Vegetarianism in Buddhism

Thank you for the sharing.

I felt blessed that i am already a vegetarian since 3 years ago. Rinpoche always encourage us to be a vegetarian and love animals.

Now we have more and more people in Kechara took life long vegetarian vows, and promote vegetarianism.

Thank you

Being a vegetarian is to help us to develop the quality of compassion in Buddhist practice. If on one hand we say we want to develop compassion, but on the other we are still eating meat, it is contradictory.

Becoming a vegetarian is also a very good way to learn how to control our mind. All the craving we have for meat is generated by our mind, our mind tells us we must eat meat otherwise we will feel hungry which is not true at all. If we think retreat is difficult and it is hard to focus, being a vegetarian will be a very good starting point to tame our mind.

When I walk through wet markets and see a whole animal there, dead, I think – this is what I used to put through my mouth, for my pleasure. A carcass. People don’t see animals as a life – but they are a living thing. They have feelings, they cry, they love, they feed and care for their child, they eat – just like humans do. So why do we have to kill and eat another living being?

Moreover, nowadays, people breed animals purely for human consumption – their treatment is unethical, and the resources used for that could go instead to feed say, the poor in Africa. To sustain the growing demand of meat consumption, it also contributes to environmental issues.

I used to think that it was impossible to not eat meat, but having made the decision to just do it and be vegetarian, it has become much easier. Thinking about the suffering of the animals prior to their slaughter, makes me not want to eat meat.

From the article, it is quite clear that all beings in Samsara have been our mothers before. They have such a connection with us that if we consume them, it would be like consuming our own kin.

And, they have feeling and can sense pain and mental turmoil. So, killing them subject them to all these pain.

And, we create negative karma as a result of killing when we take their life so that we can consume the flesh for there will be no flesh for consumption without killing.

So, in order to achieve enlightenment we have to have compassion for them and so must abstain from the consumption of their flesh. A human cannot practice Bodhicitta if he/she cannot feel the tremendous pain and suffering of the animal at the point of forced death of the animal, merely to satisfy the palette.

So, from this perspective, we should refrain from consuming meat. Thanks for the clear article.

One of the things that reaffirmed my choice that compassionate dining is the way to go, is Rinpoche’s teachings with the following points that stayed with me till today:
1) How can one claim to be an animal lover and still happily eat meat
2) How can someone become compassionate if one is still happily eating meat
3) Chanting OM MANI PADME HUM and still eating meat just doesn’t make sense as one cannot become compassionate just by chanting mantras alone because the action of eating meat is still taking another being’s life.

It seems just wrong that the same mouth that is chanting sacred mantras one moment is eating the flesh of another sentient being whose life was prematurely cut short to fulfill the demands of one’s cravings.

While it is not an easy switch for many due to their strong attachment to meat, but by starting with smaller manageable steps such as going meatless for a day or even a meal will actually help reduce the demand for meat in the long run. And when the demand drops, so will the killing.

Thanks for sharing this article as it explains how each Buddhism vehicles Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana apply different guidelines for practitioners on vegetarian. I learned that :

1) Therevadan – eat whatever that is given to them when they go around for alms, which sometimes includes meat. They eat meat because of their practice of non-discrimination and non-attachment. A lot of people misunderstood and take it as Buddhism encourage us eat meat, as they see Theravadan monks do.

2) Mahayana – practitioners are not allowed to eat meat. It even extend to disallow consuming aromatic plants that stimulate the senses such as onions and garlic. Mahayana Buddhism forbids killing and therefore eating meat it killing and eating meat is merely for our own pleasure. Furthermore Buddhism stress in reincarnation principal, therefore the animals that we eat may be our mothers in previous lives. Hence we should not be eating as the animal could be our own mother. We must have compassion, respect and love on other being.

3) Vajrayana – It is not encourage to eat meat. Lama Tsongkhapa teaches us to practise compassion and love towards other being. Hence eating meat will not encourage our Bodhicitta practise. We must hold our non violence vow and through this may the practitioner be blessed and protected by Three Jewels.

Ultimately, we must train our Bodhicitta mind by practising compassion and non killing.

From the outside, people often question “how come some school of Buddhism can eat meat while some cannot?”. This article answers all the doubts with clarity. There are three vehicles in Buddhism which practice the same essence of Buddha’s teaching but apply slightly differing dietary practice. As the saying goes “all routes lead to Rome”; the non-discriminatory diet and the meatless diet are circumstantial. The essence is to have compassion towards all sentient beings, including animals. Understanding the law of cause and effect, as well as knowing that there are 6 realms are the main purposes why we should have compassionate to all sentient beings. Through our endless rebirths in these 6 realms, we could had well been the offspring of anything and anyone. How cruel it is to have the insatiable desire to eat the beings who once was our mother? By not eating animals, we are creating the cause now to perpetuate the 6 realms and ending up on someone else’ dinner plate.

Nowadays, there are more and more people becoming vegetarians. There are some that take it a step further, by being vegan – renouncing all animal products. This is also in line with Buddhism though not all vegans are Buddhists. They come from the side of kindness to animals and sustainability in the food chain and supply. They recognize that earth is is only so big and that we are all interconnected.

The Buddhist will take it a step further as e believe in reincarnation and the 6 realms of existence. S, everyone has been our mother before, so we do not eat them. So, the believe of interconnection is there in all vegetarians though on a slightly different plane.

Many confused and some have different arguments on vegetarianism in buddhism, and this article explains the issue so clearly and make all easy to undrstand. It has the information and explanations on vegetarianism, and the seemingly different policies of meat consumption in the different Buddhist vehicles, so clearly presented. This makes it easy for many to understand the concept, the reasons behind vegetarianism in Buddhism, especially on the seemingly different policies towards meat consumption in Vajrayana, Mahayana and Hinayana. Thank you.