五戒の細則

Chapter 7: Questions Concerning the Precept Against Alcohol

1. Why did the Elder drink blindly without distinguishing the liquor?

Question: The Elder Śvāgata drank without looking at what he was drinking, and the alcohol entered his mouth without his distinguishing its taste. Was this because the Elder had already ceased to crave the feeling of taste, or because he was in meditative concentration (samādhi), so that drinking alcohol and drinking water were the same to him? Does the "without looking" in the sūtra mean that he had already stopped discriminating tastes?

Answer: The Elder trusted this female lay devotee completely and never imagined that she would give him alcohol to drink, so he drank whatever was given to him, without any vigilance. When drinking, perhaps the Elder had no experience with alcohol and the like and could not distinguish it; moreover, because the Elder possessed great supernormal powers and was extremely self-confident, he was unconcerned about anything, so it made no difference to him what he drank. In fact, a person who possesses the meditative concentration of the fourth dhyāna and great supernormal powers, having transcended the domain of the aggregate of form and the domain of the aggregate of feeling, will have a physical body that is not affected by material form. In the Buddha's time, in order to make it convenient for the Buddha to establish the precepts, some disciples cooperated with the Buddha in liberating sentient beings, acting out roles alongside the Buddha. The evil people of that time were not truly evil; they only pretended to be evil. If there had been no evil people committing evil deeds, how could so many sūtras have been handed down, and how could those precepts have been handed down?

2. The Difference Between the Five Precepts and the Bodhisattva Precepts

Question: In the past, a disciple worked as a bartender, mixing and selling alcohol. While selling alcohol, he formed the thought: "Let everyone drink more; the more they drink, the more I earn." If this behavior occurred both before and after receiving the precepts, what grade of offense would it constitute in each case? Can it be repented of? If one leads people to become drunk and lose their minds, can the future retribution be eliminated?

Answer: Working as a bartender mixing and selling alcohol does not count as violating the precepts before receiving the Bodhisattva Precepts. The Five Precepts only prohibit drinking alcohol; they do not prohibit the trades of making, selling, or delivering alcohol. Forming such thoughts while selling alcohol belongs to mental karma (karma of mind); the Small Vehicle does not prohibit it, but in the Great Vehicle, forming such a thought already violates the Bodhisattva Precepts. Mental karma is repudiable with respect to the Five Precepts, the Eight Precepts of Fasting, and the monastic precepts: as long as bodily and verbal karma have not manifested, mental karma can always be repented of, because the mind can be changed, and once changed, the mental karma disappears. However, some serious bodily and verbal karma, once committed, has an effect, like water that has been spilled and cannot be gathered up again. These precepts mainly guard against bodily and verbal manifestations; if no concrete karmic action is formed, the retribution will not be too severe.

The Bodhisattva Precepts mainly guard the mind, and they are deeper, subtler, and harder to keep than these Small Vehicle precepts: as soon as a thought arises, the precept is violated. When the mind differs, the precepts differ; when the mind changes, the precepts must change, and bodhisattvas at different stages uphold different precepts. The precepts of the Great and Small Vehicles also differ, and at times they are even contradictory: keeping the Small Vehicle precepts entails violating the Great Vehicle precepts, and keeping the Great Vehicle precepts necessarily entails violating the Small Vehicle precepts. Great Vehicle bodhisattvas take the Great Vehicle precepts as their standard; they would rather violate the Small Vehicle precepts than fail to practice the Great Vehicle precepts. Otherwise, violating the Great Vehicle precepts, one is no longer a bodhisattva, and that is a very serious matter.

When the mind is empty, the matter is empty; when the mind is not empty, the matter is not empty either, because matters are created by the mind—whatever the mind is, that is the kind of thing it does. A wholesome mind does wholesome deeds; an evil mind does evil deeds. When the underlying intention differs, although the surface appearance of the deeds may be the same, their substance is vastly different, and they may even be opposite. When people do the same things, doing exactly the same deeds, the results can be vastly different precisely because their aspirations and underlying intentions differ.

3. Does Eating Food Containing Alcohol Violate the Precept?

Question: If one does not drink alcohol but eats food containing alcohol or made from alcohol, does one violate the precept against drinking alcohol? For example, may one consume grape juice that has been left standing and has fermented slightly, pickled vegetables, or white vinegar made from alcohol?

Answer: When the chemical components in food have transformed and are no longer the same as the chemical components of alcohol, having no intoxicating effect on the nerves, consuming them does not violate the precept. There are several key points in violating the precept against alcohol: first, the beverage consumed has the same composition as alcohol and the same properties as alcohol, with an intoxicating effect on the nerves of the physical body; second, one has consumed it; third, there is a mind of craving. If there is no mind of craving, and one consumes a tiny amount for the purpose of treating illness, then the precept is not violated.

Alcohol can intoxicate the nervous system, obstructing the brain's supreme faculty (indriya) from receiving information, weakening or even disabling the functions of the mind consciousness, resulting in an inability to think normally. When dealing with people and affairs, one lacks rationality and the wisdom to handle them correctly, and over time one's intelligence will decline. The future retribution is shallow and weakened wisdom, and stupidity.

4. Why Are Cravings Other Than Drinking Alcohol Not Prohibited?

Question: If a person has a good tolerance for alcohol and usually likes to have a couple of drinks, and drinking does not disturb his mind—he remains sober, no different from usual—perhaps he is simply attached to the taste. If this attachment is much milder compared to other attachments, such as craving wealth, sex, fame, power, or drugs, why are there no precepts against wealth, power, and fame, while alcohol alone is prohibited?

Answer: Drinking alcohol can give rise to all faults and the commission of all offenses, including killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying, and the craving for wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep is also included therein. Although some people's drinking shows no apparent fault at present, it does in fact numb the brain nerves, causing intelligence to quietly decline, and in future lives they will reap the retribution of stupidity. It is in view of this that the Buddha established the precept against drinking alcohol. Although sentient beings also crave the five desires of wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep even when not drinking, such craving is an afflictive behavior of the mental nature that cannot be eliminated by coercive precepts—the precepts are of no use against it. Only through cultivation, with meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom both complete, and after understanding the principles, can it be gradually subdued and eliminated.

5. Why Did Ji Gong the Monk Not Violate the Precept by Drinking?

Question: Why is it that no matter how much alcohol Ji Gong the monk drank, his nervous system was never affected or intoxicated, and his mind consciousness was always clear?

Answer: Because Ji Gong the monk possessed the four dhyānas and eight meditative absorptions (samādhi) and great supernormal powers, and his cultivation had transcended the domains of the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of consciousness, his five-aggregate body was unaffected by anything external, and he had no mental activities whatsoever; therefore, whatever he did did not violate the precepts. The fourth dhyāna can transform all states of body and mind and the world, is unaffected by all external material form, and can even transform the material form of both the internal and external worlds; it is not constrained by the physical body and is not influenced by the aggregate of feeling. Therefore, drinking alcohol was the same as not drinking it: his nervous system was never intoxicated, his mind was always clear, and he violated no precepts whatsoever.