法苑珠林 93.47

93.47

The second clarifies that when sentient beings see one who eats meat, they are all terrified; therefore one should not eat it. As that sūtra states: "When sentient beings smell the odour of a person who eats meat, they are all terrified and flee far away. For this reason, bodhisattvas who cultivate true practice should not eat meat for the sake of transforming sentient beings. For example, when sentient beings anywhere see from afar caṇḍālas, hunters, butchers, or fowlers and fishermen, they think: 'Now I will certainly die, for this person coming here is a greatly evil person who does not recognize sin or merit, severing sentient beings' lives in pursuit of immediate profit; coming here now is to hunt for us. Now our bodies all have flesh; therefore, with his coming now, we will certainly die.' Mahāmati, because people eat meat, they cause all sentient beings who see them to generate such terror. Mahāmati, all sentient beings in the sky and upon the earth, seeing one who eats meat, give rise to terror and produce doubting thoughts: 'Am I now to die, or to live? Such an evil person does not cultivate a mind of loving-kindness, and is like a jackal or wolf roaming the world always seeking meat to eat, or like an ox eating grass or a dung beetle pursuing dung, never knowing satiety. My body is meat, precisely his food; I should not meet him,' and immediately abandon him, flee, and go far away, no different from people fearing rākṣasas."