Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t have illicit sex, don’t lie, don’t take intoxicants, period. The times when you need clear-cut rules the most are when you’re most tempted to break them.

"There are some people who complain that the precepts are absolute, hard-and-fast rules. People don’t like hard-and-fast rules, but actually the precepts clear-cut, and for a good reason. Clear-cut rules are easier to remember: Don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t have illicit sex, don’t lie, don’t take intoxicants, period. Although some people would prefer a little wriggle room in the rules, they’re being shortsighted and heedless. The times when you need clear-cut rules the most are when you’re most tempted to break them. It’s a lot easier to remember clear-cut promises that you make to yourself.

Remember, right after 9-11? So many Buddhist teachers were saying, “Well, this business about not killing, we can throw that away for the time being. And this business about hostility not being cured by hostility, forget about that.” People were throwing away the basic principles that they actually needed most at that point. The Buddha’s not teaching us these principles just for times when they’re convenient. He’s teaching them for times when they’re hard. When you’re hungry, when someone really does threaten you, when you’re really tempted to have illicit sex, tempted to lie, you can come-up with all kinds of excuses for why you can get away with killing, stealing, and lying. The same when you’re really tempted to say, “I just want to forget about everything for a while and take some intoxicants.” Those are the times when you need to remember those clear-cut principles because that’s what your survival requires: that you not give in to these desires, because they compromise the survival of your goodness and they compromise the survival of your chances to find the deathless."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Survival Dhamma"

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