Morality is the 2nd Mental Perfection:

Avoiding all Harm! Doing only Good... Purifying the Mind:
This is the True Dhamma
of all the Buddhas!
Dhammapada 183
Morality is the foundation, the initiator
and the origin of all,
that is fine, good and very beautiful...
One must
therefore purify true morality!
Theragatha 612
All
success is rooted
in a clean morality, cultivated to purity!
Theragatha 608
Audio: Moral Purity is Prime
Podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/bhikkhu-samahita/essential-is-virtue-sila

Morality
is a mighty Power! Morality is a forceful Weapon!
Morality is a supreme Jewel!
Morality is a marvelous Protection!
Theragatha 614
Harmlessness towards all living beings, speaking only kind and wise truths,
Taking nothing not freely given,
enjoying only one's own partner,
Never abusing drinks or drugs. Having given up
and left all evil behind,
these five harmful actions, such Good
Ones truly possess right morality...
AN III 205-6
Ananda once asked the Buddha:
"What, Venerable Sir, is the rewarding advantage of morality?"
"Freedom from regret, Ananda!"
"And what is the advantage of freedom from regret?"
"Joy that produces bliss, Ananda.
Bliss then generates happiness.
Happiness enables concentration.
Concentration facilitates vision and knowledge.
Vision and knowledge bring disillusion
and detachment
Disillusion and detachment induce direct experience of
assured
and complete mental release, Ananda..."
AN X.1

Intention always comes first! Intention is of all states the primer.
By intention are all things initiated.
By construction of mind are all phenomena formed.
So - if with good intention one thinks, speaks or acts:
Joy
and pleasure surely follow one, like a never-leaving shadow
However - if with evil intention one thinks, speaks or acts:
Pain certainly follows one, like the wheel follows the car.
Dhammapada 1+2
Both the moral and immoral doings; both the good and the bad behaviour;
That human beings do here: These are truly only their own possessions...!
These, they take along with them, when they die, go
and re-arise,
These actions, good, neutral and bad are what follow them,
like shadows,
that never ever leave...
So do only what is admirable and advantageous,
as an accumulating investment for the future life!
Good prior doings are the only support
and help for all beings,
when they re-arise in the world of the next state
of being...
SN III 4
Here and now the good-doer rejoices... Even so
after passing away and re-emerging,
the doer of
good, reaps only joy, pleasure and satisfaction ...
So both here and there, the wise with merit well
done and stored,
enjoys the moral purity of prior actions.
Dhammapada 15

Here and now the bad-doer suffers... Even so
after
passing away and re-emerging, the doer of
wrong and evil,
reaps only pain, discontent, despair, and regret ...
So both here and there, the fool with wrong views
and bad behavior, suffers agony as the inevitable
effect of prior evil
behaviour.
Dhammapada 16
As the yak-ox watches her tail even onto death,
without breaking through, when caught in thorns,
guard your doings as your own life, by avoiding all
overstepping of this fine line, between right and wrong.
The Basket of
Behaviour, Cariyapitaka
The Bodhisatta once was the Naga serpent King Sankhapala
who guarded his precepts of moral habit, even when tortured:
Though pierced with sharp bamboo stakes and hacked with
hunting knives,
he raged no anger against these hunters, as this
was his final perfection of Morality!
Sankhapala Jātaka
no. 524
The 5
precious precepts (pañca-sila):
I accept the training rule of avoiding all killing of breathing beings.
I accept the training rule of not taking anything, that is not given.
I accept the training rule of abstaining from any sexual misconduct.
I accept the training rule of desisting from all incorrect speech.
I accept the training rule of
no drinks or drugs causing carelessness.

True Buddhists undertake these
precious 5 precepts right here:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/sangha/Sangha_Entry.htm
These are timeless laws of only pure good,
which all the mighty seers of the past
have fully followed
and made their Way!
This Virtue of
Morality is like
a
Rock:
A solid
foundation for all
good states!
Immorality creates regret, and thus destroys
all joy...
Purity creates calm, and thus the subtle concentration,
which is necessary for gaining all higher understanding!
Only higher
Understanding can ever set one completely
Free...
Audio: Moral Purity is Prime
Podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/bhikkhu-samahita/essential-is-virtue-sila
More on this basic first cause
of all Good: Morality (Sīla):
Mighty is Morality,
Prime Benefits,
Observance,
Happy_Habbit,
Sila_1_to_5,
What_is_Virtue,
Best_Protection,
The_Five_Basics,
Best_Buddhist_Praxis,
Sila_Contemplation,
Optimal_Observance_I,
Optimal_Observance_II,
Optimal_Observance_IV,
Truth_Triumphs,
Optimal_Observance_V,
Blurred_and_Blinded,
Never_Kill,
Back_to_Basics,
Few_are_Fine,
Immaculate_Virtue,
Reviewing_Virtue,
Buddhist_Life_Standards_Law_1,
Buddhist_Life_Standards_Law_2,
Buddhist_Life_Standards_Law_3,
Buddhist_Life_Standards_Law_4,
Not_Stealing,
Not_Killing,
The_Good_Disciple
More of these 10 mental perfections (paramis):
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Ten_Perfections.htm