[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Mike Austin]

In message <000801c5d374$7f1f1e20$9b00a8c0 at whizzo>, Kate 
<marshallarts at bigpond.com> writes

>It is the Chinese monks who are the strict vegetarians.  They draw 
>their precepts etc from the Chinese version of the Brahmajala sutra 
>which forbids the eating of any meat.

When I was at the Nun Hua Temple in Bronkhorstspruit in South Africa a 
few years ago, the food was delicious - all vegetarian. Interestingly, 
though, much of it had been made to look like meat, with corresponding 
taste and texture.

One reason for not eating meat that I read (was it in the Lankavatara 
Sutta?) was that one may think of animals as meat and cause fear when 
looking at them. Eating meat substitutes would not overcome this.

This reason was put forward because monks were eating meat and could 
have been criticised by the laity. Because there was no bad karma in 
eating meat, this was the reason put forward.

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin