諸經要集 17.43

17.43

述曰。此亦初教漸制已前。故除為己殺者不得噉食。若自死腐爛如草木想。且開食之等。欲食者令誦呪生慚愧心。然後開食。若制斷已後。一切雜肉無問自死鳥殘。皆不得食。如未曾有經開飲酒。文殊問經開食肉等。計此經等。並是如來初成道時。量眾生機不可頓斷頓制。所以漸開漸制。後知眾生根熟。便則永斷永制纖毫不許。若不抄出根元。時有愚人偏讀此經。即便縱犯。不解開遮通塞有異。所以總錄漸頓之文。知其本末之意。庶令永斷開顯梵行也。

The Commentary states: This too was before the gradual prohibitions of the early teaching; therefore, apart from what was killed for one's own sake which could not be eaten, if it died naturally and rotted, conceived of as grasses and trees, he provisionally permitted it to be eaten, and so forth. Those wishing to eat were made to recite the incantation to give rise to a sense of shame, and only then was it permitted to be eaten. After the prohibition was enacted, all varieties of meat, without question of natural death or leftovers by birds, may not be eaten at all. Just as the Weicengyou jing permits drinking liquor and the Wenju wen jing permits eating meat, when considering these sūtras, they were all when the Tathāgata first attained bodhi: measuring the capacities of sentient beings, they could not be abruptly cut off and abruptly prohibited; therefore he gradually permitted and gradually prohibited them. Later, knowing that the roots of sentient beings were mature, he then permanently cut off and permanently prohibited it, not allowing even the finest hair. If the root origin were not excerpted, foolish people of the time, reading this sūtra exclusively, would immediately indulge in transgressions, failing to understand that allowing and prohibiting, opening and closing are different. Therefore, I have collected the texts of the gradual and sudden together, so that the intention of their branches and roots may be known, hoping to cause it to be permanently severed and to manifest brahmacarya.