Why can't sentient beings eat pork?

A student asked: "How can one avoid falling into stages?" Chan Master Huangbo said: “终日吃饭未曾咬着一粒米，终日行未曾踏着一片地，与么时无人我等相，终日不离一切事，不被诸境惑，方名自在人。更时时念念不见一切相，莫认前后三际，前际无去，今际无住，后际无来，安然端坐，任运不拘，方名解脱，努力努力！此门中千人万人，只得三个五个，若不将为事，受殃有日在，故云着力。今生须了却，谁能累劫受余殃！”

"Stages" here refers to the sequential stages of cultivation. "Not falling into stages" means directly arriving at the most fundamental and ultimate place of the Dharma. What counts as directly realizing emptiness (śūnyatā)? Chan Master Huangbo replied: If one can manage it, then all day long while eating, it is as if not a single grain of rice has been eaten, with the mind empty and not attached to self; all day long while walking, it is as if not a single patch of ground has been trodden, with the mind empty and not attached to self, not falling onto the marks of one's own eating and walking. When one reaches this state, there is no mark of a person and no mark of self in the mind; all day long one is never apart from all affairs, yet is not deluded by any realm of experience, not entangled by any marks—only then is one called a person of freedom. Moreover, at every moment, in every thought, one does not see any marks; do not hold that all dharmas have a past, a present, and a future, because the past has not departed, the present does not linger even for a moment, and the future has not come. Sitting calmly and at ease at all times, moving spontaneously without being bound by dharmas—this is called liberation.

This is the state after the prajñā realization of the Chan school, the state of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) being empty. Why are they empty? Because they are produced by the tathāgatagarbha, and therefore are said to be empty. Compared with the state of emptiness in the Small Vehicle, this state goes a step further, and is immeasurably higher than the state of "existence" of ordinary beings; yet it is still not as ultimate as the state of emptiness in the Consciousness-Only teaching. At the levels of the Small Vehicle and prajñā, it is the emptiness of self; at the level of Consciousness-Only, it is the emptiness of dharmas. The emptiness of dharmas, built upon the emptiness of self, is more subtle and detailed, with a broader and deeper scope.

For example, take the matter of eating: at the prajñā level, it is held that there is no self eating, no eating self, and I do not attach to the mark of the eating self; whereas in Consciousness-Only, even the mark of the rice does not exist. Take, for example, the matter of eating pork, which everyone finds interesting: it is said that the five aggregates can never touch the actual pork of the external object-aspect (nimitta); they can only touch the pork of the inner object-aspect inside the back of the head. Yet after the pork is eaten, not only is the pork of the inner object-aspect gone, but the pork of the external object-aspect is gone too—why is that?

Not being able to eat actual pork is the same as not having eaten pork at all. So what is it that enters the mouth and is swallowed into the belly? The mouth eats rice, but the rice is the rice inside the back of the head; the mouth, teeth, and tongue are also inside the back of the head, and the you who is eating is also empty. Would you say you have eaten the rice? Substitute pork for rice—would you say you have eaten the pork? What you ate was the pork of the inner object-aspect, yet the pork of the external object-aspect has vanished. How did it disappear? A secret, a huge secret—worth investigating for a whole lifetime, worth investigating for many great kalpas.

This dharma is very deep. Even with the foundation of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) in the Small Vehicle and seeing the mind in the Great Vehicle, it is not easy to investigate. The arising and ceasing of both the inner and outer object-aspects are the tathāgatagarbha in function, and the functions of the six consciousnesses are also the result of the tathāgatagarbha's functioning. Every dharma is the tathāgatagarbha; without enlightenment, one simply cannot investigate it.

Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have never actually contacted even one of the six sense objects—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—yet at every moment they appropriate the realms of the six sense objects as their own, with their hearts and mouths constantly chanting: this is mine, that is mine, my body, my family, the words I speak, the sounds I hear, the meat I eat, the water I drink, the bed I sleep in, my power, status, fame, and so on. This fragrance, that flavor—you cannot contact any of them; which one is yours? Life after life, pursuing and chasing—turns out it was wrestling with emptiness, contending with emptiness, playing games with emptiness; and moreover, oneself is also empty. Emptiness contending with emptiness—the protagonist of the game does not even exist, and so-called contention is also empty. Rather than wasting time on the games of worldly dharmas, everyone would truly be better off exploring these truths, so as to avoid playing games in vain life after life. Do the truths really have no appeal?

Someone takes a wooden stick and bangs it loudly on a table, then firmly believes: Look, I struck the table, I showed off my power, I vented my anger. In reality, the wooden stick is the stick inside the back of the head, the hand is the hand inside the back of the head, the table is the table inside the back of the head, the action is the action inside the back of the head; seeing this action happens inside the back of the head, hearing the sound happens inside the back of the head, feeling that anger was vented happens inside the back of the head—all the activities of the five aggregates are performed inside the back of the head.

How big is the back of the head, that it can contain so many dharmas? Far more than these—hundreds of millions of dharmas, countless numbers of dharmas, all occur inside the back of the head. Only empty dharmas, dharmas without any substantial nature, can land inside the back of the head; substantial dharmas with marks cannot land inside the back of the head. All dharmas in the world lack substance; they are all empty, all images, all shadows. Pork is like this, eating pork is like this, and my eating pork is likewise like this—there is no such person and no such event. What is there still to grasp, what to pursue? Fools!

To realize this principle, one must first eradicate the view of self, and then see the mind. Realizing the emptiness of the five aggregates through eradicating the view of self is very important. As for the question of the inner and outer object-aspects, investigate it after enlightenment; only when both meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom are very deep can one begin to find a way in. Only by investigating from the angle of the tathāgatagarbha can one get a clue, because the substance of all dharmas is precisely the function and operation of the tathāgatagarbha.

Neither the tathāgatagarbha nor the five aggregates of self have ever contacted or possessed any dharma in the world, yet the external and inner object-aspects of all worldly dharmas arise and cease in that unceasing way, being continually fabricated. This phenomenon is indeed hard for people to accept. Empty dharmas are very hard for worldly people to believe; they are too accustomed to clinging to existence. Yet the Buddha's teaching, whether Mahāyāna or Small Vehicle, all points to emptiness. When emptiness is carried to the end—stripped bare, utterly and thoroughly empty—then one becomes a Buddha.