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put in the effort to kill, if you are 
to break the 
Precepts. You have to really aim 
the gun and pull 
the trigger if you are to create the 
necessary conditions 
to break the Precepts. 
5. The victim dies in the way 
intended: As the result of 
our efforts, the animal must really 
die if the Precepts 
are to be broken. If you shoot to 
kill, but 
the result is only to break an arm 
or leg, the Precepts 
are not yet broken. 
C.1.2 Second Precept: Not 
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you cannot find 
the rag you usually use, often you 
feel irritated 
or angry. In the past there was an 
agreement between 
market gardeners as follows 
whatever 
they plant, whether it may be 
bananas or sugar 
cane or aubergines or chillis, if 
anyone walks 
through the field and feels they 
want to eat some 
of the crop, they are allowed to 
help themselves 
to as much as they can eat, but it is 
prohibited to 
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take any in your pockets or in a 
bag to eat in the 
home. It is said that there is only 
one eater of 
stolen food who steals food and 
takes it home to 
eat and that is a stray dog. 
3. The perpetrator has the 
intention to steal: Even the 
intention to steal starts to cloud the 
mind. 
4. The perpetrator makes the effort 
to steal the object: 
This means trying to find devious 
strategies and 
actually putting those strategies 
into practice. 
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5. The perpetrator obtains the 
object in keeping with his 
intention. 
C.1.3 Third Precept: Not 
Committing Adultery 
In order to break the Precept of not 
committing 
adultery, your action has to consist 
of four components: 
1. The object of the affection must 
be a man or woman 
who is prohibited: So what do we 
mean by a partner 
who is prohibited? There are four 
sorts of 
women who are prohibited to men 
• married women; 
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• women who are still in the care 
of their parents; 
• women who lifestyle prohibits 
sexual intercourse, 
such as nuns or female prisoners. 
• women related to us such as our 
mother or 
our sister or our daughter 
and three types of men prohibited 
to women: 
• any man who is not your own 
husband; 
• men whose lifestyle prohibits 
sexual intercourse 
such as monks. 
124 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
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• men who are related to us 
2. The perpetrator has the 
intention to have sexual 
intercourse 
with that person; 
3. The perpetrator makes the effort 
to have sexual intercourse 
(e.g. removes his clothes) 
4. There is a joining of the sexual 
organs. 
In fact there is no man or women 
born in the world 
who has no connections except for 
the one who is 
already married to you. No-one 
else is the legitimate 
subject for sexual intercourse — 
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not in the bar 
nor the night club 
even 
prostitutes are prohibited 
(consider respect for human 
dignity and fair 
economics and you will understand 
why) — there 
are no such things as `wayside 
flowers' free to be 
picked by anyone. 
C.1.4 Fourth Precept: Not Telling 
Lies 
In order to break the Precept of not 
telling lies, 
your speech has to consist of four 
components: 
1. Saying something that is not 
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true 
2. Having the intention to 
misrepresent the truth 
3. Making the effort to 
misrepresent the truth. 
4. The listener understands what 
you have said. 
The damage of lying comes from 
the chain reaction 
it causes: inorder to lie to someone 
once, you 
have to lie to yourself first three 
times. The first 
time you lie to yourself is in order 
to prepare yourself 
to tell a lie. You have to make up 
the story and 
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convince yourself first. The second 
time you have 
to lie to yourself is when you meet 
the person who 
you are going to lie to. Thirdly, 
you have to remember 
what lies you have told to who, 
because 
next time you meet them you have 
to tell them 
things consistent with that first lie, 
or else your 
dishonesty will be discovered. If 
the lie is an important 
one, sometimes you will have to 
remember 
it for years. The result of being a 
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liar is that 
eventually you will lose your 
self-confidence because 
you have lied to yourself until you 
have 
become used to it. At the end of 
your life, your 
memory becomes so blurred to the 
truth that you 
end up suffering from senile 
dementure as the result 
of the mental hypocrisy you have 
accumulated 
throughout the course of your life. 
