Dharmakṣema · 5th Century · 優婆塞戒經

The Precepts of the Householder Who Never Left Home.

The Upāsakaśīla Sūtra — the Sutra on Upasaka Precepts — is the classical source of the lay bodhisattva's six major and twenty-eight minor precepts: a complete, seven-fascicle path from arousing the mind of awakening through the six perfections, addressed specifically to those who stay home, marry, work, and raise families while walking the bodhisattva path. This page is the entrance for reading it chapter by chapter.

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How to read this collection

Each chapter is treated as a study unit, with the classical Chinese and our own fresh English translation set side by side, followed by reading notes drawn from the commentary tradition.

Our interpretive choices follow Grand Master Taixu's Lecture Notes on the Sutra on Upasaka Precepts (優婆塞戒經講錄), a chapter-by-chapter commentary delivered in the early twentieth century. Taixu was one of the most influential reformers of modern Chinese Buddhism, and this sutra — addressed specifically to lay practitioners — was a natural fit for his lifelong argument that Buddhism belongs as much to the householder's world as to the monastery's.

What each essay will include

Chinese source text beside a fresh English translation.
Reading notes drawn from Grand Master Taixu's commentary.
Consistent renderings of technical precept terms.
The sutra's recurring closing argument: that the householder's path is, in real ways, the harder one.

6 major precepts, 28 minor precepts

28 chapters across the sutra's original 7 fascicles

Read by Chapter

Use this as the table of contents for the sutra. The text opens with the layman Shansheng's question about arousing the mind of awakening, works through the qualities and vows of a true bodhisattva, the ordination ceremony itself, and the six perfections in turn — each chapter closing on the same recurring note: that the lay bodhisattva's path is the harder one to walk.

Translation complete

Chapters 1–28

The whole sutra, start to finish — bodhicitta, compassion, the bodhisattva's vows, the ordination ceremony, the six major and twenty-eight minor precepts, and the six perfections that close the text.

Seven fascicles, twenty-eight chapters

A Householder's Complete Path

Unlike texts written primarily for monastics, this sutra is addressed to those who stay home — its precepts, and its commentary, return again and again to what practice actually looks like inside a marriage, a livelihood, a family.

Companion project

The Brahma Net Sutra

Ru-Yi's translation of the Brahma Net Sutra's ten major and forty-eight minor bodhisattva precepts makes a natural companion study to this sutra's six and twenty-eight — one addressed to all bodhisattvas, this one written specifically for those who stay home.

Chapter 1 Not Born a Bodhisattva, But Becoming One The assembly convenes at Śrāvastī, Shansheng's question about bowing to the six directions, and a debate over what actually makes someone a bodhisattva. Chapter 2 Every Reason to Wake Up A graded answer to one question — why, and how, a being actually arouses the mind set on awakening, from wanting a longer life up to the wisdom that needs nothing in return. Chapter 3 Compassion, the Root of the Awakening-Mind Why great compassion is the seed from which bodhicitta itself grows — thirty-six observations that give rise to compassion, in full. Chapter 4 The Beggar's Handful, and What It Actually Buys Why sincerity of mind, not the size of one's giving, decides who actually attains liberation — the ten causes of the bodhi-mind, and three grades of bodhicitta. Chapter 5 Three Roads to Awakening, and the Name Reserved for Only One Shansheng's hard question — if śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas also awaken, why is "Buddha" withheld from them? — answered with the Buddha's complete virtues. Chapter 6 The Marks a Buddha Wears, and the Deeds Behind Them A mark-by-mark account of the karma behind all thirty-two major marks — from the three-kalpa path down to a single golden-hued body. Chapter 7 The Vow That Makes the Bodhisattva The single sweeping vow that names a bodhisattva "wise," and fourteen sets of three qualities that make one rich in the Dharma. Chapter 8 Bodhisattva in Name, or Bodhisattva in Fact? The difference between a bodhisattva in name only and one of true substance — less a doctrine than a diagnostic. Chapter 9 How a Bodhisattva Proves He Means It What separates a bodhisattva in name from one true in meaning — answered through the Buddha's own past-life sacrifices. Chapter 10 Self-Benefit and Benefiting Others: Two Names for One Act The sutra's longest chapter so far — what bodhi actually is, and why benefiting oneself and benefiting others turn out to be a single act, not two. Chapter 11 Eight Rewards, and Who They're Actually For Eight seemingly worldly rewards a bodhisattva cultivates, the karmic causes and threefold purity behind each one. Chapter 12 Two Adornments, One Bodhisattva Why a bodhisattva needs both merit and wisdom to adorn self and others, and how a single act of giving already contains all six perfections. Chapter 13 How a Bodhisattva Earns the Right to Teach How a bodhisattva should keep disciples once the two adornments are complete — the four means of gathering beings in. Chapter 14 The Hardest Vow: Becoming a Bodhisattva Without Leaving Home The chapter Grand Master Taixu calls the pivot of the entire sutra — the actual ordination ceremony, and all six major and twenty-eight minor precepts in full. Chapter 15 The Discipline Behind the Discipline What actually keeps an already-received precept pure — a cascading list of over sixty further virtues. Chapter 16 Curing Evil by Remembering the Buddha How a lay bodhisattva frees himself from evil that still clings after taking the precepts — through sustained mindfulness of the Buddha's seven surpassing qualities. Chapter 17 One Flower Is Enough, If the Heart Is Whole How a lay bodhisattva honors the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha — and why a single wholehearted offering outweighs an empty lavish one. Chapter 18 The Marks That Prove the Six Perfections Are Real What actually distinguishes someone who honors the six directions from one who merely performs the six perfections in name — concrete, checkable marks. Chapter 19 Nothing Too Small to Give The longest chapter in the entire sutra — an exhaustive teaching on giving, spanning donor psychology, the mechanics of karma, and who is worth giving to. Chapter 20 Refuge, and Everything It Rules Out Why the threefold refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha cannot be collapsed into one act of faith, and what silently cancels it. Chapter 21 One Day and Night, Beyond All Treasure The one-day eight-precepts fast, valued above four kingdoms' treasure and a century of life under Maitreya. Chapter 22 What Actually Makes a Precept Yours The five lay precepts in full — worldly precepts against precepts of ultimate truth, and the specific logic behind each one. Chapter 23 The Ground Beneath a Firm Resolve The perfection of moral discipline — the four marks of a truly firm resolve, and precept as the bodhisattva's root ground. Chapter 24 How Mind Paints a World The sutra's longest sustained teaching on karma, spanning two full fascicles — a systematic anatomy of every unwholesome and wholesome act. Chapter 25 Nothing but the Sound of Wind The perfection of patience — dissolving insult itself down to "nothing but the sound of wind," and the five causes of forbearance. Chapter 26 The Diligence Behind Every Perfection Why diligence is the true cause of all six perfections, and what separates right effort from its many counterfeits. Chapter 27 The Fire That Does Not Stop The perfection of meditative concentration, folding the four immeasurables directly into the definition of dhyāna itself. Chapter 28 The Perfection That Was There All Along The final chapter — the perfection of wisdom, revealed as never separate from the other five — and the sutra's own closing scene.