[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [釋門自鏡錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083) › 2.29.3 # 釋門自鏡錄 2.29.3 釋門自鏡錄 2.29.3 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [2.29.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083.2.29.3) 而不悔過者一切大力鬼神。 亦應如此治問令增廣善眾清淨佛道。 若未為幽司之所治問。 猶在世者。 弟子蕭衍當如法治問驅令還俗隨時使役。 弟子蕭衍更白諸大德僧尼。 向已粗陳魚肉障累招致苦果。 今復重欲通白一言。 閻浮提壽云一百二十。 至於世間罕聞其人。 遷變零落無間宿少。 經言。 一念頃有六十剎那。 生死無常暫有諸根。 俄然衰滅。 三途等苦倏忽便及欲離地獄。 其事甚難。 威德清淨猶懼不免。 況於毀犯安可免乎。 諸大德僧尼當知此事。 凡食魚肉是魔境界行於魔行心不決定。 多有留難。 內外眾魔共相嬈作。 所以行者思念。 魚肉酒是魔漿故不待言。 凡食魚肉嗜飲酒者善神遠離。 內無正氣。 如是等人法多衰惱。 若心決定蔬食苦到。 大悲熏心。 如是等人多為善力。 所扶法多堪能。 諸大德今日已去善相開導。 令未得者今去皆得若已集行願固志力若未曾行願皆改革今日相與共為菩提種子。 勿怪弟子蕭衍向來所白。 于時僧尼一千四百四十八人。 集華林殿前。 令光宅寺雲法師昇座講涅槃經四相品四分之一。 陳食肉者斷大慈種義。 御親席地在高座北。 後又集義學僧尼二百人。 於華光殿。 令諸律學沙門昇高座。 御地鋪而坐制旨。 問曰。 集大眾求律中意。 聞諸僧道。 律中無斷肉法。 又無懺悔食肉法。 諸律師從來作若為開導。 使人致有此疑。 律師法超奉答。 教是一而人取不同。 律雖許三種淨肉。 意欲永斷。 何以知之。 先明斷十種不淨。 次令食三種淨肉。 末令食九種淨肉。 如是漸制。 便是意欲永斷。 又問僧辯。 答但教有淺深。 階級引物。 理當是過。 但教未極。 又問。 其食肉者為是慈悲心無慈悲心。 答此非慈悲。 又問。 律教欲使人出離不。 答令人出離。 又問。 食肉得出離否。 答不得。 又問寶度律師如何。 答曰。 愚短所解只是漸教。 所以律文許噉三種淨肉。 若涅槃究竟不許食肉。 若利根者於三種淨肉教即得不食。 若鈍根人方待後教。 又問法寵比丘。 若爾眾僧何故有食。 答曰。 不應食。 但食欲情深。 又問。 云何懺悔。 答懇惻至心是為懺悔。 又問。 懺竟食不。 答無明多者或亦不免。 又問。 先道懺悔而猶噉食。 此是知而故犯。 非謂慚愧。 若使先時不知或是過誤後方起愧。 乃是慚愧。 又復慚愧不得重犯。 如其重犯罪更彌大。 帝與諸大德往返數飜。 皆不能答。 又勅景猷昇高座。 讀楞伽鴦掘摩羅涅槃等經。 明斷肉義。 唱經文竟設會畢出。 其晚又勅右衛率周捨曰。 法寵所言慚愧而食眾生。 此是經中所明羅剎女婦云。 我念汝我食汝。 法寵此心即是經之羅剎。 又勅捨云。 僧辯所道自死肉。 若如此說。 鴟鵶鳩鴿處空不死那不見有一自死者。 麞鹿雉兔充滿野澤。 亦不曾見有一自死者。 而覓死肉其就屠殺家。 覓死魚必就其罟網處。 經言買肉與自殺此罪一等。 我本不自為。 正為諸僧尼作離罪因緣。 又勅捨云。 眾生所以不可殺。 凡一眾生具八萬戶蟲。 經亦說有八十億萬戶蟲。 若斷一眾生命即是斷八萬戶蟲命。 自死眾生又不可食者。 前所附蟲雖已滅謝。 後所附蟲其數復眾。 若煮若炙此新附蟲皆無復命。 利舌端少味害無量眾生。 其中小者非肉眼能觀。 其中大者灼然共見。 滅慈悲心增長惡毒。 此實非沙門釋子所可應行。 又勅捨云。 眾僧食肉既犯性罪。 又傷戒律。 以此為言。 有兩重罪。 若是學問眾僧食肉者。 此為惡業。 復倍於前。 所以如此。 既親違經教。 為人講說。 口稱慈悲。 心懷毒害。 非是不知。 知而故犯。 言行相違。 即成詭妄。 論學問食肉。 即罪有三種。 所以貴於解義。 正為如說修行。 反復噉食魚肉。 侵酷生類。 作惡知識。 起眾冤對。 > And if they do not repent of their faults, all the mighty ghosts and spirits should likewise interrogate and punish them, so as to augment the multitude of the good and purify the Buddha-Path. If they have not yet been interrogated and punished by the underworld tribunal and are still in the world, I, your disciple Xiao Yan, shall interrogate and punish them in accordance with the law, expelling them into secular life and subjecting them to labor as needed. Your disciple Xiao Yan further addresses all the Venerable monks and nuns: I have just roughly set forth how fish and meat cause obstacles and encumbrances that incur bitter retribution. Now I wish once more to address you all with a word. The lifespan in Jambudvīpa is said to be one hundred and twenty years, yet one rarely hears of such a person in the world. Transitions and decays happen without pause, whether to the old or the young. A sūtra says: 'Within the space of a single thought-moment there are sixty kṣaṇas.' Saṃsāra is impermanent; one possesses the faculties only temporarily, and suddenly they decline and perish. The sufferings of the three paths and the like arrive in an instant; to wish to escape hell is exceedingly difficult. Even those of pure, majestic virtue still fear they may not escape; how much less could those who violate and break \[the precepts\] possibly escape? Venerable monks and nuns, you ought to know this matter: consuming fish and meat belongs entirely to the realm of Māra; it is to engage in the conduct of Māra. The mind will be unsettled, with many obstructions, and the hosts of māras within and without will conspire to trouble you. Therefore practitioners should reflect: it goes without saying that fish, meat, and liquor are the broth of Māra. Those who consume fish and meat and crave liquor are abandoned by the good spirits and lack correct energy within. For such persons, the Dharma mostly wanes into distress. If one’s mind is resolved, eating vegetarian food with utmost austerity, and