Forest of Merit and Virtue Bodhisattva expounds upon the Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries.

1.  The Treasury of Belief
2.  The Treasury of Precepts
3.  The Treasury of Shame
4.  The Treasury of Remorse
5.  The Treasury of Learning
6.  The Treasury of Giving
7.  The Treasury of Wisdom
8.  The Treasury of Mindfulness
9.  The Treasury of Upholding
10. The Treasury of Eloquence.

Annotation
The second is the Treasury of Precepts.
In Buddhism, there are:

1. The Five Precepts
2. The Eight Vegetarian / Seclusion Precepts
3. The Six Major and Twenty-eight minor lay Bodhisattva precepts.
4. The Ten Shramanera / Shramanerika Precepts
5. The Two hundred and fifty Bhikshu Precepts
6. The Three hundred and forty-eight Bhikshuni Precepts
7. The Ten Major and Forty-eight minor Bodhisattva Precepts.

For practitioners of the Way, receiving and maintaining the moral precepts is especially important and most vital. When the Buddha was in the world, his disciples regarded the World Honored One as their Master. Before the Buddha entered Nirvana, he instructed his disciples saying,
‘After my Nirvana, you should take the Precepts (Pratimoksa) as your Teacher.’

From beginningless time until now, we have been revolving in the wheel of birth and death, creating limitless evil karma and offenses because we did not know, did not understand, and did not observe the rules (precepts) of being a good person/Buddhist. When we purchase a piece of equipment, there is usually a booklet in the package that explains how we should use and care for the equipment. But, when we are born, we are not born with a book on the rules of being a human being. However, the Buddha had through an inconceivable period of time, discovered and perfected the difficult art of being a great human being. During that immeasurable period of cultivation, he went through the stages of being a man, a gentleman, a Sage, and finally a Buddha. Hence, in Buddhism, there is the Vinaya Store which consist of the moral precepts. By observing and sternly upholding the precepts, one can counteract one’s faults, protect and nourish one’s wisdom life, nurture one’s compassion, purify one’s Bodhi resolve, obtain liberation, benefit all living beings and eventually realize perfect, complete, proper and ultimate enlightenment.

It is said,
‘Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is.’
Observing the moral code allows one to activate and develop one’s inherent potential. As one embarks on a spiritual journey, there are signs along the way to indicate what one should and should not do in order to head in the right direction. The moral precepts are like road signs that one has to follow in order to arrive safely at one’s final destination. If one can very mindfully, patiently, and honestly pay very close attention to these road signs, one will not be side-tracked, fall into a trap, be led astray, or get lost.

Why are there so many precepts? The Buddha has explained before that when a person is seriously ill, he needs a combination of medicines to cure his illness. He needs so many kinds of medicine because his sickness is so serious. Similarly, we are full of evils and therefore need various precepts to counteract them.
 
The Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua explains how one should uphold precepts:
“One shouldn’t think of oneself as a ‘keeper of precepts.’ Even if one keeps them very well, one shouldn’t get arrogant about it and think, ‘I am a Vinaya Master.’ That’s just another attachment to the mark of self. The precepts are for the purpose of getting rid of the ‘self’. Not being dependent on the precepts means that one keeps them without an attachment to keeping them. One keeps the precepts, but not in an obvious way. That is true holding of the precept.”
Maintaining the precepts is very wonderful. However, one should not feel superior towards those who have not received the precepts. One should not use anger or affliction to uphold the precepts. One maintains precepts in order to rectify one’s faults and to make others happy. One uses kindness to observe the precepts and avoids afflicting living beings.
A great deal of what is found in the Sutras also pertains to the moral precepts. All the elaborate explanation of the conduct and vows of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are related to the precepts. One of the most basic precept is the prohibition of sexual misconduct because lust is the root cause of birth and death. In the Shurangama Sutra, the Buddha stated so clearly that the severing of lust is the very first unalterable instruction on purity.

In the Shurangama Sutra, it is also explained very explicitly that if one’s emotions are heavy, then after death one will fall and be born in a lower realm. But, if one’s emotions are light, then one can ascend and be born in a higher realm after death. People who are married can be born in the various heavens after their death if their desires are light or little. But, when one is born in the heavens, one is still in a very precarious position, because the heavenly beings can still fall. Hence, Buddhists do not aim for the heavens. Instead they vow to be born in Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Those who are born in the Pure Land are all irreversible in position, conduct and thought.

Therefore a verse says,
The Six Desire Heavens have the five marks of decay.
The Third Dhyana has the disaster of wind.
Even if you make it to the Heaven of Neither Thought Nor No Thought,
It is not as good as going to the
Pure Land and coming back again.

 The five basic moral precepts are,

1. No killing
2. No stealing
3. No sexual misconduct
4. No lying
5. No taking of intoxicants.