The Bodhisattva Precept is the `pratimoksa` precept beyond `Sravakayana` Precept. It is stipulated for the bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism. The `Sravakayana` Precept includes Three Refuges, Five Precepts, Eight Precepts, Ten Precepts and Full Precepts. The lay Buddhists can receive only the former three kinds of precept while the sangha up to the fifth. The Bodhisattva Precept doesn't belong to `Sravakayana` Precept. Accordingly，the laity can also receive the Bodhisattva Precept. The Bodhisattva Precept can encompass the `Sravakayana` Precept. So，the Mahayana Buddhist sangha should receive it.
The Bodhisattva Precept takes the meditation on emptiness as its focus, the purification of mind as its objective and the arousing of ultimate bodhi-citta as basis. Therefore，the Bodhisattva Precept can not only encompass all Buddha dharmas but also control complicated matters with simple principles. The Three Cumulative Pure Precepts can be said having three phases：1. The precept of regulating behaviour，2. The precept of doing goodness, and 3. The precept of saving the sentient beings. In other words, the three Cumulative Pure Precepts have three functions, i.e. not doing evil, doing goodness and benefitting the sentient beings.
Contents of the Three Cumulative Pure Precepts originated in the `Agama Sutras`. After the fermentation of several Mahayana sutras such as `Prajna Sutra`， `Mahaparinirvana Sutra` , `Avatamsaka-maha-vaipulya Sutra`， `Vimalakirti Sutra`，etc.，it was culminated in the `Yogacarya bhumi Sastra` which mentions the code of light and heavy precepts as well as the rituals of transmitting precepts and making repentance. Again through the propagation of the Strung Gems Sutra and the Brahman's Net Sutra, the Bodhisattva Precept has become very popular in China, Korea and Japan.
The requirement of the Three Cumulative Pure Precepts can be either simple or complex，either hard to receive and hard to observe or easy to receive and easy to observe. Its contents can be performed in either tight or loose way. Therefore it can adapt to the needs of time and space and thus operate freely. If it is applied to laity，it will become laity precept. If it is applied to sangha, it will become sangha precept. If it can be observed at a higher level，it will become a precepts of higher level. If cannot be observed at a higher level，it will become a precept lower level.
If we can hold the basic principles of the Three Cumulative Precepts such as the Three Refuges, the Five Precepts, the Ten Virtues, the Ten Heavy Prohibitive Precepts, etc.，we may freely apply it in the long and vast time and space with great ease.
