1. Three Refuges

Taking refuge means entrusting oneself to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. In the presence of a monastic teacher, one may take the Three Refuges to become a disciple of the Triple Gem and to receive a Dharma name for one’s spiritual practice. Thirty-six benevolent deities are said to guard and protect the practitioner day and night from that moment onward.

The Five Precepts consists of:

1. Abstain from killing,
2. Abstain from stealing,
3. Abstain from sexual misconduct,
4. Abstain from lying, and
5. Abstain from taking intoxicants.

In the presence of a monastic teacher, one may take the Five Precepts, planting seeds of virtue that prevent wrongdoing. Observing them makes one a lay upāsaka or upāsikā of the Five Precepts, with the addition of twenty-five deities of the Precepts, there are a total of sixty-one benevolent deities said to constantly guard the practitioner, day and night.

Note: For the Five Precepts, participants may choose to take only one or several of the precepts if desired.

The Eight Precepts consists of:

1. Abstain from killing,
2. Abstain from stealing,
3. Abstain from sexual activity,
4. Abstain from false speech,
5. Abstain from intoxicants,
6. Abstain from wearing garlands or applying perfumes and oils on the body,
7. Abstain from singing, dancing, attending entertainments, or listening to them,
8. Abstain from sitting or lying on high and luxurious beds, and Abstain from eating after solar noon.

 The Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra (“The Treatise that Accomplishes Reality”) states:

The Buddha said: “On the days of the Six Fasting Days for Lay Practitioners, if one upholds the Eight Precepts, such a person will gain blessings and merits, and will thereby be equal to those of me and my disciples.”

These precepts were especially established for lay practitioners as a temporary form of monastic discipline, guiding them toward the path of renunciation and planting the wholesome roots of liberation.

Before solar noon, one respectfully requests to receive the precepts from a Buddhist master (preceptor) and follows the community in morning and evening practice, and thereby cuts off unwholesome deeds while cultivates wholesome actions;

Throughout the day, one practices the Six Recollections–recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, generosity, morality, and the heavenly beings (devas), thereby experiencing the purity of monastic discipline while remaining a lay devotee. One must stay overnight at the monastery until the break of dawn, and the precepts are naturally released;

When one respectfully requests to receive the Eight Precepts from a preceptor, the precepts may be observed for a single day and night, for multiple days and nights, or even throughout one’s lifetime. One should strictly uphold the precepts and maintain proper conduct. This practice accumulates merit and constitutes the most direct and accessible method for a practitioner to attain rebirth in the Middle Level of the Middle Grade (中品中生) in the Western Pure Land.