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Eating meat and Buddhism - a reply
12 March 2005
This is my response to a thread about Buddhism and eating meat. on E-Sangha:
Actually there are quite a few prohibitions on eating meat in the sutras and in later Buddhist discourses, all written centuries before anyone ever conceived of animal rights. There is a particularly important passage in the Lankavatara Sutra in which the Buddha tells his followers why he will not permit them to eat flesh. It is quoted at length here: Lankavatara Sutra, but here's an excerpt:
There is also a passage in the Brahmajala Sutra which states:
From the Surangama Sutra:
And from the The Mahaparinirvana Sutra:
You can find other quotes from traditional Buddhist texts online, including Vegetarianism and Buddhism and some quotes about eating meat from the Dalai Lama and other contemporary teachers at Buddhist Quotations and Buddhist Vegetarian Quotations
In several works, the Buddha encouraged his followers to develop loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) to all creatures. Not just for humans.
Most of the prohibitions against meat are from the Mahayana texts and traditions, but there are a few to be found in earlier works as well.
Yes, you can find contradictory quotes too - but the Buddha was clear that his followers should not cause any animal to be killed for himself, and if he accepted meat as alms, Buddha was about what sort of meat was permitted (Meat ordered or received by mistake; Leftover or discarded meat; Meat from animals that have died naturally or by accident for at least 16 hours (to ensure consciousness has left the body), and Meat donated as alms collected during the begging rounds).
But meat isn't the real issue: it's compassion. In The Great Compassion: Buddhism & Animal Rights, Norm Phelps wrote:
So can someone be a real Buddhist if his or her compassion stops short of inconveniencing self-interest and personal comfort?
Abhaya, on Oct 25 2004, 01:40 PM, said:
There is nothing said about eating meat or not eating meat in any of anybody's writings, teachings, sutras, sayings, apart from some stuff which has recently been interpreted by animal rights folk (own agenda, separate from Buddhism) to be 'what they must have meant when they said......'. This 'interpretation' is clearly creating the causes for suffering and that is absolutely the point!
Actually there are quite a few prohibitions on eating meat in the sutras and in later Buddhist discourses, all written centuries before anyone ever conceived of animal rights. There is a particularly important passage in the Lankavatara Sutra in which the Buddha tells his followers why he will not permit them to eat flesh. It is quoted at length here: Lankavatara Sutra, but here's an excerpt:
Quote
Thus, Mahamati, wherever there is the evolution of living beings, let people cherish the thought of kinship with them, and, thinking that all beings are to be loved as if they were an only child, let them refrain from eating meat. So with Bodhisattvas whose nature is compassion, [the eating of meat] is to be avoided by him. Even in exceptional cases, it is not [compassionate] of a Bodhisattva of good standing to eat meat. The flesh of a dog, an ass, a buffalo, a horse, a bull or a man, or any other being, Mahamati, that is not generally eaten by people, is sold on the roadside as mutton for the sake of money; and therefore, Mahamati, the Bodhisattva should not eat meat...
All meat-eating in any form, in any manner, and in any place, is unconditionally and once for all, prohibited for all.
Thus, Mahamati, meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit.
All meat-eating in any form, in any manner, and in any place, is unconditionally and once for all, prohibited for all.
Thus, Mahamati, meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit.
There is also a passage in the Brahmajala Sutra which states:
Quote
Pray let us not eat any flesh or meat whatsoever coming from living beings. Anyone who eats flesh is cutting himself off from the great seed of his own merciful and compassionate nature, for which all sentient beings will reject him and flee from him when they see him acting so. . . Someone who eats flesh is defiling himself beyond measure...
From the Surangama Sutra:
Quote
If a man can (control) his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal flesh and wearing animal products, I say he will really be liberated."
And from the The Mahaparinirvana Sutra:
Quote
The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great Compassion.”
You can find other quotes from traditional Buddhist texts online, including Vegetarianism and Buddhism and some quotes about eating meat from the Dalai Lama and other contemporary teachers at Buddhist Quotations and Buddhist Vegetarian Quotations
In several works, the Buddha encouraged his followers to develop loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) to all creatures. Not just for humans.
Most of the prohibitions against meat are from the Mahayana texts and traditions, but there are a few to be found in earlier works as well.
Yes, you can find contradictory quotes too - but the Buddha was clear that his followers should not cause any animal to be killed for himself, and if he accepted meat as alms, Buddha was about what sort of meat was permitted (Meat ordered or received by mistake; Leftover or discarded meat; Meat from animals that have died naturally or by accident for at least 16 hours (to ensure consciousness has left the body), and Meat donated as alms collected during the begging rounds).
But meat isn't the real issue: it's compassion. In The Great Compassion: Buddhism & Animal Rights, Norm Phelps wrote:
Quote
The beginning of mindful eating is the realization that eating meat is not about the meat-eater; it is about the animals who are tormented and killed."
So can someone be a real Buddhist if his or her compassion stops short of inconveniencing self-interest and personal comfort?
