are also frequently described as roaming charnel grounds and other inhospitable or frightening places along with piśācas and other such beings. They are particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to acquire sustenance.

A female deva.

The great hells are also often called hot hells in secondary literature because beings there suffer from heat and being burned. The eight great hells are Wailing, Loud Wailing, Black Thread, Crushing, Reviving, Burning, Intense Heat, and Incessant Torture.

bde ’gro is the opposite of ngan ’gro (see “unfortunate rebirth-destiny”). The Sanskrit equivalent is sugati. The compounded term (bde gro mtho ris) is a collective name for the higher realms of existence of devas and humans.

The blissful realms of devas according to Buddhist cosmology.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

One of the five or six classes of sentient beings. Birth in hell is considered to be the karmic fruition of past anger and harmful actions. According to Buddhist tradition there are eighteen different hells, namely eight hot hells and eight cold hells, as well as neighboring and ephemeral hells, all of them tormented by increasing levels of unimaginable suffering.

The lowest and worst of the major hot hells according to Buddhist cosmology. In The Benefits of the Five Precepts, rebirth in this hell is the full karmic result of speaking falsehood.

Term for a male non-monastic householder or married man. See also n.­23.

Term for a female non-monastic householder or married woman. See also n.­23.

Literally “black mountain.” According to traditional Buddhist cosmology, the Nine Black Mountains are found on the northern edge of the continent of Jambudvīpa. There are three sets of three peaks, and behind them lies the great snow mountain that is the source of the Ganges River. A description of this cosmology can be found in chapter three of the Abhidharma­kośabhāṣya of Vasubandhu.

The complex process of the ripening or maturation of karma, i.e., the development of the karmic result (Tib. las kyi ’bras bu) of karmically relevant actions committed with body, speech, and mind, by virtue of the power of the action as cause and supporting conditions.

The first of the negative actions to be renounced under the five precepts.

Someone with leprosy (also known as Hansen’s disease). Longstanding leprosy may cause loss of the extremities due to nerve damage, as well as other unsightly signs, and throughout most of history has been associated with social stigma.

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka). Elsewhere translated as “Great Howling Hell.”

Literally “falling down” and hence metaphorically “loss,” “ruin,” “destruction,” or “calamity.” A collective name for the three lower realms of existence, i.e., the realms of animals, ghosts, and hell beings. It occurs often in a formula together with its near-synonyms “evil state,” “the lower worlds,” and “hell” (Pali niraya/naraka; Tib. sems can dmyal ba).

The fourth of the negative actions to be renounced under the five precepts.

Nakulamātā and her husband, Nakulapitā, were eminent lay disciples of the Buddha Śākyamuni and were his parents and near relations during five hundred of his previous lives as a bodhisattva. Their home was the city Suṃsumāragiri (Skt. Śuśumāragiri) in the country of the Bhaggas (Skt. Bhargas). According to Malalasekera, they lived a celibate married life as coreligionists devoted to Buddhist practice, and the Buddha regarded them as the most intimate among his disciples (see Malalasekera 1938, p. 3). Their celibacy does not appear to be supported by the Tibetan translation of The Benefits of the Five Precepts, nor by their names, which could be translated as “father of Nakula” and “mother of Nakula,” respectively.

Nakulapitā and his wife, Nakulamātā, were eminent lay disciples of the Buddha Śākyamuni and were his parents and near relations during five hundred of his previous lives as a bodhisattva. Their home was the city Suṃsumāragiri (Skt. Śuśumāragiri) in the country of the Bhaggas (Skt. Bhargas). According to Malalasekera, they lived a celibate married life as coreligionists devoted to Buddhist practice, and the Buddha regarded them as the most intimate among his disciples (see Malalasekera 1938, p. 3). Their celibacy does not appear to be supported by the Tibetan translation of The Benefits of the Five Precepts, nor by their names, which could be translated as “father of Nakula” and “mother of Nakula,” respectively.

Four secondary hells located on each of the four sides of the hot hells and through which beings have to go once they leave one of the hot hells. The names and descriptions of the sufferings and punishments in these hells vary in different textual corpora.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

The Sanskrit ārya has the general meaning of a noble person, one of a higher class or caste. In Buddhist literature, depending on the context, it often means specifically one who has gained the realization of the path and is superior for that reason. In particular, it applies to stream enterers, once-returners, non-returners, and worthy ones (arhats) and is also used as an epithet of bodhisattvas. In the five-path system, it refers to someone who has achieved at least the path of seeing (darśanamārga).

