Buddhism is not intricate

If you question yourself, how you have become a Buddhist or Christian or Muslim or Hindu, the most common answer would be "by birth". The religion for any child is a blind faith inherited from parents and influenced by environment, society and culture being brought up, further moulded by education. When the inquiring age comes up, the exploration of laid down faith would begin.
At the basic level, at least major religions in the world would emphasise people on one common aspect in life: to be good and avoid bad. But when it goes deep down there would be contradictions among religions, especially in spiritual aspects.

The Buddha's doctrine becomes even more advanced at its depth. Starting from Four Noble Truths, Noble Eight-fold Path, Five Aggregates, Five Cosmic Laws, Conditioned Genesis, Abhidhamma, etc. are the teachings of Buddha, which contains the depth of the philosophy.

These are quite complex areas to understand not only for a non-Buddhist, but also for an average Buddhist, This leads to the misconception that Buddhism is a deep and complicated doctrine meant for a particular community. There are some misinterpretations that Buddhism is a dark doctrine that keeps people away from the merriments of life too.

A Buddhist has two alternative paths: lead a family life or enter the monkhood. Enlightenment (Nibbana) is the ultimate expectation of any Buddhist. Entering the monkhood is the best option to attain Nibbana. However it doesn't imply that you cannot reach Enlightenment without being a monk.

Attaining Nibbana requires an enormous amount of efforts during Samsara. If a layman can dedicate the whole life for this purpose, there is no requirement of entering monkhood. The lay life, however, means many obstacles of attachments and desires; entering monkhood is the better option in this backdrop.
Five Precepts
Buddha has recommended both types of life: a successful lay life and the monk life both with the ultimate objective of Nibbana in mind.
One of the most fundamental teachings in Buddhism is Five Precepts - the basic "Code of Conduct" for lay Buddhists. Adhering to five precepts is not impossible. Every Buddhist is supposed to have the determination to protect five precepts. If it is breached at a particular instance, then it is a matter of re-determining. Firm determination and continuous effort would make it possible to follow the precepts to the greatest extent as a lay person.

"Five precepts" is not just about abhorring evil. Every precept has a broader meaning than the common meaning. For example the first precept discourages injuring and torturing.
In a broader explanation killing should be volitional to breach the first precept. It also should satisfy five factors to breach the first precept: (1) target is a living being, (2) the knowledge that the target is alive, (3) intentional thought of killing, (4) effort to kill, (5) death caused as a result of killer's action.
In addition, the type of the target affects the severity of killing too. Killing a man is more serious than killing an animal. Buddhism explains the benefits you get from adhering to five precepts and the consequences you get by breaching. It is the individual choice to take his or her way.
It is important to know the benefits by following five precepts. First is none other than "self satisfaction". We do everything in our life to satisfy ourselves. If you have the feeling that you have not committed any killing, stealing and so on, that itself is a great satisfaction.
A person, known as "harmless", would be highly appreciated and respected. Such reputation and good name makes you shine and life would be happier. Everybody would trust you. You would be able to have a good family life. Everybody will trust your word as you do not lie and you are always with your right mentality, without being heedless at any occasion.

As already explained "Code of Conduct" for lay people in Buddhism is simple and nothing complicated to understand and follow. It also does not thwart enjoying life, but leads to a much happier state of life.
Meanwhile a Buddhist should also consider the importance of working out on achieving the ultimate objective, while following the five precepts in everyday life; that's why the monthly observance of Sil is advised.
By taking the refuge of eight or more precepts, which is higher than the ordinary conduct, the Buddhist would get used to the way of approaching the ultimate goal of Nibbana.
Singalovada Sutta
The Buddha preached many other teachings for lay life apart from five precepts. Singalovada Sutta is one good guideline for the betterment of the family, society, community and the whole world.
The Buddha preached this sermon to a householder named Singalaka, who had been worshiping six quarters blindly on an advice by his father. In Singalovada Sutta, the Buddha enriched these six quarters for a meaningful worship.

Singalovada Sutta contains six perils: addiction to intoxicants, frequenting streets at unseemly hours, haunting the fairs, getting involved with gambling, associating evil companions and the habit of idleness.
The Sutta further explains five types of bad friends and five types of good friends found in daily life. Most importantly it gives a detailed explanation on duties towards various human relationships in the society: briefly, children and parents as eastern quarter, pupils and teachers as southern quarter, wife and husband as western quarter, clansman and friends as northern quarter, master and servant (employees) as nadir quarter, and finally clansman and monk or clergy as zenith quarter.

Singalovada Sutta's duties are very simple and practicable even in today's context. It contains best of the advice on leading a simple and successful lay life with all the happiness.
Similarly, there is a sufficient amount of teachings in Buddhism, which makes your life happy and successful. It's a matter of following them.

When you know how to lead a successful lay life, you would be qualified to select the other alternative path towards Nibbana at any stage of life. A lay person, who lives according to the way Buddha has preached, will never find it difficult to understand the so called intricacy of doctrine.