Master Chin Kung - Essence of Vajra Sutra # 5 B 金剛經要義

(English subtitles) Buddhist Master Chin-Kung (淨空法師), 1927-2022, talks dharma.
Subtitles:
There is another thing- five pungent(garlic, onion, scallion, chive ... ). You also take these food very seriously. In fact, this is a tiny precept. According to the Shurangama Sutra, Buddha taught us not to eat these. You have to understand the reason. The Buddha made it very clear. What do Buddhists practice? Cultivate a pure mind. These five things are all stimulating, and the beginner is not settled, and his mind flows with the external realm.
Eating these five things raw will stimulate physiological reactions and make you prone to anger and grump. Eaten cooked, this stuff is hormone-producing and can easily induce sexual arousal. Both ways are not purified physically and mentally, so the Buddha taught you to abstain, the reason is here. Those will keep your mind and body from being purified, which is why the Buddha taught you to abstain from these for this very reason.
But you have to think about it, if you put a little condiments in the dishes now, will it work? It doesn’t work much, you need to understand this. You see, when I was in Atlanta,
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some laity were studying Buddhism in their homes, but not the whole family. They also like vegetarian food. He said that if the vegetarian diet is not flavored with green onions and garlic, it is better to eat meat.
Then I told him that they may use these for seasoning, and they can put these in the vegetarian dish. If you can teach him not to eat meat and to be a vegetarian, that will be a great merit. You must use expedients. Does this flavoring work? I'd tell you the condiment does not work much, just like the abstinence from alcohol, which works only when one is drunk. If you don't get drunk, it doesn't work, and neither does this Five Pungent.
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Not to mention that in modern times, modern diets are toxic. Look at the meat of mad cow disease in England lately. I'm timid about meat because I'm thinking of a problem. Thirty or forty years ago, all these domestic animals were raised outside and in the wild.
Before they were killed, they lived a very free and comfortable life, and I believe they were in a very cheerful and comfortable mood, and they were very healthy.
Now you see, pigs and chickens are raised in cages, and when they are born, they are put in jail and imprisoned for life. In the end, they get killed.
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How do you think they feel? When it is in a mood of gloom and depression, it has toxins in its flesh and blood.
How can it be edible? Nowadays, not only is meat poisonous, causing strange diseases, but vegetarian food is also poisonous. Look, there's pesticides in the vegetables.
In the past, Teacher Li told us that in Taiwan, the rice is mixed with talcum powder, the rice looks good and beautiful, but it is poisonous. So Teacher Li said it’s hard to be a human being now because you take poison with three meals.
Therefore, if Sakyamuni Buddha had been born in this era to guide us,
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it would have been different, and several of the Five Pungents might have been opened. You have to understand that garlic has the best detox effect, so it is now used as medicine and antidote, and you have to understand this reason.
There is a supreme principle in “lecturing for others,” and here the Buddha teaches us two phrases: When not taking in any form, one's mind is immovable as usual. The meaning of these two sentences is profound. In other words, in our daily life, we should not attached to any tiny form.
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In the first half of this Sutra, we were taught that we “should raise our heart with dwelling nowhere”, not to be attached, not to keep in mind, not to take in forms. Not to take in forms is practicing virtue. Immovability is natural virtue. If you have not practiced, how can you see nature?
By using the method of “not to take in forms” to realize the true nature of immovability. This is how the Buddha teaching bodhisattvas, from developing the resolve to attain Buddhahood, the guidance program for studying. How to practice? It is right to hold on this principle.
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All our minds and thoughts are attachment, and all of them are taking in forms. Why must we not take in forms or attach ourselves to forms?
The Buddha has revealed the truth for us, so that we know the reason why, and then we are willing to abide by this principle of the Buddha. The Buddha later explains this to us in this 4-phrase verse as bellow, explaining the reasoning behind it:
“Every conditioned thing(dharma) is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow.
It is as transient as a dewdrop or lightning.
You should visualize them thus.” These 4 phrases answer all the questions. What's the meaning of the conditioned things?