If you want to save sentient beings, you must first stop eating meat
2024-03-18
Lecture by Venerable Master Hsuan-Hua
All living beings are formed by the combination of various causes and conditions, and they evolve into human beings from Pratītyasamutpāda (twelve nidānas). Ants and even bacteria are all sentient beings. We don't need to look for sentient beings outside. Human beings already have countless sentient beings within their self-nature. Nowadays, science has developed and it has been proved that there are many bacteria and microorganisms in the human body, and there are countless living beings in our internal organs. The food that people eat is also a living being, such as pork, beef, fish, etc. There are many bacteria in these meats. When people eat these meats, they will have the seeds of these bacteria in their stomachs.
Which kind of living being you eat more of, you will become a family member with it, and your karma with it will deepen, and you will even become entangled and inseparable. If you eat too much pork, you will have a chance to be born as a pig; if you eat too much beef, you will be born as a cow. If you eat more rice, will you become rice? Rice is ruthless, while all living beings are Sentient.
If you eat Sentient beings, you will be reborn as Sentient beings. If a person fasts for a certain type of living beings, he is delivering that type of living beings. "Delivering" means passing through the sea of suffering and reaching the other shore of Nirvana. If people understand this truth, they should not eat the flesh of living beings.
Once upon a time, a meat-eater went to King Yan after his death, and all the living beings he had eaten during his lifetime would come to settle accounts with him. This meat-eater defended himself: "Although I eat meat, the sin should not be attributed to me. The meat seller is to blame." So, King Yan summoned the meat seller, and the meat seller defended himself: "The reason why I sell meat is because there are people buying meat. If no one buys meat, why should I sell meat?" The meat seller and the meat eaters argued with each other. Later the two people put the blame on the butcher. So, King Yan summoned the butcher again, and the butcher also defended himself: "I am indeed slaughtering pigs, but because some people buy and eat the meat, I will slaughter it; if no one buys or eats the meat, I will not kill it!"
Just like this, everyone talks about their own reasons, and all they say are reasons that commit sinful karma.
In the end, King Yan still sentenced those who eat meat to pay their blood debt.
It can be seen that which kind of living beings we eat will form indissoluble grievances with that kind of living beings.
As the saying goes, "There are two people inside the word "meat", and the inside covers the people outside. All living beings still eat the flesh of all living beings. Think carefully about people eating people."
The Śūraṅgama Sūtra also says: "A sheep dies and becomes a human being." Since sheep can become human beings, pigs and cows can also become human beings. However, without divine eye and unable to observe the causes and conditions, they think that pigs are pigs and sheep are sheep. When people eat too much meat from all living beings, they bury their Self-nature, lose their spirituality, and become even more stupid.
Therefore, if you want to save sentient beings, you should first abstain from eating meat of sentient beings.
If you want to save sentient beings, you must first save sentient beings of your own. However, to save sentient beings, you must not be attached with delusive phenomenon and have no attachments, then you can truly save them.
