Precepts were not given

to restrict us and

force us to follow arbitrary rules and regulations.

Precepts are the standards for goodness.

In a world where freedom to do as we wish is enjoyed by some and sought by many, it can seem a step backward to be told that precepts and rules for behavior are still necessary. How can I be free if I have to follow a bunch of rules conceived by someone who lived 3000 years ago?

First, the Buddha did not formulate the precepts. He observed cause and effect. He saw that in killing, we would be killed. Stealing, we would be stolen from. Lying, we would be lied to. He encouraged us to both learn about and experience causality.

He also encouraged us to make informed, conscious decisions about how we would behave by using standards, like the precepts, for what was right. Not just right for ourselves. Right also for those we interact with.

The reality is that the precepts allow us to escape the snare of painful karmic consequences.

This truly is freedom.

Do not spend time wondering

what another’s karmic consequences will be.

It is our own consequences

that we should be concerned with.

While it may seem instructional for our understanding of causality to figure out what someone else's consequences will be, in reality, we do not have the ability to do this. So why try?

To ascertain someone else’s consequences, we would need to know many things including their intentions. But experience tells us how difficult it is to figure out what our own intentions are. How can we hope to discover someone else’s? It would all be wandering thoughts.

It would be much wiser to spend our time examining our own intentions, layer by layer. Am I acting out of anger?

Perhaps carelessness?

Did I mean to help but made mistakes so was unsuccessful?

Or did I perhaps act out of jealousy?

Or selfishness?

Since we will have to live with our own consequences, learning why we act the way we do—and how to change for the better—is what a wise person focuses on.

Just as fault lines weaken a stone,

self-doubt weakens the will.

Fault lines in even the hardest stone will eventually weaken it to the point that it will crack and, with time, crumble.

In the same way, self-doubt will wear away and weaken our will.

We learn in the Pure Land teachings that we need three requisites, the first of which is unwavering belief. Great Master Ouyi explained in his commentary to the Amitabha Sutra that belief first means “having belief in oneself and belief in others, . . . .”

We need to believe that we have the same true nature, the same Buddha-nature, as do Buddhas. Having the same true nature, we have the ability to awaken and become a Buddha. A danger is that we will doubt what the Buddhas and ancient masters have taught, doubt that we truly can awaken.

Such doubt will be like a fault line, cracking and crumbling our resolve.

With unwavering belief in others—in the Buddha—we will eliminate self-doubt.

Forgiveness does not mean

that we do not care

or that the other person is pardoned.

Our forgiving people for what they have done does not mean that they will escape the consequences of their acts. We have forgiven, not pardoned. Understanding cause and effect, we know that those who do wrong will reap the consequences.

So what does our forgiveness accomplish?

In forgiveness, we are spared from having to personally judge and punish the other person. Their fair retribution will be forthcoming; it is not up to us to bring it about. This means we are spared the consequences we would have brought down upon ourselves as a result of our judging and punishing.

In forgiveness, we are freed from holding the desire for revenge in our hearts.

One who forgives strives to let go of anger and hatred. As the Buddha cautioned, to carry anger is like holding a hot coal waiting to throw it at another.

We are the one who gets burned.

It is much easier to start hating 

than it is to stop.

Consider how often friendship and love, or even an acquaintance, have changed into hatred. And how rare it is for hatred to transform back.

Hatred is like the proverbial slippery slope that is easy to slide down, incredibly difficult to climb back up. As we begin to hate, we find reasons to justify our feelings and become convinced we are right to feel as we do.

The other person has done something terrible. We have done nothing.

They are guilty of wrongdoing. We are innocent.

With time, we become attached to our hatred for the person, or the people. To stop our hating, we will need to 1) let go of our attachment to it and 2) either admit that our hatred was unwarranted or that it was warranted, but we were wrong to give in to it.

Since as ordinary beings, we do not like giving up attachments or admitting we were in the wrong, it would indeed be easier to not further develop this terrible habit than to attempt to break it.