A famous translator who lived during the fourteenth century ᴄᴇ. He is said to have spent fourteen years in Nepal and to have mastered the Sanskrit language to the degree that he was able to translate Indian works without the help of Indian paṇḍitas. He belonged to the Chel (dpyal) family, who owned Tharpaling (thar pa gling) monastery, a renowned translation center. Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangpo translated the “thirteen late-translated sūtras” with Ānandaśrī, as well as several tantras, tantra commentaries, hymns, and works on grammar and medicine. He was one of the most important teachers of Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364), the famous scholar and redactor of the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

One of the three robes of a monk or one the five robes of a nun. In Tibetan the term chos gos (“dharma robe”) can also be used for all the robes.

A wide collective term for people with various kinds of unclear gender status, including but not restricted to physical intersex conditions and hermaphroditism. It can, for example, also refer to a eunuch or, according to the Vinaya account of the expulsion of one paṇḍaka, a male who sought other males to have sex with. See also the glossary entry in The Chapter on Going Forth (Toh 1-1, g.­280g.281) and Cabezón 2017, p. 44.

Often translated as “training,” here it has the meaning associated with the Vinaya, which is “right conduct,” “ethical behavior,” or “precept.”

A synonym for pretaloka, it is the realm of the dead or the ghosts, where Yama, the Lord of Death, rules and judges the dead. Yama is also said to rule over the hells. This is also the name of the Vedic afterlife inhabited by the ancestors (Skt. pitṛ). The Pali commentarial tradition, and possibly other early Buddhist schools, identified Yama’s domain (Pali yamavisaya) with the realm of the ghosts (Pali petaloka). The commentary on the Kuṇālajātaka (Jātaka no. 536), the Kuṇālajātakavaṇṇanā, divides the realm of ghosts into the abode of ghosts and the abode of the asuras called Kālakañcika (Petarājavisayanti petavisayañca kālakañcikaasuravisayañca).

The fifth of the five precepts.

The first of the five precepts.

The fourth of the five precepts.

The third of the five precepts.

The second of the five precepts.

One of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka).

According to the definition given in Vasubandhu’s Pañcaskandhaka, the term apatrāpya predominantly relates to a sense of shame in relation to others. See Deleanu 2006, pp. 484–85. The Abhidharma categorizes it as one of the eleven virtuous mental factors (Tib. sems byung dge ba; Skt. kuśalacaitta), a subgroup of the mental states or factors associated with the mind (Skt. caitasika, caitta).

The third of the negative actions to be renounced under the five precepts. The Tibetan (as well as the Pali and Sanskrit) literally means “wrongdoing regarding lust.” The rules of what constitutes sexual misconduct are different depending on the level or category of Buddhists, i.e., whether lay or monastic. One form of sexual misconduct for laypeople is unfaithfulness or adultery, which is the theme of the first part of The Benefits of the Five Precepts.

According to the definition given in Vasubandhu’s Pañcaskandhaka, the term hrī differs from apatrāpya (see “sense of decency”) in that it predominantly relates to one’s own internal sense of shame or inner conscience rather than in relation to others. See Deleanu 2006, pp. 484–85.The Abhidharma categorizes it as one of the eleven virtuous mental factors (Tib. sems byung dge ba; Skt. kuśalacaitta), a subgroup of the mental states or factors associated with the mind (Skt. caitasika, caitta).

Fifth of the ten nonvirtuous actions.

A term of polite address in widespread use in India, used mainly for laymen. It is also sometimes understood from the perspective of the Buddha’s redefining of noble birth as determined by an individual’s ethical conduct and integrity, so that a layperson who enters the Buddha’s Saṅgha is called a “son or daughter of noble family” and in this sense “good” or “noble.”

See “lying.”

The second of the negative actions to be renounced under the five precepts.

The name of the capital of the country of the Bhaggas (Skt. Bhargas), a small tribal oligarchy belonging to the Vṛji confederacy and situated between Vaiśālī and Śrāvastī (cf. Witzel 2003, p. 55). The Pali word susumāra literally means “child killing.” See also n.­20 in the translation.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

In Sanskrit literally “a thread,” this is an ancient term for teachings that were memorized and orally transmitted in an essential form. Therefore, it can also mean “pithy statements,” “rules,” and “aphorisms.” In Buddhism it refers to the Buddha’s teachings, whatever their length. It is one of the three divisions of the Buddha’s teachings, the other two being Vinaya and Abhidharma. It is also used in contrast with the tantra teachings, though a number of important tantras have sūtra in their title. It is also classified as one of the nine or twelve aspects of the Dharma, in which context sūtra means “a teaching given in prose.”

