If you don't have any thoughts, it's fine. If you have any thoughts, you will fall into a realm
2025-03-15
Lecture by Venerable Wugong
I often advise you to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddha's name. Why? Since we are all Buddhist disciples and practitioners, we should act in accordance with the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha. More than 2,500 years ago, Sakyamuni Buddha advised us to eat vegetarian food and chant the Buddha's name. You can find out by reading the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, the Brahmajāla Sūtra, etc.
Why do we have to be vegetarian? Why do we need to chant Buddha's name? We humans! There is only one heart. Once this heart recites the Buddha's name, other thoughts will disappear. If you do not recite the Buddha's name, other thoughts will surge in like the tide and drown you.
If your good attitude arises, your bad attitude will not disappear, it will just be hidden and latent!
If you don't have any thoughts, it's fine. If you have any thoughts, you will fall into a realm. Our mind, in just a single thought, contains the ten Dharma realms. The first is the realm of Buddha, the second is the realm of Bodhisattva, and the third is the realm of Pratyekabuddhayāna, the fourth is the realm of Śrāvaka, the fifth is the heavenly realm, the sixth is the human realm, the seventh is the Asura realm, the eighth is the realm of animals, the ninth is the realm of hungry ghosts, and the tenth is the realm of hell. The first four are the realm of enlightenment, which is the realm of the saints; the last six are the realm of delusion, which is the realm of the six ordinary beings, that is, the world of the six realms of reincarnation. Furthermore, the latter nine realms are Causes (refers to the level of practicing Buddhism), and the former Buddha realm are Phala (Saint Cultivation Rank), so the ten Dharma realms are also called "nine causes and one Phala." Once we have the intention to practice, even if we may not be able to directly attain any of the Four Holy Realms, we have already begun to work on returning from evil to righteousness, breaking through delusion and turning to enlightenment, abandoning evil and pursuing good, and even transcending the ordinary and becoming a saint. If we resolve to eat vegetarian food and chant the Buddha's name early on, then we will have already followed the Four Holy Realms. Not only that, but once the thought of chanting the Buddha's name arises, it will cross over the nine practicing levels and go straight to the holy fruition realm!
The Buddhist scriptures say: "If one wishes to know all the Buddhas of the past, present and future, one should contemplate the nature of the Dharma Realm and everything created by the mind." The Dharma Realm here refers to the Ten Dharma Realms. If you don't have any thoughts, it's fine. If you have any thoughts, you will fall into a realm. For example, when we recite Buddha's name, we have unknowingly entered the Buddha's Dharma Realm; Or if one seeks the Buddha's Way and teaches sentient beings in a momentary thought, then the Bodhisattva's Dharma Realm is manifested; Or if one observes the principles of cause and effect on one's own for a moment without any desire to teach or guide others, then one enters the realm of the Pratyekabuddhayāna. Or maybe you have the thought that if you can transcend the three realms by being a vegetarian and chanting Buddha's name, and don't care about everything about other sentient beings, then you are in the Śrāvaka Realm. If you diligently cultivate the Five Precepts and the Ten Virtues for a single thought, if you obtain the highest level, you will be reborn in the Heavenly Realm; if you obtain the middle level, you will not lose the Human Realm; if you obtain the lowest level, you will fall into the Asura Realm. Furthermore, if for a moment one's mind is confused and evil, and commits Anantarika-karma (the five offences crimes) and Kammapatha (ten evil kamma) of the lower level, one will be reborn in the animal realm. If one commits Anantarika-karma and Kammapatha of the middle level, one will be reborn in the hungry ghost realm. If one commits Anantarika-karma and Kammapatha of the upper level, one will be reborn in the hell realm.
As for being a vegetarian, the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta says: "All living beings, seeing people who eat meat, are all scared and run away." It also says: "When living beings see a meat-eater, there is a glow of blood on his head"; The Shurangama Sutra also says: "Even if meat eaters gain wisdom and enlightenment, and appear to be in Samadhi, they are all Rakshasa, and will eventually sink into the sea of suffering of birth and death. How can such people escape the three realms?"
There is a verse in "Dà zhìdù lùn" written by Nagarjuna Bodhisattva:
"The reason why one cannot be liberated from birth and death is because one kills sentient beings for profit, use wealth nets to obtain meat, both are evil deeds, and one will fall into the Screaming Hell after death." We all heard it very clearly. Not only does the sutra say this, the treatise also says this. If you do not eat vegetarian food and are happy to eat meat, all living beings will be afraid of you when they see you and will avoid you. Even the guardian gods will abandon you. "Dà zhìdù lùn" states: "Killing living beings for profit, using money to obtain meat food, both are evil deeds." This means that killing and eating meat are the same sin! So, I advise everyone to eat vegetarian food, make up your mind and don't delay!
Therefore, we must be very careful with our thoughts and not let them run wild, let alone have any thoughts about meat. There is nothing in this world that is happier and more secure than chanting "Namo Amitabha". As the saying goes, "You don't need to spend three Asaṃkhyeya kalpas to cultivate blessings and wisdom, you can escape from the universe just by relying on the name of Buddha"! I also hope that everyone will resolve to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddha's name as soon as possible, so that the three thousand worlds of the East can be filled with the nine grades of Sukhāvatī lotus!
