Does Eating Food Containing Alcohol Violate the Precepts?

Question: If one has not drunk alcohol, but has eaten food containing alcohol or made from alcohol, does this violate the precept against drinking alcohol? For example, may one consume grape juice with slight fermentation from being stored, pickles, or white vinegar made from alcohol?

Answer: When the chemical components in food transform, they are not identical to the chemical components of alcohol and do not have the effect of numbing the nerves; consuming them does not violate the precept. There are several key points in violating the precept against drinking alcohol: First, the beverage consumed has the same composition as alcohol, the same properties as alcohol, and has a numbing effect on the nerves of the physical body; second, it has been consumed; third, there is a mind of craving and attachment. If there is no mind of craving and attachment, and a tiny amount is consumed for the purpose of treating illness, then the precept is not violated.

Alcohol can numb the nervous system, causing the supreme faculty (indriya) of the brain to be obstructed in receiving information, weakening or even disabling the function of the mind consciousness, resulting in the inability to think normally. When dealing with people and affairs, one lacks rationality and the wisdom to handle them correctly, and over the long term one's intelligence will decline. The retribution in future lives is shallow and weak wisdom, and stupidity.

Question: If a person has a high tolerance for alcohol and usually likes to have a couple of small drinks, and after drinking his mind is not disturbed and he remains clear-headed, 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 for wealth, sex, fame, power, or drugs, why are there no precepts against wealth, power, and fame, but a separate precept against alcohol?

Answer: Drinking alcohol can give rise to all faults and lead to 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 who drink alcohol show no visible faults at present, it does in fact paralyze the brain nerves, causing intelligence to quietly decline, and in future lives they will receive the retribution of stupidity. It was 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, which cannot be eliminated by coercive precepts—precepts are of no use here. Only through cultivation, with meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom both complete, can it be gradually subdued and eliminated after one understands the principles.