In our daily lives, simple actions like eating can carry profound meaning. The Buddha taught that in every meal, we should practice mindful reflection. Regardless of whether the meal is vegetarian or non-vegetarian, we should take three mindful steps before eating:
The Three Prayers Before Eating
The First Bite: A Vow to Avoid Evil: With the first bite, we vow not to commit any harmful actions. This isn’t just about avoiding actions ourselves, but also about refraining from encouraging others to engage in harmful behavior. For example, if we don’t kill, we should also avoid encouraging others to kill. Even something as seemingly minor as offering to help someone else prepare meat or encouraging actions that promote harm is going against the vow of avoiding evil.
The Second Bite: A Vow to Do Good: The second bite symbolizes our commitment to engage in good actions, such as practicing kindness, generosity, and compassion. This vow reflects our intent to foster goodness in our actions, speech, and thoughts. In addition to doing good ourselves, we should also avoid encouraging others to do bad. This includes teaching and guiding others on the path of kindness.
The Third Bite: A Vow to Liberate All Beings: The third bite represents the vow to help all sentient beings, to wish them well, and to contribute to their liberation from suffering. This vow encourages us to not only care for ourselves but to extend our compassion to all beings, ensuring that our actions benefit the greater good.
The Key Teachings of Buddhism: Three Simple Principles
The essence of Buddhist practice can be distilled into these three aspirations. They guide us in avoiding negative actions, promoting positive ones, and contributing to the liberation of all beings.
Avoiding Evil Actions: This means not only refraining from committing harmful acts ourselves, but also avoiding supporting or encouraging others in harmful deeds. We must practice mindfulness and make sure that our actions, words, and even our influence on others reflect kindness and respect.
Promoting Good Deeds: In addition to refraining from harmful actions, we must actively engage in doing good and encouraging others to do the same. This means cultivating virtues like compassion, patience, and wisdom in both ourselves and those around us.
Fostering the Liberation of All Beings: The ultimate goal is to work toward the freedom of all beings from suffering, whether through our direct actions or by inspiring others to act compassionately.
The Three Ways of Creating Merit
In Buddhism, there are three ways to accumulate merit, which relate to the three vows of doing no evil, doing good, and helping others:
Self-Action: This refers to the actions we perform ourselves, whether they are positive or negative.
Encouraging Others: This refers to teaching or encouraging others to perform actions, whether good or bad. It’s important to avoid encouraging harmful actions in others and to inspire them to act with compassion.
Rejoicing in the Actions of Others: This involves seeing someone else doing good and rejoicing in their actions. By expressing joy in others’ virtues, we accumulate merit and contribute to the positive energy in the world.
By practicing these three vows every day, we align ourselves with the core teachings of Buddhism. Whether we are eating or engaging in any activity, the key is to maintain mindfulness and make sure our actions contribute to the well-being of ourselves and others. In doing so, we cultivate a life of virtue, compassion, and wisdom, moving closer to the path of liberation.
Lesson by Venerable Thích Pháp Hoà