法苑珠林 93.57

93.57

That sūtra also says: 'Inside the body of a sentient being there are 800,000 families of worms. If one cuts short the life of a single sentient being, one cuts short the lives of 800,000 families of worms.' Whether broiled or boiled, pickled or dried in the sun, there are always small worms, flying moths, and flies that approach it. In this way, countlessly many living beings are collaterally killed in turn. Although one does not kill with one's own hand, butchers do not dare eat it themselves; it is killed entirely for the sake of those who eat meat. Therefore we know that those who eat meat partake in the sin of the karma of killing. Some ordained monks and nuns personally reside in saṃghārāmas yet openly gather with white-robed laypeople to drink wine and eat meat, their pungent roots and mixed foulness defiling the saṃghārāma, feeling no shame before the revered images. How does such contamination and mixture differ from the non-Buddhists?