great compassion perfumes one's mind, such persons are mostly supported by the power of goodness, and their Dharma will mostly be capable. Venerable ones, from this day forward, guide one another well! Cause those who have not yet attained it to attain it from now on. If you have already cultivated this practice, strengthen your resolve and power; if you have never practiced it, reform completely. Today let us together make seeds of bodhi. Do not take offense at what your disciple Xiao Yan has addressed to you." At that time, 1,448 monks and nuns gathered before the Hualin Hall. Dharma Master Yun of Guangzhai Monastery was ordered to ascend the high seat and preach one quarter of the "Chapter on the Four Marks" from the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, expounding the principle that eating meat cuts off the seed of great compassion. The Emperor himself sat on a mat on the ground to the north of the high seat. Later, two hundred doctrinal monks and nuns were also gathered at the Huaguang Hall. Monks learned in the Vinaya were ordered to ascend the high seat. The Emperor spread a mat on the ground, sat down, and issued an inquiry by imperial decree. He asked: "We have gathered the great assembly to investigate the meaning in the Vinaya. We hear monks say that in the Vinaya there is no regulation against eating meat, nor is there a rite of repentance for eating meat. How have you Vinaya masters guided people up to now, so as to cause people to harbor such doubts?" Vinaya Master Fachao answered reverently: "The teaching is one, but people receive it differently. Although the Vinaya permits three kinds of pure meat, the intention was to prohibit it forever. How do we know this? First it clarifies the prohibition of ten kinds of impure meat, next it causes one to eat the three kinds of pure meat, and finally it causes one to eat the nine kinds of pure meat. Such gradual prohibition indeed shows the intention was to cut it off forever." \[The Emperor\] also asked Sengbian. He replied: "It is only that the teachings have shallow and deep levels, guiding beings through progressive stages. In principle it is indeed an error, but the teaching had not yet reached its culmination." \[The Emperor\] asked again: "Does one who eats meat have a mind of compassion or no mind of compassion?" He replied: "This is not compassion." He asked again: "Does the Vinaya teaching intend to make people achieve liberation or not?" He replied: "It makes people achieve liberation." He asked again: "Does one who eats meat attain liberation or not?" He replied: "They do not." He also asked Vinaya Master Baodu: "What about you?" He replied: "What my foolish, deficient understanding grasps is that it is simply a gradual teaching. That is why the Vinaya text permits eating the three kinds of pure meat. In the Nirvāṇa \[Sūtra\], it ultimately does not permit eating meat. Those of sharp faculties, upon the teaching of the three kinds of pure meat, immediately cease to eat it; those of dull faculties await the later teaching." He also asked the bhikṣu Fachong: "If so, why do the monks still eat it?" He replied: "They should not eat it, but their desire for food runs deep." He asked again: "How should one repent?" He replied: "Sincerity and utmost earnestness of heart constitute repentance." He asked again: "After repenting, do they eat it or not?" He replied: "Those with much ignorance perhaps cannot avoid it." \[The Emperor\] said again: "To profess repentance beforehand and yet consume it nonetheless—this is to know and intentionally violate; it cannot be called shame. If beforehand one did not know, or if it was an inadvertent error, and only afterward did shame arise, that is genuine shame. Furthermore, once ashamed, one must