諸經要集 17.44

17.44

Question: Liquor is a medicine that harmonizes the spirit; meat is food that satisfies hunger. They have tasted the same from ancient times to the present. Why now do you alone hold this view, despising them and not eating them? Even if the Buddha's teaching has pure prohibitions, just as in mourning rituals, when facing a stern ruler who bestows mundane food, how could a monk reject and refuse to eat it without fault? Answer: Greed for wealth and fondness for sex are despised by chaste men; craving delicacies and relishing fine food are detested by upright scholars. Severing passions to follow the Way was praised by former sages; curbing desires to exalt virtue was universally extolled by past philosophers. How much more so since meat derives from killing life, and liquor can disorder the spirit! Not eating is reasonable; how could it be wrong? Even if one meets with suppression from superiors, one must ultimately strictly abstain. Though one violates a ruler's command, one still accords with the Buddha's mind.