諸經要集 17.45

17.45

Question: Meat derives from harming life; that it is cut off is indeed so. Liquor does not harm life; why is it abruptly prohibited? If there is no harm, reckoning sin there is no fault, and one cannot call it wrong. Drinking syrup and eating cooked rice should likewise incur sin, but that is not really the case; why is liquor uniquely prohibited? Answer: Precepts are formulated according to circumstances; the incurring of sin depends on the mind. The nature of meat comes from harm; eating it is immediately sinful. The nature of liquor is not harmful; the fault arises from obscuring the spirit, which gives rise to faults elsewhere. Since the arising of faults comes from liquor, cutting off liquor eliminates them. Therefore, the restrictive prohibitions are different; it does not mean that the substance of liquor is itself a sin.