This is the third talk in a speaker series titled Ethics, Action, and the Five Precepts. How does the training precept of refraining from stealing differ from the Biblical Commandment of “thou shall not steal?” The precept of not to steal is based on the Buddha’s teaching of ending suffering. Instead of a black and white rule, this precept is meant to protect our mind from impulses to take what is not freely given. At the deepest level, this precept is designed to end tanha, our thirst, our grasping, our greed. It is a raft that carries us to liberation, rather than a rule to be clung to.