The Five Precepts and the Parable about the monk that got drunk.Good Moral Practice On the face of it, he offers five abstentions - things to avoid doing. The first of these is to abstain from harming living beings. This includes human beings, animals and insects. This is why many (but not all!) Buddhists are vegetarians as the eating of meat involves the slaughter of animals. Interestingly, the Buddha, didn't forbid the eating of meat altogether. His monks were allowed to eat meat providing it hadn't been killed for them specifically. The second precept is to abstain from taking what is not given - stealing. The third precept is to abstain from sexual misconduct, such as being unfaithful to one's partner, involvement with prostitution or pornography or entertaining lustful thoughts. The fourth precept, abstaining from false speech, includes lying, tale-bearing, and gossiping. The fifth and final precept is to abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs - of course, drugs taken for medicinal purposes are perfectly acceptable.
Breaking the Fifth Precept
One story from Mongolia warns of the dangers of breaking the fifth precept. A Buddhist lama (spiritual master) was traveling amongst the nomadic tribes. The people would give him food and lodging in exchange for his blessings. One evening he was offered lodging by a young woman who lived alone. She made it conditional that he would have to do one of three things: sacrifice a goat, sleep with his hostess or drink alcohol. He decided on the last of these options, thinking that drinking alcohol was the least harmful of the three. One drink led to another, however, and before long he was drunk. In this state, the sound of the goat started to annoy him so much that he went out and killed it, and when he woke up the next morning he found he had been to bed with the hostess!
