Not taking what is not given. Yes, it can be the refined quite a bit to not just stealing but understanding that all things are not mine. And developing the quality of Generosity in our life will help us to understand that things are not mine. I'd like to tell you a little story about a three year old child. This child had parents who meditated and they taught their son that he had no true ownership of things and not to take what was not given. One day, the parents had to go off for the night and left their son with friends to baby-sit. They lived in a farmhouse with nice gardens and everything.
When they came back the next day, one of the friends said to them, "Your son is not normal." The parents said, "What do you mean, our son is not normal?" The friend said, "Well, I was walking in the garden with him. I went to pick one of the flowers and he said, "Oh please don't pick the flowers because they are food for the bees and the birds. You can enjoy the flower without having to claim it." A Dhamma talk from a three year old.
If we understand the non-ownership of things, that nothing is mine, then it is much easier to take this precept very deep. To understand that nothing is mine at the deepest level, and how we can apply it to our everyday life, learning how to reflect on the non-ownership of things, that nothing is mine. If we have this attitude of non-ownership of things, nothing is mine, we still take care of things. We also understand how everything arises, and the suffering involved in the cycle of creating things. Renunciation can come about in this way as well. Because things need to be created, other beings are dying, so we take care of our things that we have, understanding that beings died and that somebody else probably worked very hard to obtain their things.
In this way, we take care of other people's things also. Other beings died for this and it belongs at this time to someone else. So we have a sense of taking care not only of our own things but of others' things, understanding that to create these material things, other beings died. This also helps us to understand the interrelationship of life.