The placing of the moralities as the first section of the Buddha's teaching is not incidental, but essential if the student is to proceed with the mind-culture that is the core of Buddhism. The Buddhist scriptures give frequent warnings regarding the extreme danger of attempting to experience states of mental concentration without thorough grounding in the practice of the moralities. Any teachings that are issued or that have become extant--and many have done so in recent years--that do not insist on practice of the moralities before embarking on exercises in mental concentration are fraught with disaster and are to be utterly condemned. At the same time, if the moralities are to be kept to increasing degrees, then cultivation of samadhi and panna* are essential; the dictum of Sonadanda, endorsed by the Buddha, to the effect that morality is washed round with wisdom and wisdom with morality, that these two together constitute the heights of the world, is incontrovertible. What cannot be maintained is that either morality or wisdom should exist independently of the other.
---Buddhist Ethics - by Hammalawa Saddhatissa---
*Meditation and Wisdom
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