"There are three integral factors in Buddhist meditation—morality, concentration, and wisdom.  These three factors grow together as your practice deepens.  Each one influences the other, so you cultivate the three of them at once, not separately.  When you have the wisdom to truly understand a situation, compassion toward all parties involved is automatic, and compassion means that you automatically restrain yourself from any thought, word, or deed that might harm yourself or others; thus, your behavior is automatically moral.  It is only when you don’t understand things deeply that you create problems."

-- Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English