[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Alberto,

> As far as I am concerned, yes, it would. I don't see anything inherently 
> bad in eating meat. I grew up in a town in the Alps. At night we often 
> see deer crossing roads and sometimes people run over them, 
> accidentally, of course. Why should there be anything wrong about eating 
> that meat?

Richard once, or twice or thrice said "I don't eat my friends". Animals 
are not my friends (I am not one of those sad people who can only trust 
Bambi because people are so treacherous), but I can sense what that 
statement is aiming at. Still this somehow reminds me of the argument 
that killing someone to defend our beloved ones is right and that once 
having accepted that killing can be right, one can find oneself on a 
slippery slope and one doesn't think the same about others. It changes 
our perception of them, they can be killed if... The lock is off. And 
therefore it changes the perception of ourselves too. I feel it degrades 
myself to think of it that way. And not in the sense of loosing a 
holier-than-thou-and-others purity. But in the sense of losing an 
essential guideline to living my life well.

> When I lived in London I knew that some homeless people would go and 
> look for food in the big skips where supermarkets throw their rubbish. 
> If they found meat I think they were perfectly right in eating it.
> But I don't buy meat.  Apart from the obvious fact of not wanting to 
> have animals killed for me, I also don't want to give my financial 
> support to one of the worst industries on earth.

I actually see the problem I brought up as two different attitudes. 
Eating meat is wrong, although I am a meat eater myself (I have been a 
vegetarian in the past and could become one again in the future). But I 
don't want to get rid of the thought that it isn't right (as a 
guideline), because it changes the way I perceive eating meat, the 
frequency of meat eating etc. It has the power to gradually change my 
attitude towards eating meat. The second attitude is about consumerism, 
which is basically motivated by greed. It is more ethical to live on 
recuperated food and to use stuff that people got rid of. I don't mean 
that we all have to live as saints, but again it is a guideline that 
keeps us thinking and aware of our greed and it can thus change our 
attitudes.

Joy

Man: Um, excuse me, is this the Undertakers?
Undertaker: Yep that's right, what can I do for you squire?
M: Um, well, I wonder if you can help me.  Uh, my mother has just died
     and I'm not quite sure what I should do.
U: Oh well, we can help you.  We deal with stiffs.
M: Stiffs.
U: Now there's three things we can do with your mum.  We can bury her,
     burn her, or dump her.
M: Dump her?
U: Dump her in the Thames.
M: What?
U: Oh, did you like her?
M: Yes!
U: Oh well we won't dump her then.  Well, what do you think.  Burn her
     or bury her.
M: Well, um, which would you recommend?
U: Well, they're both nasty.  If we burn her she gets stuffed in the
     flames; crackle, crackle, crackle; which is a bit of a shock if she's
     not quite dead, but quick.  And then you get a box of ashes which you
     can pretend are hers.
M: Oh.
U: Or, if you don't want to fry her, you can bury her, and then she'll
     get eaten up by maggots and weevels; nibble, nibble, nibble; which
     isn't so hot, if as I said, she's not quite dead.
M: I see, um, well, I'm not very sure she's definately dead.
U: Where is she?
M: She's in this sack.
U: Let's have a look.  Umm, she looks quite young.
M: Yes, she was.
U: (calling) Fred.
Fred: Yes?
U: I think we've got an eater.
F: I'll get the oven on.
M: Um, uh, excuse me.  Um, are you suggesting we should eat my mother?
U: Yeah, not raw, we'd cook her.  She'd be delicious with a few french
     fries, a bit of brautaline stuffing, delicious!
M: What?  Well, actually I do feel a little bit peckish.  No, I can't.
U: Look, we'll eat your mum and if you feel a bit guility about it
afterward we can dig a grave and you can throw up in it.
M: Alright.
Mont Python