Originally posted by SnowFlag:
Let me compare the olden and modern times.
In Buddha's times, the 5 rules was preached to the monks, who may
encountered these situations when they get their alms. The monks
don't want to eat the meat in the 1st place.
In modern times, people use the 5 rules to justify themselves to
eat the so call clean meat. But the meat intake doesn't
reduced.
i agree. well, Buddha and the disciples never did eat them in
the end either. Alms were collected, and return to the cave where
they wash the meat away, and distribute the food Equally, as some
disciples might collected no food at all.
see the Final teaching of Mahanirvana sutra.
QUOTE
Lord, said Kashyapa, monks, nuns, and lay practitioners
all depend on benefactors. When they go for alms and receive food
containing meat, what should they do? How should they examine
it?
They should separate, the Buddha replied, the meat from the rest
of the food, which should then be washed and then consumed. If it
happens that their bowl has been stained by the meat but is not
defiled by the evil smell or taste, there is no fault in eating
from it. But if someone gives them quantities of meat, let them not
accept it. If meat is mingled with their food, let them not eat of
it, else they will be at fault. If I were to explain in detail the
prohibition of meat and all its rules, there would be no end! But
it is now time for me to pass beyond suffering; therefore I have
explained it to you only in part.http://www.shabkar.org/scripture/sutras/mahaparinirvana_sutra4.htm
----
QUOTE
The answer is found in research done by the Tibetan monk
scholar, Shabkar. He did extensive studies of the sutras and found
that the misleading sutras indicate that the Buddha gradually phased out the
permission of meat eating. When the Buddha began teaching
most of the people followed some version of Hinduism and many of
them still ate meat. The Buddha always presented his teachings in
the context of his audience, their intelligence and what they were
ready for.
One of the greatest obstacles to the birth of bodhichitta in our
minds is our craving for meat. If there is no meat eater, there
will be no animal killer
Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol
Food of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on Abstaining from
Meat
http://www.veggiebuddhists.com/
i kind of have the same 'sentiment'.
Bodhisattvas precepts, anyone?
Brahma Net Sutra Moral Code of the Bodhisattvas
http://www.ymba.org/bns/bnscon.htm#major
anyway to summarise, here's from Kunga Namdrol.
First of all, most of us are
not bhikkus, etc., and so therefore the rules in Vinaya about what
sort of meat may or not may not be eaten discussed in those texts
are really quite irrelevant to lay Buddhists.
Then there is the fact that when the Buddha was alive, no one was
slaughtering millions of animals a day to be displayed in
supermarkets and outright discarded if not sold, nor was there a
burgeoning environmental disaster strongly being contributed to by
the production of feed grain for animals headed for
slaughter.
I would like to think that in this day and age the Buddha would
recommend that people not eat meat if they could possible avoid
it.
I really don't think that what the Pali Canon or Mahayana sutras
say are really that relevant to our choices in this matter. We all
know that Vinaya says it's ok to eat certain kinds of meat; that
Mahayana sutras say it is strictly negative, and meat-eating is
permitted in Vajrayana with certain qualifications. There is really
nothing about which we need to debate on these scores.
I further think that solely relying on some religious text to
define our conduct around the issue of meat consumption when
confronted with the environmental and health issues surrounding the
modern consumption of meat is canonical myopia.
In other words, I think the decision concerning whether one eats
meat or not must be made from the point of view of modern
environmental, health, economic and social concerns. When these
factors are taken into consideration it is pretty clear that the
practices that are used in producing meat in this day and age are
terrible, costly, and that Buddhists should not participate in that
economy as much as we can possible avoid it since the buying and
selling of meat is quite clearly wrong livelihood.
If you must eat meat: make sure it comes from a humane farm, and
that the animal whose flesh you are consuming was slaughtered as
kindly as possible (there is no kind form of slaughter in truth).
Eat this meat with loving kindness, compassion and gratitude for
all those sentient beings whose bodies sustained from you in life
after life from time without beginning. And at least twice a month
try to refrain from eating any meat at all. If you are a Mahayana
practitioner, then please try to observe the Mahayana fast day vows
on the full moon and new moon, refraining from eating any meat on
those days.
When it comes to dairy, also be aware that most dairy is produced
under horrible conditions. Please avoid dairy from factory farms,
and only buy dairy from confirmed organic humane dairy farms. And
yes, spend more if you have to [just consider how much food a month
you probably waste already]. You can consider it a kind of dana to
mother Earth.
When it comes to vegetables, please be aware that there are
tremendously harmful practices in agriculture i.e. the use of
chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Please buy organic
foods, don't waste your food [cook and freeze what you can't eat
today], and generally please understand that while the buying and
selling of organic food is not wrong livelihood, conventional
produce is not virtuous food at all.
Please learn how to grow some of your own food. Please stop using
plastic. Please recycle.
Please be aware.
Kunga Namdrol
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