四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 3.221

3.221

Fourth, explaining the method of contemplation: Now, regarding the four requisites of robes, food, lodging, and medicines, if one who gives abandons stinginess and one who receives eliminates greed, then both subject and object are pure, generating widespread merit and benefit. But if both follow their feelings, yielding to laxity and indulging their natures, then both incur debt and transgression, and are equally condemned by sages and worthies. Thus the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra states: "It may cause the donor's reward to diminish, or there may even be no reward at all," and so forth. Although offerings are identical [in substance], the frequency of their arising varies. Food is a great danger, as it must be ingested at all times; offenses arise frequently, and regulating them is difficult. If one does not spur one's mind and reform one's conduct, one will mostly sink into intoxication and delusion. What distinguishes a śramaṇa from the worldly is firm integrity in establishing practice; if one shares the stupor of the vulgar world, the rest of one's practice may be easily surmised. Thus the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra states: "One sees that worms are born in foul dung and not in solid rock precisely because they crave taste and fragrance." Therefore, contemplation is established at the time of eating to open the way of the mind. Briefly, five gates are established, as divided in the Vinayavibhāṣā: First, assessing the amount of labor and measuring where it came from. The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: "Reflect that this food is accomplished only after plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting, threshing, hulling, grinding, rinsing, and cooking, expending immense labor. Assessing a single bowl of food, the sweat shed by the laborers, if gathered together and measured, would exceed the amount of food. In a moment it turns repulsive. If I have a greedy mind, I shall fall into hell and eat burning iron pellets; emerging from hell, I will become various animals to repay past debts, or become a pig or dog constantly eating filth." Therefore, one should generate the contemplation of revulsion toward food. The Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya states: "The Buddha told the bhikṣus: 'Consider that this single grain of rice is accomplished through a hundred labors; taking from the portion of wives and children, they give it out of a desire for merit. How could you discard it?'" Second, estimating one's own virtuous conduct. The Vinayamātṛkā states: "If one does not sit in meditation, recite the sūtras, or attend to the affairs of the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṃgha, yet receives the faithful offerings of others, one will fall because of the alms. If one lacks the three karmic activities and the donor knowingly gives anyway, both will fall because of the alms. If a bhikṣu forces himself to eat his fill of a donor's food with an arrogant mind, or forces himself to eat his fill beyond measure even when eating his own food, he falls because of the alms, because that food was also obtained from donors." Why is this? Throughout the long night, the Buddha always praised the final limiting mouthful of food (meaning reducing a mouthful at the end). If given to one who observes the precepts, they can accept and digest it; giving to one who observes the precepts brings a great reward, while giving to one who breaks the precepts brings little reward (such reproaches are as in the Vinaya texts quoted above). When one has eaten enough, to force oneself to eat more does not add complexion or strength, but only increases affliction; therefore, one should not eat without moderation. Third, guarding the mind to keep free from faults. The Commentary on the Vinayavibhāṣā states: "The Vinaya says that when a renunciant receives food, he must first contemplate the food and only then eat it. In general, there are three kinds of food: For superior food, greed arises, so one should avoid four faults: first, avoiding the fault of delight, which is craving flavor and fragrance, making body and mind comfortable, and indulging in gratification; second, avoiding the fault of food intoxication, which is feeling physically and mentally robust after eating and disregarding others; third, avoiding the fault of seeking a good complexion, which is delighting in being brighter and more radiant than usual after eating—one must not have this thought; fourth, avoiding the fault of seeking to adorn the body, which is eating with the desire to become plump and full. Second, for inferior food, aversion and anger arise; one mostly falls among the hungry ghosts, never seeing food. Third, for middling food, without distinguishing it with mind and eye, one mostly gives rise to deluded indifference; after death, one falls among animals, becoming various dung-eating or dung-loving worms. Because the first [greed] is severe, they all enter hell. Such is a brief summary." Reversing these three poisons accomplishes the three wholesome roots and leads to rebirth in the three good destinies: freedom from greed leads to birth in the heavens, and the middling and inferior can be known accordingly. Fourth, contemplating it properly as beneficial medicine, divided into two: to eliminate old illness—for if hunger and thirst are not cured, they directly disrupt the pursuit of the path; and to prevent new illness from arising—by being moderate and restrained in eating and drinking, so that previous food is digested. Furthermore, it is illustrated by two similes: first, like greasing a cart only so that it can roll along, why ask whether the oil is fine or bad? Second, like intending to cross a perilous road, when one's child has died, being pressed by extreme starvation and distress, one eats the child's flesh, certainly without craving its taste. Fifth, contemplating it for the sake of accomplishing the path, with three aspects: first, to sustain the body for a long time—a body of the desire realm necessarily relies on morsel food; without it, it cannot abide long, and the conditions for the path would have no support; second, to continue the lifespan—relying on this retributive body and provisional life to accomplish the Dharma-body and life of wisdom; third, to cultivate the precepts, concentration, and wisdom, subduing and extinguishing the afflictions. The Lokadhāri-sūtra states: "If one does not eliminate the inverted view of self, this is a tīrthika; he is not permitted to accept even a cup of water from others." The Buddhapiṭaka-sūtra also says the same. One must feel revulsion toward the inverted view of self, and should not give rise to attachment toward patch-work robes and coarse food.