廣弘明集 24.28

24.28

Arranging and managing Dharma services must have their proper rationale. Nowadays, when people invite the monastic assembly, they only host a single gathering; this is probably modeled on how, when the Buddha was in the world, he frequently received invitations from others. Yet when the Buddha was in the world in the past, the Buddha and the monastic assembly did not originally prepare their own food and utensils within the saṅghārāma. When the time came, they held their bowls and went forth to bring merit to sentient beings. Among the monks of today, not only are there few who maintain the midday meal, but there are even those who indulge lavishly in rich delicacies, their kitchen provisions abundant and grand. Nowadays, when invitations are extended, they only come reluctantly. With mouths accustomed to rich flavors, facing vegetables and coarse fare, with craned necks and furrowed brows they certainly cannot find it palatable. Since it is not joyfully received, it allows no merit to be established. It is not as in the past, when they could not manage food for themselves, nor is it that they depend on the four classes of disciples with nowhere else to rely for body and mouth. To seek merit in this way—is it not contrary [to the goal]? Examining it thoroughly, its meaning is not so. Why? Those who have renounced the household originally rely on begging for their sustenance; the precepts and vinaya are clear and bright, and do not permit establishing one's own kitchen quarters and keeping purifiers (kappiyakāra). Nowadays, since monks are fully supplied within the monasteries, the practice of begging has ceased; if someone holding a bowl arrives at the gate, they immediately call it a base and wretched deed for a śramaṇa. Since it is despised and shamed by the multitude, no one begs any longer. The careless juniors have few who seek the principle, and they immediately assume that the practice of begging for food can no longer be carried out. The Prince of Pure Food, with the noble status of a wheel-turning king, held his bowl and went begging to bring blessings to the donors; could he not match the ordinary, mediocre śramaṇas of a thousand years later, who personally command servants and slaves to provide for their own mouths and bellies? Today's inviting of monks for a gathering can indeed be conducted in emulation of this. Begging and receiving invitations are not two different things. If today people no longer beg, and furthermore no longer invite them, then the practice of begging will be abandoned forever. Once this practice is abandoned, the saṃgha will cease to be the Buddha's lineage; and once the Buddha's lineage is severed, the Three Jewels will fall to the ground. Those who hold assemblies today should reflect on the past: for forty-nine years the Buddha led the bhikṣus into cities to beg for food, their deportment and movements naturally responding to the mind. If one seeks the Way through this, where could the Way fail to reach? If one activates the mind in this manner, then holding an assembly is proper.