By Sid Kemp

The precepts are a powerful solution to the world's suffering. They are good medicine.

For me, it is incredibly painful to realize that the solution to the world's grief and my own is so simple that it can be written into a set of guidelines. Suffering is complex, yet the extinction of suffering is so simple. So painfully simple.

Painful, in part, because I confront myself each time with the knowledge that I have created my own suffering and made things difficult for people around me. More painful because I know that freedom from suffering must come from each person's own commitment and effort Peace cannot be imposed from the outside.

Recitation of the precepts helps us remember how simple it can be to be happy, if we recognize that we are in control, that we make the choices in our lives.

Sid Kemp is a writer in New York City.