Qu Zan continued reading the description of Discipline-Keeping:
"[Discipline-Keeping]: Heightened perception of restraints such as precepts and vows. Punish those who violate precepts through those precepts. Punishment inflicted on precept-breakers deals multiplied damage."
"This innate ability looks quite useful. And there's plenty of room to expand it."
Esoteric Buddhist precepts included fourteen root downfalls, eight gross downfalls, two hundred and fifty precepts for monks, three hundred and forty-eight precepts for Bhikṣuṇīs... the list went on and on.
Precepts restraining behavior were only established after monks first committed the corresponding offenses.
The most important precepts were the Four Pārājika Offenses-sexual intercourse, theft, killing a human being, and major false claims. Apart from these four grave offenses, which could not be committed,
violations of the other, minor precepts could all be forgiven.
While Buddha was alive, he had even felt that many of the lesser precepts could be abolished.
The so-called lesser precepts were minor rules of little consequence.
During Buddha's lifetime, monks committed many wrongs, so he established many prohibitions.
For example, "The precept against making furnishings from black wool: using pure black wool to make furnishings for sitting or lying down is prohibited." "The precept against making bedding without mixed colors: the exact proportions of wool used in making furnishings are explicitly stipulated."
In different regions, these precepts seemed somewhat strange and ill-suited to the circumstances.
When Qu Zan read this part of the precepts, he had been deeply puzzled about why pure black wool was so taboo.
Later, annotations to other scriptures informed him that pure black wool had been an exceptionally rare and expensive luxury at the time.
To obtain this pure black wool, with its fine, soft texture and wonderful feel, monks traveled everywhere begging for it. Not only did they waste great amounts of precious