The Buddhist Precepts are not a checklist. They are not a list of rules handed down from above, a set of moral demands to be followed or failed. Diane Eshin Rizzetto, in her essential guide Waking Up to What You Do, describes them as something closer to a beacon light — like a lighthouse warning sailors they are entering dangerous waters, pointing toward course, asking us to pay attention to the ebb and flow of our own thinking, feeling, and acting. A firm but compassionate hand on the shoulder. A sign above a door that reads: Enter here.

The precepts have been part of Buddhist practice for over two thousand years. What they ask is deceptively simple: look honestly at how you live. Not the version of yourself you intend to be. The actual one. They cover the territory most of us would rather not examine too closely — the ways we speak about others, the ways we take what isn't freely given, the ways anger moves through us before we've even noticed it has arrived. Rizzetto writes that the precepts reveal "the ways in which we fall into vicious cycles of thinking and acting, causing suffering to ourselves and others" — and that they are never meant as an indictment of moral defect, but as a way of seeing the root of suffering clearly enough to do something about it.

That's what this year of study has been. Not a test. Not a performance. A genuine looking.

For the past year, a group of students has been doing exactly that — sitting with these teachings, turning them over, letting them ask hard questions about how they actually live. This ceremony honors that work and invites the rest of the community to witness what sincere practice looks like when it has been lived, not just studied. Come and be part of it.

For Precepts students:
Participation in the ceremony is not based on a particular attendance requirement. We invite you to reflect on how fully and wholeheartedly you've integrated these teachings into your daily life. Only you can know the depth of your commitment, and we leave the decision to participate to you. Please let us know whether you'll join us onsite or online by completing this form.