forty-eight minor precepts ［四十八軽戒］ ( shijūhachi-kyōkai): Precepts for Mahayana bodhisattvas enumerated in the Brahmā Net Sutra. The forty-eight minor precepts are so called because they concern relatively minor evils, in contrast with the ten major precepts expounded in the same sutra. For example, they prohibit drinking intoxicants and eating meat or pungent vegetables, such as leeks and onions, avoiding nursing the sick, keeping implements for killing living creatures, etc.