The Pali equivalent of Sanskrit sūtra.

A monastery in the Nyang Valley in Tsang, Central Tibet, not far south of Zhalu. The monastery was founded by Tharpa Lotsāwa Nyima Gyaltsen Palsangpo in the fourteenth century ᴄᴇ and belonged to the Chel (dpyal) family until it was converted to a Gelukpa monastery in the mid-seventeenth century.

Literally “Way of the Elders,” today the term designates the form of Buddhism dominant in Sri Lanka and large parts of Southeast Asia. However, the term only started to be widely used as a self-designation in the twentieth century. The school on which today’s Theravāda is likely based is a remnant of the Sthaviranikāya, which was one of the many early mainstream Buddhist schools in India that formed in the first centuries after the Buddha’s death. According to the tradition Sthaviranikāya came to Sri Lanka in the third century ʙᴄᴇ. The Theravāda tradition takes the Pali canon as its foundational scripture and maintains that it is the authoritative record of the historical Buddha’s teachings.

Literally “the seen dharmas,” an idiomatic expression in Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist texts meaning the visible world and the experience of this present life.

The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha are three sources or objects of refuge for Buddhists. The Tibetan translators rendered the Sanskrit ratna (“jewel”) as “the [three] rare and superior ones” (dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo, p. 143).

Literally “misery” or “misfortune,” a collective name for the three lower realms of existence, i.e., the realms of animals, ghosts, and hell beings. Occurs often in a formula together with its synonym apāya and its near synonyms “the lower worlds” and “hell” (Pali niraya/naraka; Tib. sems can dmyal ba).

A river said to separate the living from the dead. In Tibetan rab med means “without a ford,” i.e., uncrossable on foot. The river causes great suffering to anyone who attempts to cross it.

Name of one of the great hells (Skt. mahānaraka). The Tibetan translation reflects an interpretation of the source term containing the word -rava (“cry” and so forth). The Pali sources attest to two versions of the word: roruva and rorava. The Purāṇas explain Sanskrit raurava as a derivation of the word ruru. See also n.­42 in the translation. One of the meanings of the Sanskrit word raurava is “dreadful” or “terrible.” Elsewhere translated as “Howling Hell.”

One of the two Wailing Hells, it is filled with fire. Denizens of this hell experience red hot blazes of fire entering their orifices and burning them from the inside. This hell is described in the commentary on the Pali Saṃkiccajātaka (Jātaka no. 530).

One of the two Wailing Hells, it is filled with hot caustic fumes. Denizens of this hell experience these fumes entering their orifices and boiling them from the inside. This hell is described in the commentary on the Pali Saṃkiccajātaka (Jātaka no. 530), the Saṃkiccajātakavaṇṇanā.

Definition from the 84000 Glossary of Terms:

A class of nonhuman beings who inhabit forests, mountainous areas, and other natural spaces, or serve as guardians of villages and towns, and may be propitiated for health, wealth, protection, and other boons, or controlled through magic. According to tradition, their homeland is in the north, where they live under the rule of the Great King Vaiśravaṇa.

Several members of this class have been deified as gods of wealth (these include the just-mentioned Vaiśravaṇa) or as bodhisattva generals of yakṣa armies, and have entered the Buddhist pantheon in a variety of forms, including, in tantric Buddhism, those of wrathful deities.

According to Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakośa), chapter 3, verses 87–88, one yojana may be calculated to be 7.315 kilometers, or 4 miles and 960 yards. However, the lack of a uniform standard for the smaller units means that there is no precise equivalent, especially as its theoretical length tended to increase over time. In general, it is a measurement of distance between four and ten miles.

The name of a monastery and a myriarchy in the Tsang region of Central Tibet. Zhalu is among the oldest monasteries in Tibet, with some structures dating to the first half of the eleventh century ᴄᴇ. The monastery was affiliated with the Kadampa school and had close ties with the Sakya school during parts of the Yuan period. The famous scholar and Tibetan Buddhist canon redactor Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) became abbot of Zhalu in 1320, which marks the beginning of a new lineage called bu lugs tshul (“Tradition of Butön”) or zhwa lu pa (“Those of Zhalu”).