Why Do the Eight Precepts of Fasting Prohibit Adorning the Body with Fragrances and Flowers?

This question should be considered from the reverse angle: why do so many people like to adorn their bodies with fragrance and flowers? What is the meaning of adorning the body? Why do men and women decorate and dress themselves up? Sentient beings, because they have not awakened the mind, do not reflect on or question their own and others' everyday behavior; they follow their habitual tendencies, follow all their mental processes, without knowing what kind of mental processes these are. All the mental processes of sentient beings ultimately come down to the view of the body and the view of the mind, which together constitute the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi). Because the self-view is deep and heavy, it manifests at all times and in all places; there is no intention to conceal it, nor the ability to conceal it, nor the ability to restrain it, and one does not know that it is wrong, that it is a wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), that it can lead one to fall into the pit of birth-and-death, unable to extricate oneself—even if the Buddha comes to save and draw one out, it is still very difficult.

Taking the body as the self is called the view of the body (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). Sentient beings subconsciously and unconsciously, at any time and in any setting, always attend to their own material form (rūpa) body, concerned with how others see them, how others evaluate them, how to make others accept them, like them, and revere them, and thus unconsciously want to attract the gaze and attention of others. Those who pay great attention to their appearance all do so because of the view of the body: they love to strike poses and preen, their behavior and manner are affected, they wear professional smiles, from time to time they fiddle with their hair and hands, touch up their faces, adjust their clothes—myriad little gestures, all revealing a person's view of the body. The feeling of the body cannot be neglected for even a minute; at no time can one forget the body. This shows how heavy the view of the body is among sentient beings.

If you know what the view of the body is, you will be able to observe whether others have the view of the body and how severe it is; you will know whether this person has eliminated the view of the body, whether they are a good teacher (kalyāṇamitra), and whether what they teach can lead you to eliminate the self-view and walk the path toward liberation. Because sentient beings are generally ignorant and unwilling to study the Buddhist sūtras, they lack correct judgment and are easily deceived, mistaking the false for the true, wasting enormous amounts of time and energy on wrong paths.

If one does not know what mental and physical state, what mental and physical manifestations, the elimination of self-view involves, then whether one is a teacher of the Dharma or a listener, one cannot conceal one's view of the body and self-view—and one does not even know how to conceal them; one cannot even fake it convincingly. Teachers of the Dharma also know that sentient beings are ignorant and do not understand, so they do not deliberately disguise or conceal themselves. Thus it is the foolish guiding the foolish, and no one can climb out of the pit of foolishness. The reason swindlers flourish in the world is that the soil of this world is suitable for them—suitable for their survival, suitable for their breeding—and that suitable soil is precisely the ignorance of sentient beings. Therefore it is the karma of sentient beings that summons the hypocrites and attracts them.
Now let us return to the main topic. The reason the Buddha established the precepts to restrain sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions was so that sentient beings could subdue their incorrect bodily, verbal, and mental actions, subdue their view of the body and self-view, laying the foundation for eliminating self-view, laying the foundation for seeing one's true mind and awakening to one's nature, and also laying the foundation for meditative concentration (samādhi). Therefore, if a person is unwilling to receive and keep the precepts, does not abide by the precepts, then meditative concentration will not arise; they will not subdue their own mind or reduce their self-view, will not eliminate the self-view, and will not see their true mind and awaken to their nature.

As for those who have no meditative concentration and do not keep the precepts, yet claim to have attained the fruits, seen their true mind, and awakened to their nature—what fruit did they attain, what mind did they see, what nature did they awaken to? So it is not surprising that some who guide others toward attaining the fruits and seeing the true mind call upon their followers to comply with afflictions and to abandon the forms of the precepts, telling them not to keep the precepts with signs. This is because their own afflictions are very heavy. To deceive all sentient beings as if they were fools is a very unwise move, for the Sahā world is, after all, the Buddha's land, and sentient beings are the Buddha's children. With the Buddha's great compassion, how could He give up caring for and transforming sentient beings? How could He fail to support sentient beings, or allow them to be maliciously deceived?