The Five Moral Precepts

THUS have I heard.
On a certain occasion the Exalted One was staying near Sāvatthī.
Then the Exalted One addressed the brethren, saying:
"Brethren."
"Yes, lord," replied those brethren to the Exalted One.
The Exalted One said:
"Through an element it is, brethren,
that beings flow together,
meet together.
Unbelievers flow together, meet together with unbelievers,
they who take life with they who take life,
they who take what is not given with they who take what is not given,
they who wrongly act in desires of sense with they who wrongly act in desires of sense,
the liars with the liars
those given to strong drink with those given to strong drink.
In the past, brethren, through an element it was,
that beings flowed together,
met together.
Unbelievers flowed together, met together with unbelievers,
those who took life with those who took life,
those who took what is not given with those who took what is not given,
those who wrongly acted in desires of sense with those who wrongly acted in desires of sense,
the liars with the liars
those given to strong drink with those given to strong drink.
In the future, brethren, through an element it will be,
that beings flow together,
meet together.
Unbelievers will flow together, meet together with unbelievers,
they who take life with they who take life,
they who take what is not given with they who take what is not given,
they who wrongly act in desires of sense with they who wrongly act in desires of sense,
the liars with the liars
those given to strong drink with those given to strong drink.
In the present, brethren, through an element it is,
that beings flow together,
meet together.
Unbelievers flow together, meet together with unbelievers,
they who take life with they who take life,
they who take what is not given with they who take what is not given,
they who wrongly act in desires of sense with they who wrongly act in desires of sense,
the liars with the liars
those given to strong drink with those given to strong drink.


"Through an element it is, brethren,
that beings flow together,
meet together.
Believers flow together, meet together with believers,
they who abstain from taking life with they who abstain from taking taking life,
they who abstain from taking what is not given with they who abstain from taking what is not given,
they who abstain from wrongly acting in desires of sense with they who abstain from wrongly acting in desires of sense,
they who are not liars with they who are not liars
those who abstain from strong drink with those who abstain from strong drink.
In the past, brethren, through an element it was,
that beings flowed together,
met together.
Believers flowed together, met together with believers,
they who abstained from taking life with they who abstained from taking taking life,
they who abstained from taking what is not given with they who abstained from taking what is not given,
they who abstained from wrongly acting in desires of sense with they who abstained from wrongly acting in desires of sense,
they who were not liars with they who were not liars
those who abstained from strong drink with those who abstained from strong drink.
In the future, brethren, through an element it will be,
that beings flow together,
meet together.
Believers will flow together, meet together with believers,
they who abstain from taking life with they who abstain from taking taking life,
they who abstain from taking what is not given with they who abstain from taking what is not given,
they who abstain from wrongly acting in desires of sense with they who abstain from wrongly acting in desires of sense,
they who are not liars with they who are not liars
those who abstain from strong drink with those who abstain from strong drink.
In the present, brethren, through an element it is,
that beings flow together,
meet together.
Believers flow together, meet together with believers,
they who abstain from taking life with they who abstain from taking taking life,
they who abstain from taking what is not given with they who abstain from taking what is not given,
they who abstain from wrongly acting in desires of sense with they who abstain from wrongly acting in desires of sense,
they who are not liars with they who are not liars
those who abstain from strong drink with those who abstain from strong drink.