Offering Wine and Meat to the Buddha 酒肉供佛

Terjemahan Bahasa: Mempersembahkan Arak dan Daging Kepada Buddha 酒肉供佛

The Aura of Wisdom 

By Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu
Translated by True Buddha Foundation Translation Team

This was translated from Grandmaster Lu's 154th book, 智慧的光環.

CHAPTER 32 - Offering Wine and Meat to the Buddha

When the head of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness Ganden Tripa, visited the Lei Zang Temple in Seattle, he gave me a Dharma robe as a gift.

During his visit, it coincided with the birthday of a Vajra Buddha whom His Holiness worshiped.
His Holiness then requested that the monks in the Lei Zang Temple help him purchase a bottle of wine and some beef and lamb meat from the supermarket.
He wanted to cultivate and make an offering to the Vajra Buddha.

Later, a monk asked me in private, `Can we offer wine and meat to the Buddhas?`

I explained to the monk that in the view of the Sutric tradition, drinking wine and taking meat would have breached the precepts. But not according to the Tantric teachings.

The view of Tantric Buddhism is that all Buddhas are beings abiding in the mind of non-discrimination. 

Therefore, in the eyes of the Buddhas, wine and meat are not seen as wine and meat. 

For example, in the eyes of men, wine is wine. 
In the eyes of the Asuras, wine is a sword and a knife. 
To the hungry ghosts, wine becomes a burning flame. 
The hell beings see wine manifested as a pool of blood. 
Yet, to the Buddhas, wine is a fine nectar.

Let me say this:
If the practitioner is pure, the wine and meat consumed become pure.
Hence the very act of consuming wine and meat is pure.
On the contrary, if the practitioner is impure, the wine and meat consumed become impure.
Hence, the very act of consuming wine and meat is impure.
Please think through this carefully and discern the truth!

A practitioner with actual attainment will transform the wine into nectar, and the meat into cleansed food. 
As he delivers the souls of the slaughtered animals, there is no danger of misbehaviour in consuming wine and meat.

A practitioner who has no spiritual stamina will drink wine until he is drunk, and consume meat out of gluttony. He has breached a major precept in Tantric Buddhism, and has created a heavy karma for himself, which would draw him to the Vajra Hell upon his death.

On the surface, both scenarios may appear similar, but they are separated by the polarities of purity and impurity!

I feel that it is equal and undifferentiated to offer either vegetarian meals or meat to the Buddhas.
But should you want to consume wine and meat, you must know where your spiritual stamina stands.
If one is corrupted by the consumption of meat and wine, then it is absolutely necessary to strictly follow the precept and refrain from consuming wine and meat!



Amituofo
Lotuschef
Pure Karma Vihara
True Buddha School

Taking Meat or Vegetarian Meals

Terjemahan Bahasa: Makan Makanan Berdaging atau Bervegetarian

The Aura of Wisdom 

By Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu
Translated by True Buddha Foundation Translation Team

This was translated from Grandmaster Lu's 154th book, 智慧的光環.

CHAPTER 31 - Taking Meat or Vegetarian Meals

Someone once asked the Dalai Lama, `What is Tantric Buddhism`s stand on vegetarianism and meat eating?`

The Dalai Lama replied, `I personally am a vegetarian, but the lamas aren`t.`

The questioner then raised this issue: `If a person is not a vegetarian, then he or she is killing. Isn`t this a breach of the Five Precepts?`
The reply given by the Dalai Lama was ambiguous, suggesting that being a non-vegetarian does not imply one is killing, and that there is no connection between killing and consuming vegetarian meals.

In fact, the Dalai Lama laughed embarrassingly and said, `The lamas don`t kill for food, neither are they vegetarians.`

When I was at Drepung Loseling Monastery having our meals together with the Khenpo, only meat was served.

To my knowledge, the Chinese Buddhist orders were commanded by Xiao Yan, the Chinese Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty, to instruct their ordained monks and nuns to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.
This is characteristic of Chinese Buddhism, which has the intention to nurture compassion and avoid creating negative karma.

Consuming vegetarian meals in itself has its merits, but it is not a definite key to attaining buddhahood. 

If taking vegetarian meals by itself could lead to buddhahood, horses, cows and sheep would have long attained enlightenment!

Many beginners in Buddhism are not accustomed to sticking to a vegetarian lifestyle.
It is advisable that they consume the `three pure meats`
(no personal sighting of the animal being killed, no actual hearing of its cry while it is being killed, and no killing done by oneself specifically for personal consumption).

This is a convenient solution as an alternative to adopting a vegetarian lifestyle.

Should the True Buddha practitioner adopt a strict vegetarian lifestyle?

My answer to this is: `It`s up to you.`

But any meal-eating practitioner must purify their meat by `blowing a gust of air` and reciting the Manjusri Deliverance Mantra. 
This is applying the Tantric method to deliver the souls of the animals, transforming the meal into purified food. 

Upon offering merits to the soul of the animal whose meat is to be consumed, the meat can thus be eaten. 

This is because when you have extended your compassion and delivered the soul, there exists no bond of negative karmic affinity between you and the animal soul.

The views held by the Sutric and Tantric traditions on taking meat and vegetarian meals are different, but please remember this verse expounded by the Buddha:
One mouthful of pure water 
Contains eighty four thousand worms 
If you do not recite a mantra 
It is as good as killing.

Such subtle truth must be discerned carefully!

Amituofo
Lotuschef
Pure Karma Vihara
True Buddha School