All the food the Buddha ate was of the finest flavor among foods

When the Buddha received offerings and taught the Dharma, He nevertheless ate horse fodder along with five hundred bhikṣus for three months. The bhikṣus found eating horse fodder unbearably bitter, yet the Buddha, eating horse fodder, experienced it as the finest of flavors. What does this show? Whatever situation the Buddha encountered, He had no mental preoccupation, no thoughts, no views, no opinions, because the Buddha had long since ceased to use the mind consciousness to comprehend any dharma or to analyze and deliberate upon any dharma; He forever follows the wisdom habits of the manas, doing whatever needs to be done—where would so many thoughts come from?

Because of the Buddha's own merit, whatever He ate was naturally the finest flavor, without any need for intentional mental加持—this is the retributive fruit of practice over three immeasurable kalpas. Thus, as soon as the caravan of carts left the Ganges, the Buddha had Ānanda go to the Ganges to fetch water to drink; and even when someone offered the Buddha sand and soil, the Buddha accepted it just the same, allowing the giver to gain merit. The Buddha's physical body is the most precious body in the world of the three realms, yet maintaining this body does not require the most expensive materials—low-cost materials suffice to meet the needs of the body's functioning. Even without any material offerings, the Buddha's physical body still radiates brilliance, illuminating the entire universe.

Take, for example, starting a company to earn money and support a family. Some people, with a low cost of one hundred or two hundred thousand, can get a company up and running, operating normally, and even achieve high returns—low input, high output, excellent efficiency. Others, by contrast, require tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in capital investment; with less than ten million they cannot operate normally, and even then the returns are not necessarily ideal—truly high input with low productivity. Maintaining each person's physical body and family is just like running a company. Some people, living with their families at low cost, are perfectly content and happy; while others and their families require high investment to feel satisfied and happy—without lavish food and high consumption they cannot live. Whose merit is being consumed by all this spending? And who pays the cost? The final destination of the physical body is the same for everyone: all will become a pile of dust and white bones. So which kind of life counts as wealth and success? And which company is truly profitable?