_/|\_
In the
Amagandha Sutta, the Buddha said:
‘Neither meat, nor fasting, nor nakedness,
Nor shaven heads, nor matted hair, nor dirt,
Nor rough skins, nor fire-worshipping,
Nor all the penances here in this world,
Nor hymns, nor oblation, nor sacrifice,
Nor feasts of the season,
Will purify a man overcome with doubt.’
When the
Buddha was asked to introduce vegetarianism into the Holy Order by
Devadatta, one of His disciples, the
Buddha refused to do so. As Buddhism is
a free religion, the Buddha’s advice was: To leave the decision
regarding vegetarianism to the individual disciple. It clearly shows that the Buddha had not
considered this a very important religious observance. The Buddha’s advice was that it is not
necessary to go to extremes to practise His Teachings.
Taking
meat, eggs, pungent vegetables (garlic, onions, leeks, shallots,
etc.) and “robbed food” (milk, honey, bird’s nest, etc.) does not
make people become impure. It is
bigotry, deceit, self-exaltation, disparagement, evil thoughts and
other evil actions/ intentions that make people become
impure. In fact, the Buddha declared
that it is not what goes into a person’s mouth that pollutes, it is
what comes out.
We should
not criticise Buddhists who eat meat because it merely shows that
we do not understand the Buddhist attitude towards food. Human
beings eat to live, we need nourishment. However, if one craves for any kind of food, or
kills to satisfy one’s greed for meat, then this is
wrong.
Practising
self-restraint is eating moderately, without greed and without
directly involved in the act of killing but merely to sustain the
physical body. The destruction of greed
should be the primary aim, not the kind of food that is
taken.
Being a
vegetarian means no wastage as well.
Many years ago, a kind friend offered to give me a dinner
treat. It was a special rice dumpling
from Taiwan which has many mixed ingredients. When she realised she had offered a non-vegetarian
food to me, she suggested that I dispose the rice
dumpling. I told her it is fine with me
because it is not what we eat but what our real intentions that
matters.
So, if you
are in a food centre, you can choose to go to any “mixed-rice”
stalls and choose only food you are comfortable eating. Disposing utensils or crockeries that has been
used for cooking meat so as to remain pure in the name of
vegetarianism is incorrect.
Vegetarianism alone does not help a person to cultivate humane
qualities.
