The third, fourth and fifth limbs of the eight fold wheel are concerned with Sila, which is understood as ethics, how one conducts oneself and lives one's life.

Limb 3 - Right or Perfect Speech

This limb of the path aims at effective communication, understood as speech that is truthful, affectionate, helpful, and that which promotes concord, harmony and unity. The guides to helping us to achieve this are what in Buddhism are termed the Precepts, or the ethical principles that Buddhist should apply. These are seen as the expression of an enlightened state of mind, one dominated by wisdom and compassion. The precepts are usually called the Silas, these describe the states of mind that one is trying to avoid, but for each Sila there is a positive precept or Dharma, which is the state of mind that one aspires to and which is the opposite of the Sila.

The precepts or Silas and Dharmas are usually given in either a list of five or ten, and are usually divided up into speech precepts and those that involve action.

Buddhist ethics are usually classified as being "intentional", in that a given action is judged on its motivation or intent, the state of mind that motivated it, rather than on the effect. However one has, obviously, to take into account effects as well. Buddhism is very much concerned with the workings of conditionality, the nexus of cause and effect within which we exist, and trying to ensure that positive effects are created rather than negative. To this extent, Buddhist ethics are also consequentialist! This can be confusing, but this confusion is cause by trying to fit a different tradition, that has its own concepts, to the concepts of western, Christian, religion.

Limb 4 - Right or Perfect Action

In Buddhism actions are either Kusala (Pali) (Kausalya in Sanskrit), which means Skilful, or Akusala (or unskilful) depending on the state of mind behind the action or intention. The aim is to try to develop skilful states of mind and eliminate unskilful states of mind. One has to, like the song, "eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive". Actions that are considered skilful are those that are performed with awareness and compassion. Unskilful actions are based in greed, hatred and ignorance.

To this end, Buddhists practice The Five or Ten Silas (The Precepts) to eliminate negative or unskilful actions, and the Five or Ten Dharmas (The Positive Precepts) to develop positive or skilful actions.

		The Five or Ten Silas (The Precepts)	The Five or Ten Dharmas (The Positive Precepts)
	1	Abstention from Harming Living Beings	Practice of Maitri (S), Metta (P) or loving kindness
	2	Abstention from taking the not given	Practice of Dana or giving
	3	Abstention from Sexual Misconduct	Practice of Samtusti or contentment
	4	Abstention from False Speech	Practice of Satya (S) Sacca (P) or truthfulness
	5	Abstention from drink and drugs which results in loss of awareness	Practice of Smrti (S) or Sati (P) or mindfulness or awareness

Limb 5 - Right or Perfect Livelihood

This means the living of an ethical lifestyle, and the pursuing of a moral occupation. It is no good reading books about Buddhist ethics and meditation if you do not put these principles into practice and try to live it! This means that your way of earning a living should be in harmony with your beliefs and with Buddhist ethical principles. A Buddhist, therefore, would not work in a slaughter house or butcher's (most Buddhists tend to be vegetarians), or buy manufacturing or selling alcohol (as this breaks the fifth precept), and might find difficulty working in advertising and PR as they might feel that it would pressure them to break the fourth precept.

For the Buddhist the ideal is to try to set up a "Pure Land", an ideal society, a society governed by wisdom and compassion. This would mean taking responsibility for oneself, and one's own actions, acting with compassion towards others, and being governed by a sense of responsibility for the planet and the animal world.

In the west, many Buddhists have set up Right Livelihood businesses, which implement Buddhist principles in the type of work carried out and the way in which the work is organised. Buddhists too have been in the forefront of ethical investment schemes in the UK and the USA