C.1.5 Fifth Precept: Not Drinking 
Alcohol 
In order to break the Precept of not 
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drinkingalcohol, 
your action has to consist of five 
components: 
1. The liquid drunk must be 
alcohol 
2. The person must know that it is 
alcohol. 
3. The person must have the 
intention to drink it 
4. The person must make the effort 
to drink it 
5. The alcohol must be swallowed. 
For the purposes of the fifth 
Precept, not only alcohol 
and heedlessness-inducing 
intoxicants are 
prohibited, but also such drugs 
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such as heroine, 
opium, maruana etc.. If you 
consider tobacco from 
the point of view of this Precept in 
an objective way, 
you will find that smoking tobacco 
must be avoided 
too. Those who become addicted 
to anything like 
tobacco will find themselves in 
difficulty when they 
come to practice meditation on a 
retreat where there 
is no opportunityto smoke. Some 
people say that 
they smoke without being addicted 
— and they 
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have been smoking without 
addiction continuously 
for the last ten years! 
C.1.6 Seriousness of Breaking 
Precepts 
In addition, breaking a Precept 
may be more or less 
serious dependent on an additional 
three factors: 
I. the amount of effort invested in 
breaking the 
Precept: the more the effort 
invested in a deed, 
the more serious is the breaking of 
that Precept. 
To kill a large animal is more 
serious than to kill 
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a small animal because it takes 
more effort. 
2. the gratitude or ingratitude in 
breaking the Precept: 
the more an action expresses 
ingratitude, 
the greater will be the seriousness 
of breaking 
the Precept. Wringing the neck of 
the cock which 
crowed to wake you up every 
morning at dawn 
to go to school until you got 
yourself a university 
degree is worse than wringing the 
neck of 
another cock you have never 
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known before. Thus 
one should be very careful not to 
disregard the 
debt of gratitude owed to others. If 
that person 
or animal is one that is useful —
especially if it 
has been helpful to us personally in 
the past. 
3. The strength of the intention 
behind breaking the 
Precept: if you kill an ant by 
pulling each leg out 
Blessing Nine: Artfulness in Usage 
125 
one by one and then killing it, it is 
worse than 
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killing the ant outright in one fell 
swoop. To kill 
a mosquito by slapping it is not as 
bad as putting 
a candle flame to the wings of the 
mosquito and 
leaving it in pain to wriggle to 
death for the next 
three days. If a person kills with 
vengeance and 
cruelty, it is more serious than for 
killing out of 
vengeance in cold blood. If 
someone kills someone 
with a single shot, it is not so bad 
as someone 
who tortures someone to death. 
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Thus even 
in the past, they would try to find 
quick ways of 
execution so that they could reduce 
the evil accrued 
by the executioner. (Best of all is 
not to have 
to kill the prisoner at all). 
C.2 Components of Eight 
Precepts 
C.2.1 Differences between Five 
and Eight 
Precepts 
The following differences are 
found between the 
components of Precepts shared 
between the Five 
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and Eight Precepts: 
The Third Precept: Unchastity : 
The first difference 
between the Five Precepts and the 
Eight Precepts 
concerns the Third Precept. 
Immoral sexual relations 
[kAmesu micchAchAra] are 
replaced by 
abstention from any sexual 
relations 
(brahmacariyA — lit. 
Brahma-faring). For the 
Third Precept of the Eight Precepts 
there are only 
two components: 
1. You have the intention of 
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having sexual relations. 
2. There is a joining of the sexual 
organs. 
In this case it makes no difference 
whether your 
partner is your husband or wife. It 
will cause 
your Precepts to be broken. If 
either or both husband 
and wife are training themselves in 
the 
Eight Precepts it is usual for them 
to sleep apart. 
This form of training is important 
because for 
most people in the world who lack 
control over 
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