第六節 搭衣與一食
上人說：
「你叫我死可以，叫我不搭衣不可以。你叫我死可以，叫我不吃一餐不可以，有這樣堅決的定力，有這樣的信心，才是萬佛聖城的一份子。」
大家都知道，「搭衣與一食」是萬佛城的特有家風；上人尤其特別聲明，凡是跟他出家的，都必須遵守佛制：「日中一食，衣不離身」。所以無論外界如何的批評，甚至排斥、譭謗萬佛城標新現奇，上人也絕不因此改變家風。對於這些流言的詆譭，上人只是說：「這不是我定的，這是佛制。我們要遵守佛制！」但對於比較年老的出家人，上人則方便讓他們吃三餐。這個規矩，一直到上人圓寂前的遺囑交代，始終都沒有變過。上人他自己說：「我沒有出家以前，當居士的時候，我就吃一餐。等到出家以後，這麼多年以來，都是吃一餐。跟我出家的，如果能吃一餐，我才收他；不能吃一餐，我不收。這是跟我出家的一個鐵定的條件，任何時候、任何環境的壓迫下，也不可以改變的。」
為什麼上人對「一食」那麼的重視？因為「飽暖思淫慾」，多吃必然多慾。這在《長阿含經》中，記載光音天人福盡命盡，下降至此人間，後「取粳米食之，其身麤醜，有男女形；互相瞻視，遂生欲想，共在屏處，為不淨行」。所以中國也有句話說：「飲食男女」，證明淫慾乃來自於過量的飲食。
有人認為此時是非佛時，此地也是非印度，而中國人也並非是印度人，戒律是一種「因時因地因人」所造成的；所以「非時食」，只是印度人所持的戒，中國人並不適合持此戒。其實這是不對的。因為戒律是佛法中戒定慧三無漏學的一部份，都是釋迦牟尼佛親口說的法；如果「戒」學不適合中國人，那麼「定慧」之學也必不適合中國人了，豈有此理？
不非食時，是出家人所當行的，也是剃度出家的先決條件，在家人守八關齋戒也少不了「不非食時」戒。所以戒律的嚴持與否，除了生病外，是無法討價還價的。
此外《處處經》對過午不食者，言有五種福德：「一者少淫，二者少睡，三者得一心，四者少下風，五者身得安隱，亦不作病。」故不非時食可得福。又《大毗婆沙論》也以為：「過午不食則少昏睡，無宿食患，心易得定，有如是益故，故令中食。」在《長爪梵志請問經》中也云：「如來四十齒，潔白齊平，由前生遠離非時食戒而來」。
待續 |
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Section Six Wearing the Precept Sash and Eating One Meal a Day
the Master said:
I'm prepared to die, if you want, but I refuse to give up the practice of wearing the precept sash. I'm prepared to die, if you want, but I refuse to give up the practice of eating only one meal a day at noon. Those who have that kind of strong samadhi-power--that kind of faith--rightfully belong at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
Everyone knows that "wearing the precept sash and eating one meal a day" are things that the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is especially well-known for. The Master specifically announced that anyone who left home with him had to venerate the Buddha's regulations: "eating one meal a day at noon and always wearing the precept sash." And so no matter how much the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas came under criticism by those outside--even slander that the City was doing new and strange things to show off, the Master would never, ever change his policy because of that. Regarding the barrage of slander, the Master merely said: "This is not some rule I made up. This is the Buddha's regulation. We want to venerate the Buddha's regulations." But the Master was expedient with the relatively older left-home people and allowed them to take three meals a day. This rule remained right up to the final instructions given by the Master just before his Nirvana--it never changed. The Master himself said: Even before I left the home-life, while I was still a layperson, I ate one meal a day. And from the time I left home to now--all those many years--I have eaten one meal a day. If people who want to leave home with me can eat one meal a day, then I will accept them. If they cannot eat one meal a day, I will not accept them. This is a fixed requirement for anyone who leaves home with me. In spite of any pressures whatsoever regarding the times and circumstances, this cannot be changed.
Why does the Master look upon "one meal" as so important? It's because "when you are full and warm, you think of sex." The more one eats, the more sexual desire one has. This is discussed (roll 22 of the Long Agama Sutra's "Chapter on Record of the World: Basic Conditions of the World") in the record of how, when the blessings of the gods in the Light-Sound Heaven ended and they descended to the human realm, they began to eat rice. Their bodies became coarse and ugly and took on the appearances of male and female. Looking at each other caused sexual desire to arise and they went off to covered places to engage in impure conduct." And so there's a Chinese idiom that says: "Food and drink bring about male and female." These verify the idea that the amount of sexual desire has a direct relationship to the amount of food. And if it's a matter of "eating at the wrong time," then it's a matter of breaking precepts.
Some people look at it this way: this is not the time of the Buddha and we are not in India now; what is more, Chinese people are not Indian, and so, since the precepts were created for the times and the locations, then they are precepts only applicable to the people of India and are not appropriate for the people of China. Actually that is incorrect because, in Buddhism, the precepts are one of the three non-outflow studies of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom, all of which were explained by Shakyamuni Buddha himself. If "precepts" are not appropriate to the people of China, then does that mean that "samadhi and wisdom" are also not appropriate to the people of China? Ridiculous!
Not eating at the wrong times is a practice that left-home people should keep and is the first requisite for those who shave their heads and leave home. "
Further, the lay people's Eight Vegetarian-Seclusion Precepts also include "the precept of not eating at the wrong time." And so it's a question of whether the precepts are strictly upheld or not. Except when one is sick, there's no other rationalization acceptable.
What is more, in the In All Places Sutra five kinds of blessings and virtue derived from not eating after noon are listed: "1. Little sexual desire; 2. Little sleep; 3. A concentrated mind; 4. No problems with abdominal gas; 5. Physical tranquillity and no diseases. From this we can see that not eating after noon can generate blessings. Also in the Large Vibhasha Shastra it is thought that: not eating after noon lessens the amount of sleep, eliminates the problems of storing food overnight, makes it easier for the mind to enter samadhi, and because of those benefits, the instruction to eat before noon was given. In The Sutra of the Questions of the Long-nailed Brahman it says: "The fact that the Thus Come One's forty teeth are clean, white, and straight comes from his strict avoidance of eating at the wrong time when he upheld that precept in previous lives."
To be continued |
