Facts about Buddhism and vegetarianism

[Mahavir]

This is a part of an article by Yana Filimonova at: http://jainology.blogspot.com/2011/1...tarianism.html

Comments from readers are expected

One of the most common myths about Buddhism says that Buddhists must be vegetarian. Those people, who believe so, usually mix up Buddhism with other religions that appeared on the territory of India - Hinduism or Jainism. Buddha has never urged anyone to refuse from eating meat. If you are in India, it will not be hard for you to do it, if you need to.

In Tibet, Buddhism is everywhere. However, even most religious people enjoy eating yak meat. When they wake up, they like to have a cup of local "tea" with salt, milk and animal fat. This drink is very important for local residents due to the mountainous climate. The world of plants is not rich in the region, so the primary sources of protein there is fish and animal meat.

The number of vegetarians in present-day India is a lot larger than it was during the times of Buddha. The Hindu even ate beef; the only kind of meat that they considered impure was dog meat. They condemned the consumption of such expensive and rare animal species as horses and elephants. This is justifiable from the economic point of view, of course. Buddha introduced only three bans as far as meat consumption was concerned. Eating meat was forbidden: 1) if a monk saw that the animal was being slaughtered to feed the monk; 2) if he was told that it was so; 3) if the monk was suspicious about it.

There are a dozen of other rules that ban Buddhist monks from eating certain kinds of meat. However, it goes about exotic sorts of meat, the consumption of which could be described as atrocious or even cannibalistic: the meat of human beings, horses, elephants, dogs, snakes and predatory animals.

As you have probably noticed, the bans embrace only the monks. Buddha was not willing to think of any strict rules for laypeople. He only urged them to stick to the Middle Way. He only condemned the profession of a butcher. There was another nuance. According to traditions, Buddhist monks would take meals from laypeople. That is why Buddha did not consider it appropriate to point out what laypeople should eat. Moreover, if a layperson gave a monk a piece of meat, the monk would have to eat it not to offend the giver.......................................