釋門自鏡錄 2.29.3

2.29.3

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."