Maybe Guan Zhong practiced Taoism. How could a high ranking official of a country speak like this, and teach others to indulge in food, drinking and pleasure, and do whatever they wanted? Why did he say that? It's because when he was speaking, he knew what he was talking about. He also knew that his audience was at a very high spiritual level, and understood him. Now he further explained to Yan Ping-Zhong how to indulge in food, drink and pleasure. He said, "If your ears want to listen to music but can't listen, it's like restricting your hearing organ and controlling it. If your eyes like to see beautiful things and you don't allow them to, your visual organ is controlled. If our mind wants to let go and relax but has no way of doing so, we are controlling our mind. To control these organs or senses is to act like tyrants..." Do you all understand? Now that we already understand, we need to take another step to open up and liberate our thoughts. Don't be bound by society too much. We should rely on our intuition and our wisdom. We can do anything, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, as long as it benefits ourselves and others, and makes us happy, because we practice spiritually to be happy.
The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva says, when we die and others kill for us, we will also incur karma. Or, if a child is born and they kill to make offerings to the gods or ghosts for the mother, both mother and child will also be affected. Sometimes, they will get sick from unnatural or unknown causes. It’s because of the karma from killing. It affects the health of the mother and the child. And if they kill to offer to the dead, it will obstruct his freedom and his early liberation or elevation to a higher realm, because his merit will be reduced.
People in our world sometimes act with good intentions but cause harm to others. We have not studied well the teachings of the ancient people. We don’t listen to their advice. We claim we are Buddhists, but we don’t know what’s in the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva. It teaches everything. After reading the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva, we shouldn’t even want to eat or dare to eat, not to mention kill for others.
