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1975年8月21日下午（盂蘭盆節）
比丘恆實：
第四觀，正事良藥，為療形枯：如果真正能把握這一點，你就絕不會攝取超過療饑所需的食品。想一想，這是藥品我們所吃的任何東西都是某種藥品。上人已經反復開示過，不要去管食物好吃不好吃。食物的味道不是要點，關鍵在吃飽後就不要再吃了。有人強調種種風味、品質，把握炒飯的時機，涼拌菜的調味，這都是對食物的執著，是在消耗自己福報，將自己的福報吃掉。實際上真正修行時，在心地上你應毫不介意食物是否好吃，有營養否，煮得怎麼樣。眼前有甚麼食物就吃甚麼。吃八分飽，不要撐飽，這樣你才是視食物為良藥。像頭痛時，你不會吃九顆阿斯匹靈吧？就像你不會朝頭上開一槍來治頭痛一樣。這都太過份了；食物也一樣，是藥品。你如果這樣看，就不會吃得過量。你攝取足夠療饑的食物後就不再吃了。
這並不是說如果比旁邊的人吃得少，你的道德就高。不要執著這一點。有人飯量大，六碗飯還不飽，就應該吃到八成飽為止。另一個人飯量很小，他吃了三勺飯，但他的飯量只有一勺，那他就是貪心了。六碗飯還不飽，就應該吃到八成飽為止。這完全看你自己；你自己吃飯穿衣，你要知道自己的限度。
第五觀是為成道業，應受此食：你吃飯的唯一原因就是維持生命，精進修道。身體大體上是不淨的，內部有許多不淨之物，九孔常流穢物。為了讓身體氣味好一點，你多年來一直在用防臭劑；為要保持身體有魅力的幻覺，你刷洗、梳理、拍打、鍛鍊，死亡之時，這虛幻的一切都終結了。你看到這個身體原來是個臭皮囊。蟲子嚙食我們的尸骨，使之歸於大地。身體雖然不淨，但得生為人，身體卻是理想的修道器具。人不吃飯會死，所以你只要吃到夠修道就行了。這就是吃東西的目的。
這有一組偈頌，有助於記憶五觀：
記功多少，量彼來處。
忖己德行，全缺應供。
防心離過，貪等為宗。
正事良藥，為療形枯。
為成道業，應受此食。
我今靜觀，正念受供。
第一「記功多少，量彼來處」：在佛教中布施很重要，是菩薩都要修行的六波羅密中的第一條。梵文稱為dana（檀越）。出家人發不蓄財的願。沙彌戒之一就是不捉持值錢的物品。根本上講，僧人甚麼也不需要；他們只需要最起碼的居住條件、食品、衣物。印度的僧人都出去乞食；中國的天氣可能會很惡劣，和尚天天去乞食很困難。寺院又常常在野外，周圍沒有人家可乞。逐漸乞食之風就在中國中斷了，和尚們靠信眾的供養過活。和尚怎麼能說：「你一定要給我。」他們不講這話。出家人主要做的事就是奉獻；他們護持正法，使之具有活力。如何為三寶，為眾生奉獻呢？他成為福田來奉獻。這是個比喻。若有一塊肥沃的福田，任何東西都可以在上面生長。僧人有沒有修福？僧人並不刻意為自己修福，宣稱「我念咒、經行、念佛，集累了許多功德。我的功德銀行裡已有了許多積蓄。」他可不是這麼想。
待續
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Thursday, August 21, 1975 afternoon Ullambana
Bhikshu Heng Sure:
The fourth contemplation is that food is medicine. If you can really think that way and grasp that idea, you'll never use more than you need to cure your disease of hunger. If you think about it, it is medicine. Everything that you put in your body is medicine of one kind or another. The Master has lectured time and time again: Don't pay any attention to whether food is delicious or plain. That's not the point. The point is to eat until you're full, and then stop. People who stress the variety of flavors and the delicious quality and the perfect turning of a pot of rice or the expert seasoning of that salad dressing—that's to be attached to food, and that's to use up your blessings. People eat away their blessings. In fact, in the mind ground, where real cultivation takes place, you should pay no attention to whether food is delicious, or super-nutritious, whether it's perfectly cooked or badly cooked. You should eat what comes in front of you, and eat until you're eighty percent full—don't stuff it right up to the top. Then you'll see that food is really medicine. Now, you wouldn't take nine aspirin to cure a headache any more than you would put a gun to your head and pull the trigger. That's overkill. The same thing with food. Food is medicine, and if you see it as medicine you'll never eat too much. You'll eat just enough to cure your disease of hunger, and then you'll stop.
Now, this is not to say that you're really virtuous if you eat less than the person sitting next to you. That's not the point. Some people have a huge capacity. If they eat six bowls of rice and they're not full, they should eat until they're eighty percent full. Another person has a smaller capacity. If he ate three spoonfuls of rice and he could only hold one, then he's being greedy. It's entirely up to you. You eat your own food, just like you wear your own clothes. But you should know your own limits.
The fifth contemplation is that you should accept food only to cultivate and to accomplish the Way. The only reason that you eat at all is to keep your body going so that you can continue to do the work with vigor and accomplish the Way. Basically, the body is impure. It's got all kinds of impurities floating around inside; every hole puts out a different kind of foul stuff. When you die, this beautiful body that you've put deodorant on all these years to make it smell better, that you've brushed, combed, washed, patted, exercised, and taken care of in all these ways to keep the illusion going that it's attractive and bearable—is revealed. At death, this fallacy really comes home and you can see this body for what it is—a stinking bag of skin. Inside are bones and they come popping through; and the worms eat it and it goes right back to the ground. While this body is impure, at the same time, a human body is the perfect vehicle to cultivate the Way. If you don't eat, you're going to die. So you eat just enough to cultivate and accomplish the Way. That's the purpose of eating.
There's a verse that makes the Five Contemplations a little easier to remember. It goes like this:
This offering of the faithful is the fruit of work and care.
I reflect upon my conduct: Have I truly earned my share?
Of the poisons of the mind, the most despicable is greed.
As a medicine cures illness, I eat only what I need.
To sustain my cultivation and to realize the Way,
So I contemplate in silence on this offering today.
This first line says, "This offering of the faithful is the fruit of work and care." The whole matter of offerings is an important one in Buddhism. It's very important in that it's the first of the Six Perfections that all Bodhisattvas cultivate—the perfection of giving. It's called dana
in Sanskrit, bu shi (布施 ) in Chinese. When a person leaves the home life, he takes a vow of poverty. One of the Shramanera (novitiate) precepts is that you own nothing valuable—money and so forth. Basically, Sanghans need nothing. They need the requisites of a roof, food, and clothes, but in minimal amounts. In India, monks went begging. Because in China the weather could go to extremes and it was really hard for monks to go out daily begging—often the monasteries were way out in the wilds and there were no communities to beg from—gradually the practice of begging was discontinued in China, and the monks relied for the sustenance on the offerings of the faithful. How can a monk say, "Gee, you ought to give to me"? Well, they don't say that. The major function of a left home person is to serve. He serves by maintaining the Proper Dharma, keeping it alive in the world. That's how he serves the Triple Jewel. How does he serve the community of laypeople? He serves by becoming a field of blessings. That's an analogy. Think of a field—there's fertile soil in a field of blessings, and it can grow just about anything. Does the Sanghan cultivate his own blessings? No, the Sanghan does not consciously set out to cultivate his own blessings and say, "Boy, I'm getting a lot of blessings by reciting this mantra, by walking around and reciting the Buddha's name so many times—I'm really rolling up a big bank account of blessings." That's not the way he looks at it.
To be continued
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