The essence of the precepts itself possesses the meritorious function of preventing wrongdoing and stopping evil.

In upholding the precepts, for a practitioner, it is already quite good if the body and speech do not commit karmic actions; the mental karma is very hard to guard. If the mind always abides on right mindfulness, then wrong thoughts have no opportunity to arise—this is keeping the precepts. What is right mindfulness? Recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), recollection of the Dharma, recollection of the noble Saṅgha, and mindfulness that all conditioned things are impermanent, all dharmas are without self, and nirvāṇa is tranquility. The more deeply one understands the method of cultivating the mind, the more mental karma will decrease; as meditative concentration (samādhi) strengthens, mental karma will also decrease; understanding the principle of cause and effect, the mind's vigilance becomes high.

In keeping the precepts, the first thing is to clearly understand the principles, not to forcibly control one's own behavior. Once the principles are understood, the manas is influenced by them, and mental karma naturally does not manifest. Among all practices, understanding the principles is the most important, because right view can guide one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions; secondly, deep meditative concentration can subdue afflictions; finally, understanding cause and effect—knowing that the arising cause of this matter can summon the fruit of that matter—understanding that at the very moment all bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions are performed, one's own tathāgatagarbha records them all, and the karmic retribution must come to fruition, the mind's vigilance is heightened. All of this involves a process. After receiving the precepts and obtaining the essence of the precepts, the essence of the precepts itself has the meritorious function of preventing wrongdoings and stopping evil. The bodhisattva precept essence is even more so. The bodhisattva precepts are precepts of the mind; to keep them completely without violation, one must cultivate to a certain bodhisattva stage. Before that, violations are inevitably unavoidable, differing only in degree. Receiving the bodhisattva precepts has extremely many benefits: one's own vigilance is greatly increased, and with the protection of Dharma-protecting good deities, progress on the Path is very rapid.