[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Kate]

> 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.

My mother was born and raised in China.  Left when she was 18.  Mum 
mentioned that she used to go to many banquets where there were dozens of 
different dishes, all without meat, though like you, she couldn't tell the 
difference.

> 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.

My teacher mentioned that Buddha was not a vegetarian nor were Buddhists 
required to be vegetarian, at least not by Buddha himself.  Devadatta wanted 
the Buddha to make vegetarian compulsory (like Hindu Sanyassins and Brahmin) 
so eventually the conditions placed upon eating meat were introduced as a 
middle way.  (Have the feeling another member may have mentioned this 
lately.)

Same with alcohol.  At first monks were only forbidden to drink up to and 
past the point of intoxication.  As this could be left to personal 
interpretation, some sects  considered it prudent to change this.  Alcohol 
was restricted in the first place because of the incident with the warrior 
who slay the "monster" or whatever it was. (I'm a bit hazy on the details on 
some of these tales without looking them up)  After he battled the monster 
to save the village, he got roaring drunk and couldn't stand up.  When the 
difference in his mental and body control after drinking was noted, it was 
decided to bring in the restriction.  Most of these types of restrictions 
were brought in by the monks themselves after some incident or other.  It 
made living together more pleasant.

Regards
Kate
A quick look hasn't turned up the details on red or white wine.  This may 
have to wait a bit.


> 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
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