众生乃众缘和合而成，从十二因缘演变而成人。蚂蚁乃至细菌皆是众生，我们不用往外找众生，人自性中已有无量众生。现在科学发达，已经证明人体内有很多细菌和微生物，我们的五脏六腑中都有无量的众生。人吃的食物也是众生，譬如猪肉、牛肉、鱼类等，这些肉类中有很多细菌，人吃这些肉类，肚子里就有了这些细菌的种子。

Living beings are born under a combination of conditions. When the cycle of twelve conditioned causes runs its course, people come into being. Ants and microbes are also living beings. We don't need to look outside, for there are innumerable living beings right within our own natures. Modern science has confirmed the existence of countless germs and microorganisms in the human body. The pork, beef, and fish that people eat also comes from living beings. Meat contains many germs, and the seeds of these germs remain in the stomachs of people who eat meat.

吃哪一类众生较多，就和它成为眷属，与它的因缘就加深，乃至纠缠不清不能分离。猪肉吃多了，就有机会生为猪；牛肉吃多了，就生为牛。那多吃米，是否也会变米呢？米是无情，而众生是有情。如果噉食有情众生，就会生为有情众生。人若禁食哪一类众生，就是度那一类众生。“度”，就是度过苦海，登涅盘彼岸。人如果明白这个道理，就不应该吃众生肉。

When you eat a lot of the flesh of a particular kind of living being, you deepen your affinities with it and become inextricably related to it. If you eat a lot of pork and ham, you may be reborn as a pig. If you eat a lot of beef, you may be reborn as a cow. But if you eat a lot of rice, will you turn into rice? No, since rice is insentient. If you eat sentient beings, you will be reborn among them. But if you eat insentient things, you can nurture your Dharma-body and wisdom-life. When you refrain from eating a certain species of living being, you are taking that species across. That is, you are taking them across the sea of suffering to reach the other shore of Nirvana. People who understand this should not eat the flesh of living beings.

从前有一个吃肉的人，死后到阎罗王那里，他生前吃过的肉类众生，都要来跟他算账，这个吃肉的人还自我辩护：“我虽然吃肉，但罪不应该归我，应归咎于卖肉的人。”于是阎罗王传召肉贩，这肉贩也自辩：“我所以卖肉，都是因为有人买肉。如果没人买肉，我又何必卖肉呢？”肉贩和吃肉的就互相争论，后来两个人把责任推在屠夫身上。

Once upon a time, a man who ate meat went before King Yama after he died. All the living beings whose flesh he had eaten in his life went to settle their accounts with him. The meat-eater defended himself. “Although I was the one who ate the meat, I'm not to blame. The meat-vendor is the guilty one.” King Yama sent for the meat-vendor, who argued, “I sell meat only because people want to buy it. If there was no demand for it, there would be no reason for me to sell it.” And so the meat-vendor and the meat-eater quarrelled with each other, and they ended up blaming the butcher.

于是阎罗王又召见屠夫，屠夫也自辩说：“我确实是宰猪，但是因为有人买，有人吃肉，我才会屠宰；如果无人买，无人吃，我也不会宰了！”就这么各说各的道理，所说的尽是造罪业的道理。结果，阎罗王仍然判吃肉的人偿还血债。

When King Yama called in the butcher, he said, “I slaughter pigs, it's true, but I do it only because people buy it and eat it. If no one bought or ate meat, I would never kill them.” Each of them presented their own arguments to justify their offenses. In the end, King Yama still judged that the meat-eater should pay his debt of blood.

可见我们吃哪那一类众生，就与那一类众生结下不解之冤，所谓

From this story, we can see that whenever we consume the flesh of any species of living being, we create a bond of enmity with that species which cannot be dissolved.

肉字里边两个人，
里边罩着外边人；
众生还吃众生肉，
仔细思量人吃人。

In the Chinese character for “meat”（肉），
there are two people（人）；
The one inside has been caught
by the one outside.
So when living beings eat the flesh of
 other living beings,
Stop to think about it: Aren't they just
people eating people?

《楞严经》中也说：“羊死为人”，羊既然可以为人，猪牛也可为人，可是未得天眼通，不能观察其因缘，就以为猪是猪，羊是羊。人多吃众生肉，把本有的自性都埋没了，失去了灵性，变得更愚痴。所以想要度众生，先应戒食众生肉。欲度众生，先度自性众生，但是度生还要离相，无所执著，方为真度。

A passage in the Shurangama Sutra explains how sheep can be reborn as people. If sheep can become people, so can pigs and cows. If you haven't opened the Celestial Eye, you cannot see these things and you think pigs are just pigs and sheep are just sheep. People who eat a lot of meat are really smothering their own natures, losing their souls, and making themselves stupid. If you want to save living beings, you must first stop eating their flesh. Start by saving the living beings within your own nature. To truly save beings, you must be detached from appearances and free of attachments.