The Sixfold Laws and Eightfold Laws

After saying this, the practitioner must again humbly pay homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas, and reflect on the comprehensive principle over the course of one to three-times-seven days. Whether renunciant or layperson, the practitioner will not need a mentor, will not need stewards, and will not need to take vows in a ceremony because of the power of accepting, keeping faith with, reciting, and internalizing the Great Vehicle sutras, and because of Universal Sage Bodhisattva’s encouragement to engage in this practice. This is the core of the true Way of the buddhas in the ten directions. By means and reason of this Way, the practitioner will naturally attain the five attributes of an enlightened one: perfection in behavioral principles, perfection in concentration, perfection in wisdom, perfection in emancipation, and perfection in the perspective that pertains to emancipation. Buddha tathāgatas become so by following this Way; the promise of their buddhahood is obtained in the Great Vehicle sutras.

The sixfold laws are the following six Buddhist precepts: not to take life, not to steal, to refrain from wrong sexual activity, not to lie, not to drink intoxicants, and not to speak of other people’s faults. The eightfold laws are the preceding six precepts plus two others: not to conceal one’s faults and not to emphasize other people’s shortcomings rather than their good points. Jñapti-karman is a compound word having two meanings; Jñapti signifies announcement or declaration, while karman means the proceedings at a meeting of a Buddhist assembly. This is part of the Buddhist ordination ceremony, in which the candidate confesses his past sins and vows to follow the Buddha’s teachings.

Buddhism for Today, p457