Zazen and the Precepts
Continuing to read the latest collection of Shunryu Suzuki’s talks in Becoming Yourself (New York, 2025), I find an interesting discussion of the Soto Zen precepts.
There are 16 of these precepts: the “three refuges” of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; the three “pure precepts” to embrace good behavior, good deeds, and all beings; and the ten “grave prohibitions” not to kill, steal, commit adultery, lie, sell liquor, discuss the faults of others, boast about oneself, hoard material goods or spiritual knowledge, become angry, or debase Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
In his talks, Roshi does discuss each of these 16 precepts individually. However, what most intrigues me is some general remarks he makes about all of them together. He says, “… The way to observe precepts is just to practice zazen.” The reason is that during zazen, we experience “the precept of one reality, emptiness, or the absolute. All of the precepts start from this precept.”
The zazen practitioner experiences the “one reality” when he or she puts aside the thinking mind and focuses solely on breathing. This experience is wordless and incommunicable. Roshi says, “. . . The absolute cannot be understood by your mind.” (p. 108)
Given what Roshi says, it may be safe to say that a continuing zazen practitioner normally observes precepts automatically, without forethought. Zazen practice puts his or her heart in the right place.
I believe this to be true. Even though practitioners may occasionally misbehave, as I do, fundamentally they are in the right moral place.