People must eat food to nourish their bodies, so that they can have the physical strength to spread the Dharma and benefit their health. However, most Zen practitioners do not eat after noon, so the porridge they eat in the evening is called "medicinal stone", which is also called medicinal food. It means to use this food only to cure diseases and hunger, which implies vigilance. We should refrain from taking it, and know how to cherish blessings and save money, so as to reduce extravagance and waste and achieve the goal of curbing greed.
1. Medicinal stone, also called "medicinal food", was originally used by Zen to refer to porridge eaten at night. "Huangbai Qinggui" said: "Medicine stone, eat it at night. Because most meditators "don't eat after noon" (they only eat two meals a day), they deliberately call dinner "medicine stone", which means that they eat it to cure diseases and hunger. Diet is a kind of "food supplement"-it can make people healthy. Dinner can cure diseases and hunger, and it is called "medicine stone" (medicine food), which is naturally very close in meaning.
2. We are sensual beings, and "appetite" is one of our daily needs. In fact, no matter whether you are a monk at home, it is impossible for everyone to skip lunch. In order to treat human beings' "craving for deep streams and valleys" (like deep valleys), Buddhists call dinner "medicine stone", which is precisely to warn us to exercise restraint. People have to eat, otherwise they can't live, and how can they spread the Dharma and benefit their lives? However, most people regard dinner as a "dinner", so they often eat a special meal, which has already surpassed the purpose of "medicine stone" or health preservation, and is purely greedy. Some people even do strange tricks and have a whimsy: eating monkey wax, cooking snake gall, stewing palms ... going up and down, collecting everything that flies in the sky, runs on the ground and swims in the water.
Buddhists call dinner a medicine stone, which just reminds the world: don't eat too much and don't kill too much. Otherwise, too many killings will be made, and the future troubles will be endless; And overnutrition will lead to many diseases.
3. Take medicine according to the doctor's instructions, and don't eat too much, and don't quantify it from time to time. Call eating a "medicine stone" and you can get a "regular and quantitative" effect.
Calling eating "medicine stone" is a convenient method. It doesn't mean that Buddhism doesn't know anything about "delicious food". In fact, it is Buddhists who know the joy of "chewing vegetable roots" best and can enjoy healthy natural food best, because vegetarian food is the most fragrant and delicious.
4. "medicine", not only children are afraid, but adults also turn pale at the smell, and they will never take it unless they have to. Therefore, taking the name "medicine stone" can make people "observe" and "visualize", and over time, they can reach the state of "not eating after noon".
5. Buddhists call dinner "medicine stone" to ask people to cherish their blessings, unless they are sick or hungry and unbearable (those with stomach problems will be painful when they are hungry; People with gastroptosis need to eat less and eat more meals, etc.), otherwise eating less than one meal a day is also a way of "energy saving"! According to the statistics of the United Nations, nearly half of the world's population is often in a state of "hunger"; And one person starved to death every ten minutes. )
6. since dinner is called "medicine stone", breakfast and lunch can certainly be regarded as a kind of medicine stone to reduce extravagance and waste.
The world often pays too much attention to diet, and as a result, it wastes too much time to buy food, cook and eat vegetables, which is costly, time-consuming and harmful. Because a meal will cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. And how long does it take to have a wedding banquet? -Two or three hours on average. After eating and drinking again, I often eat the gastrointestinal tract, which is really not worth the loss.
On the other hand, treating diet as "medicine" can make people "fearful" and thus restrain greed. Don't believe it? Have you heard that some people have nothing to do, so they take "medicine" and enjoy it? If you are no longer "greedy" and you already know how to eat samadhi, then you are enjoying moderate natural food for three meals a day, why should you add the pseudonym "medicine stone"?