The Sūtra on Sitting in Dhyāna and Meditative Concentration (Samādhi) (III)

于四供养中    知量知止足

大怖俱未免    当宜勤精进

一切苦至时    悔恨无所及

衲衣树下坐    如所应得食

勿为贪味故    而自致毁败

食过知味处    美恶都无异

爱好生忧苦    是以莫造爱

行业世界中    美恶无不更

一切已具受    当以是自抑

Explanation: You should well know moderation and contentment with regard to the four kinds of requisites—food, bedding, and medicine—and not make excessive demands. Since you have not yet escaped the great terror and dread of birth and death, you should diligently and vigorously apply yourselves to practice. Do not wait until all suffering arrives, when you will be overwhelmed with regret and unable to escape it. You should wear the patched monastic robes, sit upright beneath trees, contemplate the Dharma, and eat only the food you ought to receive. Do not, out of craving for flavors, bring ruin upon your practice of the Path. After eating, you will know that all flavors, whether fine or coarse, are no different at all; do not be picky about the taste of your food. Where there is fondness, there arises sorrow and suffering; therefore do not create the karma of craving. Living in the great trichiliocosm, there is no good or bad thing you have not experienced; having fully undergone all things, you should thereby subdue and restrain your own mind, and crave no more.

若在畜兽中    唌草为具味

地狱吞铁丸    燃热剧迸铁

若在薜荔中    脓吐火粪屎

涕唾诸不净    以此为上味

若在天宫殿    七宝宫观中

天食苏陀味    天女以娱心

人中务贵处    七馔备众味

一切曾所更    今复何以爱

往返世界中    厌更苦乐事

虽未得涅槃    当勤求此利

Explanation: In your past lives, when you were reborn among animals and wild beasts, you ate wild grasses as your finest food; when you were reborn in hell, you swallowed iron pellets as food—those iron pellets burned fiercely and scorching hot, even spewing sparks outward—yet due to evil karma you had no choice but to eat them; when you were reborn among hungry ghosts, you took the pus and phlegm, raging fire, feces, urine, mucus, and other such impurities discharged by humans as your finest food.

When you were reborn in the seven-jeweled palaces in heaven, you enjoyed celestial food of supreme flavor, such as sudhā nectar and ambrosia, with celestial maidens to delight your heart. When you were reborn into wealthy and noble families in the human world, you ate seven kinds of delicacies endowed with every form, fragrance, and flavor. All of this you have experienced; how can you now, out of craving, continue to transmigrate back and forth through the six realms, again undergoing all manner of things painful and pleasant? You have not yet realized the bliss of nirvāṇa; you should strive diligently and earnestly to obtain this supreme benefit and merit.