The Influence of Food and Drink on Meditative Concentration (Dhyāna and Samādhi)

Diet is also an important factor affecting meditative concentration (samādhi). If the body takes in too many nutrients, exceeding what the body needs, the body will react; this then affects the conscious mind, whose reactions become somewhat restless and agitated, the mind is no longer pure, emotions become difficult to control, or require forced restraint. These nutrients include not only meat, fish, tobacco, alcohol, scallions, garlic, and other pungent, impure substances, but also vegetarian food. If vegetarian food is excessively nutritious, it can likewise cause overly intense reactions in the body and emotions, increasing the burden on body and mind, making the mind difficult to purify, and thereby affecting meditative concentration.

So many people complain that meditative concentration is hard to cultivate; in that case, they should examine their dietary structure to see whether their nutrition is excessive and superabundant. Nowadays, because material life is rich and colorful, people crave the pleasures of the palate and nutrition, cherishing the physical body and delicious flavors too much, so that body and mind become impure, greed and anger are difficult to subdue, afflictions are heavy, and of course meditative concentration cannot be accomplished; the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and firsthand realization of the Buddha's Dharma become harder still. Thus, although a student of Buddhism may be broadly learned, fluent in theory, and eloquent in speech, the inner realization is ultimately never accomplished—he becomes merely a disciple who only understands and interprets, a jack-of-all-trades in theory.

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One required his disciples to abstain from meat and pungent substances and to subdue the mind of desire and the mind of anger, so that their progress on the Path could advance rapidly. But in modern society, material life is too abundant; even vegetarian food likewise affects the purity of body and mind, increasing the mind of desire and the mind of anger, so that progress on the Path cannot advance rapidly. This should draw the attention of us, the vast body of Buddhist disciples, to adjust our dietary structure so as to benefit our cultivation.