not violate it again. If one violates it again, the sin is even greater." The Emperor went back and forth with the Venerable ones several times, and none could answer. He then ordered Jingyou to ascend the high seat and read such sūtras as the Laṅkāvatāra, Aṅgulimāla, and Nirvāṇa, clarifying the principle of prohibiting meat. After chanting the sūtra texts, the assembly concluded and they dispersed. That evening he also commanded the Leader of the Right Guards, Zhou She, saying: "What Fachong said about being ashamed while eating sentient beings—this is the female rākṣasa described in the sūtras who says, 'I love you, and I eat you.' Fachong’s mindset is precisely the rākṣasa of the sūtra." He also commanded She, saying: "Regarding what Sengbian said about meat from an animal that died naturally—if it were as he says, how is it that kites, crows, doves, and pigeons that dwell in the sky and are not immortal are never seen to die of themselves? Roes, deer, pheasants, and hares fill the fields and marshes, yet one has never seen a single one die of itself. Yet when people look for meat from a dead animal, they go to the slaughterhouse; when they look for dead fish, they inevitably go to the nets. The sūtras say that buying meat and killing it oneself are sins of the same order. I originally did not do this for myself; it is solely to create conditions for the monks and nuns to leave sin behind." He also commanded She, saying: "The reason why sentient beings must not be killed is that every single sentient being possesses eighty thousand families of worms; the sūtras also say there are eighty billion families of worms. If one cuts short the life of a single sentient being, one cuts short the lives of eighty thousand families of worms. As for why sentient beings that died naturally also must not be eaten: although the worms previously attached to them have already perished, the number of worms attached afterward is again vast. If boiled or roasted, none of these newly attached worms will survive. For a tiny taste on the tip of the tongue, one harms immeasurable sentient beings. Those among them that are small cannot be viewed with the fleshy eye; those that are large are clearly visible to all. This destroys the mind of compassion and increases malignant poison. This is truly not something that a śramaṇa, a disciple of the Śākya, should practice." He also commanded She, saying: "When the monks eat meat, they violate a precept of natural wrongdoing and also damage the Vinaya precepts. Speaking on this basis, there is a double sin. If it is learned monks who eat meat, this evil karma is twice as great as before. Why is this so? They personally violate the sūtra teachings, yet expound them to others; their mouths speak of compassion, yet their hearts harbor venomous harm. It is not that they do not know; they know and intentionally violate it. Words and actions contradict each other, thus becoming deception and falsehood. In terms of learning and eating meat, the sins are of three kinds. The reason why understanding the meaning is valued is precisely for practicing according to the teaching. Yet on the contrary, they consume fish and meat, cruel and oppressive to living beings, acting as bad spiritual friends and giving rise to many enmities." > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 2.29.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083.2.29.2) - [Next: 2.29.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083.2.29.4) - [Up: 2.29](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083.2.29) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083~en-mt.2.29.3) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083.2.29.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2083.2.29.3) · Pramāṇa