144. Be careful about observing our precepts. Virtue is a sense of shame. What we have doubts about, we should not do or sad. This is virtue. Purity is being beyond all doubts.

145. There are two levels of practice. The first level forms the foundation, which is the development of virtue, the precepts, in order to bring happiness and harmony among people. The second level is the practice of Dhamma with the sole goal of liberating the heart. This liberation is the source of wisdom and compassion and is the true reason for the Buddha's teaching. Understanding these two levels is the basis of true practice.

146. Virtue is the basis of harmonious world in which people can live truly as humans and not as animals. Developing virtue is at the heart of our practice. Keep the precepts. Cultivate compassion and respect for all life. Be mindful in your actions and speech. Use virtue to make your life simple and pure. With virtue as a basis for everything you do, your mind will become kind, clear, and quiet. Meditation will grow easily in this environment.

147. Look after your virtue as a gardener takes care of his plant. Do not be attached to big or small. Important or unimportant. Some people want shortcuts. They say, Forget concentration, we'll go straight to insight; forget virtue, we'll start with concentration.  " We have so many excuses for our attachments.

149. Right effort and virtue are not a question of what you do outwardly but of constant inner awareness and restraint. Thus, charity, if given with good intention, can bring happiness to oneself and to others. But virtue must be the root of this charity for it to be pure.

150. The Buddha taught us to refrain from what is bad, to do good, and to purity the heart. Our practice, then, is to get rid of what is worthless and keep what is valuable. Do you still have anything bad or unskillful in your heart? Of course! SO why not clean house? But true practice is nit only getting rid of what is bad and cultivating the good. This is only part of it. In the end we must go beyond both good and bad. Finally there is a freedom that includes all and a desirelessness from which love and wisdom naturally flow.

151. We must start right here where we are, directly and simply. When the first two steps. Virtue and right view, have been completed, then the third step of uprooting defilement will naturally occur without deliberation. When light is produced, we no longer worry about getting rig of darkness, nor do we wonder where the darkness has gone. We just know that there is light.

152. Following the precepts has three levels. The first is to undertake them as training rules given to us by our teachers. The second arises when we undertake and abide in them by ourselves. But for those at the highest level, the Noble Ones. It is not necessary to think of precepts, of right and wrong. This is true virtue comes from wisdom that knows the Four Noble Truths in the heart and acts from this understanding.

153. Some monks disrobe to go to the front where bullets fly past them every day. They prefer it like that. They really want to go. Danger surrounds them on all sides and yet they're prepared to go. Why don’t they see the danger? They're prepared to die by the gun but nobody wants to die developing virtue. This is really amazing, isn't it?