Wisdom of today

Ethical discipline is the ladder to all virtues. It is their foundation, just as the earth is the foundation for plants and the like. Just as a master trader goes first among all traders, so ethical discipline goes first among all virtues. Like the hoisted banner of Indra, ethical discipline is the banner of all teachings. It cuts down all the sins and eliminates the path to the miserable realms. Since it cures the illnesses of the sins, it is like a medicinal plant. Ethical discipline is the stock of provisions for the terrible road of cyclic existence. It is the weapon that destroys the afflictions, the enemies. (…)

Ethical discipline – like the ground supporting the animate and the inanimate worlds – it is said to be the foundation of all good qualities.

Just as every harvest grows without fault

In dependence on the earth

So too do the highest virtues depend on ethical discipline,

And grow by being moisted with the water of compassion

The ethical discipline of some leads to pleasure;

The ethical discipline of others leads to pain.

Those who possess ethical discipline are happy,

Whereas those who break ethical discipline suffer.

Source : https://www.shambhala.com/the-great-treatise-on-the-stages-of-the-path-to-enlightenment-volume-1.html