Friday, June 30, 2017

Precept 5

Do not sell liquor. This is very important precept [Laughter]. Do not sell means to boast or to take some advantage of liquor which is medicine. If you take it in the right way it will benefit. Our nature is very weak to the temptation. We should, you know, count this point when we take liquor. So the meaning is very deep. If you boast about the profundity of Buddhist teaching you are selling a kind of liquor to people. If you say this religion is wonderful you are selling some liquor. So, not only, intoxicating liquor, but also all the teaching-- spiritual teaching or material by which we will be intoxicated is liquor. So, if you take these precepts literally, you know, it is a kind of selling liquor.   ------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from Shunryu Suzuki lecture 67-06-12 as found on shunryusuzuki.com. Edited by DC - Many Shunryu Suzuki lecture excerpts on cuke.com - from there links to much more. Going slowly through Suzuki transcripts featuring whatever is next that seems okay, not just the super cool ones,