[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Stephen Hodge]

Dear Kate,

> Ron, my understanding is that it would depend on the particular sect you 
> are talking about.
----
No, the use of meat and alcohol in some tantric rituals is normal for all 
Tibetan schools.

> Tibetan tantric followers use non-canonical collections of religious 
> writings (termed tantras).
---
In Tibetan terms, the tantras are entirely canonical and mainly based on 
Indian originals.

> It would depend on which tantras this sect draws its teachings from and 
> how much it had been influenced by Hindu Tantrism which contains quite a 
> few practises which aren't acceptable by most Buddhist standards.
----
The question of who influenced who -- Hindu or Buddhist -- is complex. 
There seems to have been much mutual borrowing and mirroring.  In my 
experience, the older Buddhist tantras (the "lower" tantras) seem to be 
largely Buddhist creations, though inevitably they draw on materials from 
the pan-Indian religious landscape.  The so-called "higher" tantras do have 
varying degrees of influence from Saivite sources, but Buddhist influences 
also went the other way too.

> which contains quite a few practises which aren't acceptable by most 
> Buddhist standards.
---
But which eventually made up a large portion of Indian Buddhust practice and 
engaged the minds of many of the later major Indian Buddhist scholars.

But what I do find amusing is the selective nature of these "forbidden" 
substances.  Apart from their symbolic meaning, their use was often 
antinomian in nature, but included more than just convenient and palatable 
alcohol and meat.  Many tantric rituals should properly include a healthy 
dose of faeces and menstrual blood -- the piss is optional.  The selectivity 
makes me just a little suspiscious about the sincerity of the practitioners.