The Five Precepts (Pali: pañca-sīlāni; Sanskrit: pañca-śīlāni) constitute the basic Buddhist code of ethics, undertaken by lay followers (Upāsaka and Upāsikā) of the Buddha Gautama in the Theravada as well as in Mahayana traditions. The precepts in both traditions are essentially identical and are commitments to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. Undertaking the five precepts is part of both lay Buddhist initiation and regular lay Buddhist devotional practices.

They are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice.

Pali literature provides the scriptures and commentary for traditional Theravadin practice.

The following are the five precepts (pañca-sikkhāpada) or five virtues (pañca-sīla) rendered in English and Pali:

For more on the first precept, see ahimsa. In the fifth precept sura, meraya and majja are kinds of alcoholic beverages. In some modern translations, Surāmerayamajjapamādaṭṭhānā, is rendered more broadly, variously, as, intoxicants, liquor and drugs, etc.

Ajahn Amaro (born 1956) is a Theravadin teacher and abbot of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery at the eastern end of the Chiltern Hills in south east England. The centre, in practice as much for ordinary people as for monastics, is inspired by the Thai forest tradition and the teachings of the late Ajahn Chah. Its chief priorities are the practice and teaching of Buddhist ethics, together with traditional concentration and insight meditation techniques, as an effective way of dissolving stress.

Ajahn Amaro was born Jeremy Charles Julian Horner in Kent, England. He was educated at Sutton Valence School and Bedford College, University of London. Ajahn means teacher. He is a second cousin of I.B. Horner (1896-1981), late President of the Pali Text Society.

Apart from a certain interest in the theories of Rudolf Steiner—to which he had been introduced by Trevor Ravenscroft, later perhaps best known as author of the 1970s cult volume The Spear of Destiny (after which a post-punk band named itself)—Amaro's principal enthusiasms on leaving university were, by his own admission, pretty much those standard-issue among sceptical students of the day: sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.