..续本文上一页alanced diet. If you do not eat at the right times, you will eat too much or too little, both of which are very bad for the body. Therefore, Lord Buddha said in the Vinaya and Discourse on the Stages of Yogic Practice that we should not overeat, nor should we eat too little, nor should we eat at the wrong times. Also, food shouldn”t be too strong—too spicy, too salty, too rich—as this will upset the body. Usually, a vegetarian diet is the most suitable.

　　Some people may think that if you are vegetarian, your body may not last long. This argument is not valid. A while back, I met someone who said to me: “It is best for humans to consume meat, otherwise, if we only eat vegetables, we will be similar to a yak only eating grass. How can we be sure that our body is healthy if we only eat vegetables

　　” I jokingly replied to him: “Beef actually comes from grass. The yaks eat grass directly, and they are very healthy. Instead of indirectly eating grass, why not become a vegetarian

　　 This will not harm your health.”

　　On the surface, it may look as if eating meat can benefit the body, but, in fact, many western medical experts and also humanitarian activists are promoting vegetarianism. Why

　　 Not because of their faith or religion, but simply from the point of view of physical health. They believe that humans shouldn”t eat too much meat, as doing so places a burden on the internal organs. Therefore, by eating vegetarian food, we not only refrain from creating negative karma, but it also improves our health significantly.

　　However, in the Chinese Han region, certain medical experts, due to insufficient research on the effects of vegetarian food on the body”s health, and a lack of awareness of the effects of vegetarian food on the environment, do not promote a vegetarian diet. The most important point is that we have only this one earth. If we destroy the natural world, killing and harming living beings, this will only destroy the planet”s ecological balance and cause us further difficulties. However, I am very sad to say that many people don”t consider this at all, caring only about themselves and paying no heed to the planet on which we live. In Buddhism, the practice focusing on one”s own liberation is called the “small vehicles.” Although they only care about themselves, they refrain from harming others. On the contrary, for those people that cause harm to our planet, there is no liberation as such.

　　We must take a broad and long-term view for the sake of harmony in nature and in order to protect our beneficial resources. We should also know how to protect the environment and care about animals. We must know that animals are our friends, not our food. If we treat them the way we treat non-living things, killing them recklessly and eating them, we are behaving in such a way as to make others disagree with and criticize us. The philosopher Bertrand Russell claimed to prefer Buddhism to any of the other great religions. Why would this be

　　 It is because the scope of Buddhist compassion extends toward all sentient beings. Therefore, being a Buddhist, it is our mandatory responsibility to love all sentient beings.

　　3. Getting the right amount of sleep

　　After a busy day of strenuous physical and mental effort, everyone needs to rest to restore their strength, and the most common means of relaxation is sleep. An adequate amount of sleep is needed. If we oversleep, we will feel drowsy, while, on the other hand, if we lack sleep, we cannot fully restore our strength. Some people who have just started studying and practicing Dharma do so very diligently, but they stay up late every night, sometimes not even getting any sleep. This is quite detrimental to your health. Some people sleep too much, spending half of their days asleep, which is even more ha…

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