法苑珠林 93.55

93.55

第十明食肉之人死則還生惡羅剎等中。是故行者不應食肉。如彼經說。食肉眾生依於過去食肉臐故。多生羅剎師子虎狼豺豹貓貍鴟梟鵰鷲鷹鷂等中。有命之類。各自護身。不令得便。受飢餓苦。常生惡心。念食他肉。命終復墮惡道。受生人身難得。何況當有得涅槃道。當知食肉有如是等無量諸過。是故行者不食肉者。即是無量功德之聚也。

Tenth, explaining that when a person who eats meat dies, they are reborn among evil rākṣasas and the like; therefore practitioners should not eat meat. As that sūtra states: 'Sentient beings who eat meat, on account of their past habit of eating meat, are mostly reborn among rākṣasas, lions, tigers, wolves, jackals, leopards, wildcats, owls, condors, vultures, hawks, falcons, and the like. Living kinds each protect their own bodies and do not allow them an opportunity; [the carnivores] suffer the pain of hunger and starvation, constantly generate an evil mind, and think of eating the meat of others. When their lives end, they fall again into the evil destinies; rebirth as a human is difficult to obtain, how much less could there be the attainment of the path to nirvāṇa! One should know that eating meat has immeasurable faults such as these. Therefore, if a practitioner does not eat meat, that is an accumulation of immeasurable merit.'