Someone messaged me this titled 'vegetarian' which I supposed is
intended by the sender to justify meat eating in a Buddhist
context:
1 The
Mahasiddha Luipa,
The Fish-Gut
Eater
A wild dog with honey
rubbed on its nose
Madly devours whatever it sees;
Give the Lama's secret to a worldly fool
And his mind and the lineage burn out.
For a responsive man with knowledge of unborn reality
A mere glimpse of the Lama's vision of pure light-form,
Destroys mental fiction like an elephant berserk
Rampaging through hostile ranks with a sword lashed to its
trunk.
...
In which I replied:
You did not read his story. This Maha Siddha eats only the parts
of fish which were discarded by the fisherman -- i.e. the organs
and lower part of the fish which nobody eats. He purposely ONLY
eats fish-gut because he want to get rid of his dualistic
preconception of attachment to eating 'pure stuff' or his
attachment to only eating things conceived by his judgmental mind
as more desirable than the other -- so eating fish gut becomes his
practice of getting rid of his discrimination and attachment. His
ultimate aim through eating disgusting things is to realise the One
Taste (luminous-emptiness) nature of all appearances, which he
achieved later on.
But he is in this way not at all supporting the killing of fish,
he only ate the unwanted discards left by the fishermen. On the
other hand by eating and buying fish we are being the demand and
indirect cause of the killing of the fish -- i.e. causing the
industry to thrive.
http://www.keithdowman.net/books/mm.htm
For the rest of us, who are not even Maha Siddhas, the most
appropriate thing is to become a wholehearted vegetarian and show
compassion to all animals, and not think of excuses such as
thinking one can dedicate merits or chant a mantra to elevate an
animal's sufferings. That is only what Maha Siddhas can do, and
even very enlightened people usually avoid doing that. We are not
at that level to be able to deliver these sentient beings, so it is
irresponsible for us to feed on a living being's body.
The most important thing all Mahayana and Vajrayana is
Bodhicitta. Without Bodhicitta, one cannot even be a true Mahayana
or Vajrayana practitioner. Developing compassion through avoiding
meat is the first step. Lankavatara Sutra says that eating meat
destroys the seed of compassion. If you are truly compassionate you
will not be able to feed on an living being's body.
Contrary to the Maha Siddha's story you gave above, which is
that he is trying to overcome his attachment to preconceived
dualistic notions of purity and impurity, the reason why we eat
meat is certainly NOT because we want to "overcome the judgment and
discrimination of purity", but because we are completely attached
to the taste of sentient being's body. There is totally no other
reasons why most of us would want to eat meat, other than to
satisfy short term desire for the taste of a sentient being's body,
which is due to a complete lack of compassion. Vegetarian diets are
suitable and even healthier for most people out there, most of us
are certainly not even eating meat for 'medicinal purposes'. So it
is completely wrong to use the Maha Siddha's story out of
context.
I shall not say too much otherwise I will be hypocrite, because
I am not full vegetarian yet. But I think being a vegetarian is
certainly good to aspire for. I hope to become a vegetarian some
day.
So very well said.
As buddhists we should try to eat less meat, even if it is not
easy to give up such attachment to taste. Go slowly at your
own pace, eat one piece/slice/chunk/portion less from your normal
intake.
And frankly speaking, it is actually not that difficult after a
while. Anybody can do it. I realise that after reducing meat
consumption, our preference for taste changes; in which one
may build a very natural instinct to avoid meat, as natural as
one would avoid eating cow dung, or as in one would move away his
hand when torched by a flame. This was my initial reaction
towards meat, like a child who refuses to eat his greens, they
just taste bad. And after some time of viualisation of
where and how these meat of sentient beings became food on our
dinning table, the feeling of compassion arises naturally. It
is not easy to go back to consuming meat again.
I think there are many ppl out there who feel the same, or have
similar reactions as mine. It's just that they are afriad to say it
for fear of being labelled a hypocrite or religion
fanatics.