Diet is a key factor influencing meditation

Diet is also a crucial factor affecting meditative concentration. If the body absorbs excessive nutrients beyond its needs, it will react accordingly. This subsequently affects the conscious mind, leading to restlessness and agitation, where thoughts become impure and emotions become difficult to control—or require forceful suppression.

These nutrients include not only pungent substances such as fish, meat, alcohol, tobacco, onions, and garlic but also vegetarian food. Excessive intake of vegetarian nutrients can likewise cause physical and emotional overreactions, increasing physical and psychological burdens. When the mind struggles to remain pure, it inevitably hinders meditative concentration.

Therefore, those who complain that meditation is difficult to cultivate should examine their dietary structure to determine whether it involves excessive nutrient intake. In today’s world, material abundance has led people to indulge in food and nutrition, becoming overly attached to physical well-being and culinary pleasures. This results in impurity of body and mind, making it difficult to subdue greed and anger, intensifying afflictions, and ultimately obstructing the attainment of meditative concentration. Consequently, the observational practice and practical realization of the Dharma become exceedingly challenging. Even if one studies Buddhism extensively, masters its theories, and articulates them eloquently, without genuine inner realization, one remains merely a scholar of theoretical knowledge—a dilettante in theory.

In the Shurangama Sutra, the World-Honored One instructed disciples to abstain from pungent substances and subdue desire and anger, thereby accelerating progress on the path. However, in modern society, material abundance is so pervasive that even a vegetarian diet can similarly disturb the purity of body and mind, fueling desire and anger and hindering swift progress on the path. This issue deserves attention from the broader community of Buddhist practitioners, who should adjust their dietary habits to better support their spiritual practice.