The Merits of Keeping the Precept Against Taking Life and the Faults of Breaking It

The precept against killing: here, the term "killing" refers to severing the life faculty of sentient beings. The precept serves as the remedy, while killing is the object of remedy; this term is established by jointly referencing both the remedy and its target. There are seven sections in this discourse; let us first examine the first one.

◎Merits of Observing the Precept against Killing

Ananda! Moreover, for all sentient beings in the six realms across all worlds, if they do not give rise to the mind of killing, they will not remain bound to the continuous cycle of birth and death.

The Buddha taught the Venerable Ananda: Among sentient beings in the six realms of all worlds, if one can refrain from giving rise to the thought of killing in their mind (as we discussed earlier when covering the cutting off of the seed of desire; here too, it is about cutting off the seed of killing—the perpetuating force that drives the act of killing), once you sever this impulse to kill, you will no longer bear the karmic debt of lives taken from sentient beings, and naturally will not need to return to the three realms to repay this karmic debt of life, let alone the karmic debt of flesh that will be discussed in subsequent passages. The Buddha elaborated in full on the consequences of killing, covering both the karmic debt of flesh and the karmic debt of life, all of which are included here. This passage serves as a general summary.

◎Transgressions of Violating the Precept against Killing

We now turn to the transgressions of violating the precept against killing in the second section.

You cultivate samadhi with the fundamental aim of escaping the afflictions and toil of the mundane world; if the mind of killing is not eradicated, you cannot escape these defilements. Even if you possess vast wisdom and have attained samadhi, if you do not cease killing, you will surely fall into the path of spirits: those of the highest tier become powerful ghost kings; those of the middle tier become flying yakshas, ghost commanders and the like; those of the lowest tier become earth-walking rakshasas. These various spirits also have their own retinues, and each claims, with arrogant pride, to have attained the supreme, unexcelled path of enlightenment.

Why does the Buddha teach us to eradicate the mind of killing? The following explains the reasoning: We practice Mahayana samadhi primarily to escape the three realms, and attain the two pure merits of bodhi (awakening) and nirvana. However, if, while practicing on the causal ground (the stage of practice prior to full enlightenment), we unknowingly harbor the mind of killing in our practice, the final outcome will be a mismatch of cause and effect, making it impossible to escape the three realms.

If, during our practice on the causal ground, we still harbor the desire and thoughts of killing, then even if we have accrued vast wisdom from extensive learning along the way, and have attained the skill of desire-realm samadhi and the preparatory jhana (the samadhi attained prior to entering the first jhana), if this samadhi and wisdom are practiced alongside the mind of killing, the final result will certainly be falling into the path of spirits. Previously, we noted that desire for lust leads to the path of demons; here, it is falling into the path of gods and ghosts.

The path of spirits is divided into three tiers: those of the highest tier become powerful ghost kings. This occurs when one’s samadhi, wisdom, and karmic merit of blessings are exceptionally superior, resulting in rebirth as a powerful ghost king. The so-called “Great Emperors” or “Kings” commonly referred to in the mundane world all fall into the category of high-grade ghost kings.

Those of the middle tier are flying yakshas, named for their ability to take flight. Yakshas refer to beings such as mountain deities, local land guardians, and city gods, all of which are classified as flying yakshas on account of their ability to fly. This category also includes ghost commanders, such as various great generals and the like.

Those of the lowest tier are earth-walking rakshasas, who cannot fly and can only move on the ground. Rakshasas are beings that feed on the flesh and blood of sentient beings. Generally speaking, beings on the path of spirits have a strong preference for eating meat. You can see that when people make offerings to spirits, they invariably slaughter chickens and sheep; these beings attain rebirth on the path of spirits by relying on the karmic force of killing accumulated in their causal ground.

There is a subtle distinction between ghosts and spirits: those with abundant, substantial merit and blessings are called spirits, while those with lighter, thinner merit and blessings are called ghosts; they in fact belong to the same path of existence. They each have their own retinues, and all claim, with arrogant and prideful minds, to have attained the supreme, unexcelled path of awakening, adhering only to wrong views and distorted perceptions. This concludes the discussion of the transgressions of violating the precept against killing.