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The expression “rules of training” is being used in this connection simply as the working equivalent of the Sanskrit siksapadas (Pali sikkhapada), otherwise rendered as “moral commandments” or even as “set of precepts”. In speaking of the Ten Precepts as Rules of Training we are, therefore, really speaking of the Ten Precepts as siksapadas, and for this reason it is necessary for us to enquire into the meaning of the term. Pada means “step, footstep”, and thus, in its applied meaning, “case, lot, principle, part, constituent, characteristic, ingredient, item, thing, element”. In the present context it is best rendered as “item”, so that if siksa is “training” siksapada is “item of training”. Siksa is an interesting word, and one that forms part of a number of compounds. It derives from the desiderative of a verbal root meaning “to be able”, and therefore means “learning, study, art, skill in”, as well as “teaching, training”. Thus it is approximately equivalent to the English word “education”, though since this derives from a Latin root meaning “to draw out”, whereas siksa drives from a Sanskrit root meaning “to be able”, there must be subtle differences in connotation between the two terms which educationists and siksavadins alike might find it useful to study. In speaking of the Ten Precepts as siksapadas we are, therefore, speaking of them as something to be learned, which means that we are speaking of them as capable of being learned. Indeed, in speaking of the Precepts as siksapadas, and therefore as capable of being learned (and one speaks of them in this way when “taking” them from a teacher), one is at the same time speaking of oneself as one who is capable of learning them, i.e. capable of observing, or putting into practice, those ethical principles which, as we have already seen, are what the Ten Precepts primarily represent.
This emphasis on capability, learning, and training is, of course, very much in accordance with the spirit of Buddhism. Indeed, a well known canonical formula declares the Buddha to be purisadama-sarathi, “the Charioteer for the training of persons”, and in more than one passage of the Tripitaka the Buddha Himself describes the course of the spiritual life in terms of the gradual taming and training of a mettlesome young horse. (cf. the Zen “Ox-herding Pictures”.)
Now learning implies its correlate, which is teaching; that one person learns implies that another teaches. In other words, just as education implies the existence of an educator, as well as the existence of one who is being educated, so a trainee implies the existence of a trainer, and the precepts the existence of a preceptor. The fact that the Ten Precepts, i.e. the ten great ethical principles, are siksapadas, therefore means that the Ten Precepts are not only something to be learned (and, therefore, something one considers oneself capable of learning) but also something to be learned personally from a teacher. It is for this reason that the Ten Precepts are “taken”, at the time of “ordination”, from a teacher or preceptor, and the fact that in this context the Ten Precepts are termed siksapadas or things one is able and willing to learn, means that they are taken not simply as ethical principles – ethical principles which henceforth will govern one’s entire life – but also as principles which have to be learned, i.e. learned from a teacher.
Learning the Ten Precepts or ten great ethical principles in this way involves a number of things. It involves learning – in the sense of genuinely imbibing – the spirit as distinct from the letter of the Ten Precepts, learning how to apply the Ten Precepts to the affairs of everyday life, and learning how to confess breaches of the Ten Precepts and how to make any such breaches good. It also involves learning how to make and keep vows, in the sense of solemn promises to do something (e.g. to perform the Sevenfold Puja every day) or not to do something (e.g. not engage in sexual activity) for a certain specified period. Obviously there is a great deal that could be said on all these things, but time is short, there is still a good deal of ground to be covered, and we must pass on to the next topic.