Tag: Buddhist Vegetarians

And what about purchasing meat of an animal that someone else killed? Is this consistent with the Buddhist principles of compassion and non-harming, a cornerstone of right resolve? This is where things get tricky, and where the suttas offer only spotty guidance. In the Buddha’s definition of right livelihood for a lay person, one of the five prohibited occupations is “business in meat” [AN 5.177]. Although he does not explicitly state whether this prohibition also extends to us, the butcher’s clients and customers, it does place us uncomfortably close to a field of unskillful action.

The Lankavatara Sutra, is essentially a product of later Mahayana development. 5 There are several versions of this sutra, one fairly different in content from the other. Most scholars concluded that this sutra was likely compiled in 350-400 CE. In addition the chapter dealing with meat eating was indeed added much later in subsequent versions. This sutra was not the authentic words by the Buddha, but was compiled much later by unknown authors following Mahayana’s philosophy.6

 

I must wonder, if someone should have a cigarette would that be showing a good moral example given the fact that cigarettes kill thousands and cause untold misery every year? Is it the proper example, to support such an industry? Should you be responsible for someone else’s cancer because you bought that cigarette? Would not buying that cigarette have prevented someone else’s cancer?

 

How about a drink? Have you been “morally irresponsible” by having that cocktail lately?

For those willing to point this out, yes I understand that for some there are issues regarding the five precepts here…. I am simply drawing a none the less example or two of this angle of thinking.

Let’s take a look at the story of Devadatta shall we?

 

In the Vinaya Cullavagga Ch.7 the would be assassin of the Buddha that was his cousin Devadatta , encouraged the buddha to adhere to more strict practices for the sangha, one of them being to eat only vegetarian food for alms. Even though I’m sure he must have known that the laity would come to understand that him and his disciples were only accepting vegetarian food, he wisely refused. He knew that the issue of whether or not to be a vegetarian was not the key issue of suffering in samsara. If you have ever drunk a glass of beer, would that be a tarnished example for all of humanity, especially those who might have had a loved one killed by a drunk driver, or how about the many homes and lives in other ways ruined by the industry that produces this product? Are you supporting such misery? The Buddha knew that we are most responsible for that which we most directly affect. He knew that there was a more encompassing issue at hand…….

 

That would include the key issue of suffering….that being the first spoke on the wheel of dependent origination, ignorance.

Ignorance of our unlimited spiritual potential would be a good way to put it. Not ignorance of the vegetarian way, or of how baby seals are being killed, or of the needless suffering and death of the whales being needlessly killed for the whaling industry, nor ignorance of how alcohol causes so much suffering or of how cigarettes cause so much suffering and misery …….. do you think that I’m comparing apples and oranges as they say and calling them both fruit?

 

If someone were to find themselves reborn in some sort of hellish realm would it be more prudent to figure a way not to make it back to a place that was made for suffering or instead organize a grassroots boycott against the local coal miners union because they produce some of the method for the burning of the flames?

 

If we look at the root cause of ignorance and work on that, then fewer and fewer people will be reborn engaged in the process of samsara as an animal that will be slaughtered or someone willing to complain about it. Not ignorance of the best diet to eat as a vegetarian or not or ignorance of how baby seals are being needlessly murdered, or ignorance of the suffering of the whales at the hands of the whaling industry or ignorance of just how many people die and the tremendous suffering caused by drunk driving each and every year but … the ignorance of our true spiritual ability as human beings to transcend all of such suffering.

 

 ll. The analysis of virtue

7. “It is, bhikkhus, only to trifling and insignificant matters, to the minor details of mere moral virtue, that a worldling would refer when speaking in praise of the Tathāgata. And what are those trifling and insignificant matters, those minor details of mere moral virtue, to which he would refer? 

8. “‘Having abandoned the destruction of life, the recluse Gotama abstains from the destruction of life. He has laid aside the rod and the sword, and dwells conscientious, full of kindness, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings.’ It is in this way, bhikkhus, that the worldling would speak when speaking in praise of the Tathāgata. (emphasis mine)

This of course is not to say that there is no virtue in such actions, quite to the contrary! The Venerable Gotama was drawing a comparison between a worldling perspective of what was important spiritually for praise and what would otherwise be considered more of an important matter for those who had attained something more than the mundane worldly perspective. Would there be those who would venture to say that the purpose of the Buddha dhamma is to have the spiritual experience and maturity of a “worlding”?