文／蓮生活佛 盧勝彥
◎燃佛心燈
有人問達賴喇嘛：
「密教吃葷吃素？」
達賴喇嘛回答：「我本人是茹素的，而喇嘛們並沒有吃素。」
又問：「不吃素就是殺生，豈不是犯了五戒？」
達賴喇嘛回答的含糊些，好像是不吃素並不是殺生，殺生和吃素並不太有關係。達賴喇嘛尷尬的笑了笑，說：「喇嘛們不殺生，但也不吃素。」
我本人在哲蚌寺，和堪布長老一起吃飯，飯桌上全部是葷食。
據我所知，吃素是中國佛教在梁武帝蕭衍的旨意下，才命令僧侶吃素的，這是中國佛教的特產，是為培養慈悲心及避免結惡緣。
吃素當然有好處，但絕非成佛的主要因素，如果吃素可以成佛，牛馬羊全部成佛了。
很多初發心學佛的人，剛開始不習慣素食，要先食三淨肉（不見殺、不聞殺、不為我殺），這是茹素之前的方便。
在我這裡，「真佛行者」要吃素否？
我答：「隨意。」
但吃葷的行者，要「吹氣」清淨，要持「文殊往生咒」超度，用密法超度肉類，化為清淨食。再令所食眾生的靈命得益處，如此就可以吃。因為你已慈悲了牠，又超度了牠，也沒有結惡緣。
在吃葷吃素方面，顯密不同，但請記住佛陀的一偈：
一口清淨水。
八萬四千蟲。
如果不持咒。
如同殺眾生。
其間，些微之理，不可不慎思明辨！
Taking Meat or Vegetarian Meals
Written by Lian-shen Linving Buddha Sheng-yen Lu
Translated by Cheng Yew Chung edited by Victor Hazen
True Buddha Foundation Translation Team
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 having a meal with the Khenpo at Drepung Loseling Monastery, 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 slaughtered, no actual hearing of its cry while it is being slaughtered, 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 breath 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!
