[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Mike Austin]

In message <000a01c5d509$ecbfc560$eb734e51 at zen>, Stephen Hodge 
<s.hodge at padmacholing.freeserve.co.uk> writes

>"I stipulate that you should not even eat meat blameless in three 
>respects.

Thanks for the reference. Presumably this refers to body, speech, mind? 
If so, then there would be blame (karma) in conjunction with these. The 
Buddha then says:


>Even those meats apart from the ten [forbidden] kinds should be 
>abandoned. The meat of corpses should also be abandoned. All creatures 
>sense the odour and are frightened by meat-eaters no matter if they are 
>moving around or resting.

So here the Buddha gives the reason that a meat-eater's appearance would 
frighten beings. This is the reason that I mentioned before. The rest of 
the text includes the eating of specific meats in a series of disgusting 
traits.

However,  I still read the meat-eating as something that may degrade the 
individual - not something of karmic (blameable) nature. For example, it 
seems that it may be put on a par with uncleanliness,  laziness, lack of 
self-discipline and so on.

Do you see this reading as incorrect?  (In another post, I have given my 
reasons for thinking that I am not responsible for the action of another 
person who thinks they are acting on my behalf.)

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin