“World Honored One, at present, I, Subhūti, hear the Vajra Prajña Pāramita Sūtra and with pure faith I understand the wonderful dharma of prajña, can receive it with my mind, hold it with my body, and not forget it. I do so without difficulty.” Why was it so easy for Subhūti? Because he had planted good roots for many kalpas. If he had lacked good roots, then upon hearing the wonderful dharma of prajña his faith would have been defiled by doubts and skepticism. However, in the past he had made offerings to limitless Buddhas and had planted all good roots of which there are eleven kinds:

1. Faith;
2. Shame;
3. Remorse. You would do well to produce a mind of shame and remorse, recognizing your own wrongdoings and changing the bad to good. In that way you plant good roots. Lack of shame and remorse indicates a lack of good roots;
4. Absence of greed;
5. Absence of hostility;
6. Absence of stupidity;
7. Vigor;
8. Tranquility, which refers to the light ease of sitting in Dhyana;
9. Non-laxity, which means not being careless or lazy, not running wild and being too casual. It also means not disobeying rules. If you are not lax then you follow rules;
10. Non-harming, which means not hurting other creatures; and
11. Renunciation, which means practicing giving without attachment to the mark of giving.

These are the eleven good phenomena of the fifty-one that belong to the mind.

People who are at home should make these offerings. People who have left the home life receive them. Since Sangha members receive offerings in that way, they cultivate the Three Recollections and Five Contemplations as they take their daily meal. Actually, members of the lay community as well as members of the Sangha should practice the Three Recollections as they eat.

With the first bite of food one thinks, “I vow to cut off all evil.” The vow precludes giving rise to any evil thought, not to mention doing evil deeds. With the second bite of food one thinks, “I vow to cultivate all good.” You should not just mechanically recite the vows and consider that sufficient. You need to truly cut off all evil and actually cultivate all good. With the third bite of food one thinks, “I vow to take all living beings across.” The vow means to take all living beings across the sea of suffering to Buddhahood.

You should not glance around as you eat, finding out what everyone else is eating, until you discover, “My bowl doesn’t have any of the delicacies you had to eat. … How come he gets to eat better food than I do?” You should not give rise to such greed. Instead, you should be mindful of Five Contemplations:

1. Reckon the amount of work it took to bring the food to where you eat it.

Figure out how much work the farmer did to plant the fields, and the amount of manual labor needed to cultivate, weed, nourish, and water the crops as they ripened. When ripe the rice had to be harvested and the chaff had to be separated from the grain. Through this contemplation you come to realize it was not easy to bring the food to your bowl.

2. Consider whether your virtuous conduct is sufficient for you to accept the offering.

Ask yourself, “Do I have any cultivation? Do I have any Way virtue? If I am receiving people’s offerings and I have no cultivation, I should be ashamed and penitent.” Then encourage yourself, “Ah, I must immediately cultivate. I must use effort and do the work to end birth and death.” If your virtue is abundant, you should say, “Although I am a greatly virtuous High Master probably the foremost of all High Masters in the world in Way virtue nonetheless I shall work even harder. I accept this offering, and afterwards I shall use even more effort. I still need to progress. If I have certified to the first fruit of Arhatship, then I shall seek the second fruit; if I have certified to the second fruit, I shall seek the third; and if I am a third stage Arhat, then I shall seek to reach the fourth stage. I need to go forward with ever increasing vigor.”

3. Guard your mind against excesses of which greed and so forth are the source.

When you eat, don’t stuff. Eat just enough, then stop. Do not be greedy for more. Sickness enters through the mouth. If you are too greedy, you get diarrhea. No matter how good the food is, if you eat too much and there is no room for it In your stomach, it will have to move out fast, and you will suffer the illness which results from passing undigested food.

4. This is a dose of medicine to keep my body from wasting away. The food is like medicine which keeps my body healthy.

5. It is to accomplish my karma of the Way that I should accept this food.

Ask yourself, “Why do I eat these things?” Then answer yourself, “because I want to cultivate and realize my Way karma so that ultimately I become a Buddha.”

When members of the Sangha are given offerings, they should not be arrogant. And when no one makes offerings to them, they should not harbor greed. Even if you are starving to death, you should cultivate the Way. To starve to death in the course of cultivation is the very greatest glory, the worthiest kind of sacrifice. Don’t fear starvation.

Lao Zi was a transformation body of the Venerable Mahākāśyapa. When the Buddha entered the world, he saw that living beings in China committed many offenses and did not conduct themselves in accord with propriety, so he sent Lao Zi, Confucius, and Yan Hui to China to teach and transform living beings. All three were transformation bodies of Bodhisattvas.

Lao Zi introduced the concept of the unconditioned to the Chinese people. If one can understand unconditioned dharma, one can then come to understand that which is not unconditioned. The Buddhadharma speaks of that which is unconditioned and yet not unconditioned.