Buddhists are bound to hear this Chinese saying, "Wine and meat don't matter if you have Buddha in your heart!"
It is easy to say this sentence, but how many people can really put it into practice? It is doubtful [that many can].
As a practitioner, one should refrain from killing and reduce one's gluttony of food. Having taken the Three Refuge, one should uphold the teachings of Buddhism. If one should indulge in wining and dining, the spirits of the animals that are being slaughtered as food, whose existence lingers in the three lower realms of suffering, shall demand karmic payment from the practitioner.
How can one explain that Tantric practitioners may consume wine and meat?
The actual reasons are:
1) The tormented spirits are being delivered.
2) Recitation of mantra.
3) Making offering
4) Truly achieving the feat of having the wine and meat pass through one's digestive system. [without affecting one's body.]
I would like to give you an example:
During the reign of Emperor Song Xiao Zhong, a practitioner by the name of Jie Zuli had a huge appetite for food. It was said that he could consume three pig heads and five large jugs of wine.
A magistrate named Wang Ping Pu invited Jie Zuli for a meal. When it came time to eat, Jie Zuli could not restrain himself and consumed wine and meat to his heart's content. His appetite for food was truly remarkable; he had consumed the share of twenty persons at one go, devouring the food like the autumn wind sweeping over the fallen leaves.
After the meal, Jie Zuli went to the back courtyard of Magistrate Wang's residence and blew out a stream of wine into the air, followed by the consumed meat, which were all received by spiritual beings. His act was secretly witnessed by the magistrate's wife.
When the magistrate wife informed magistrate Wang of this incident, he was awestruck by what had happened, and had since paid great respect to the Jie Zuli, and even took refuge with him. (It was said that Jie Zuli was the embodiment of Manjushri Bodhisattva.)
I quoted this example to illustrate the fact that on the surface Jie Zuli might have been consuming wine and meat, but in reality he did not. Evidently, it exemplifies the statement "wine and meat don't matter."
It was said that a Tantric guru loved to consume the intestines of fish. When he finished his meal, he would return the fish to the water and the fish would come alive again. So the question is, did he consume the fish?
I personally feel that if we are unable to deliver the spirits of the slaughtered animals, have not chanted any mantra nor performed any offering, and are unable to achieve the feat of having the wine and meat pass [unaffected] through one's digestive system, it would be better to stick to vegetarian meals. It is important to avoid indulging in food!
《本文譯自真佛報第415期頭版師尊「真佛論劍」文章「酒肉穿腸過」》
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Wine and Meat Don't Matter
