[Buddha-l] Re: on eating meat

[Peter D. Junger]

"Stephen Hodge" writes:

: Dear all,
: 
: Whiole we are at it, another related animal issue that has not been 
: mentioned or discussed yet is the use of animals in medical experimentation 
: and cosmetic testing.  Any takers ?   How, for example, might Buddhists view 
: somebody like Christopher Reeves and the lab he funded which specialized in 
: breaking animals backs in the hope that a way might have been found to stick 
: his spinal cord together again ?  My personal view (surprise, surprise) is 
: that he was a selfish monster, prepared to inflict horrendous suffering on 
: other sentient beings for his own self-indulgent ends.  My partner, given to 
: more schadenfreude than myself, actually broke into spontaneous applause 
: when the news came in that he had died before he had achieved his goal.

At the Cleveland Buddhist Temple we have a tradition of conducting
memorial services for animals a couple of times a year.  The tradition
started because some Japanese researchers at the Cleveland Clinic
who were using calves to test artificial hearts wanted a way to
express their thanks to the animals that were sacrificed in their
research.

It may also be relevant that the Cleveland Buddhist Temple is a Shin
temple affiliated with the Buddhist Churches of America and that
the BCA does not encourage vegetarianism, taking the position, as I
understand it, that the practice is likely to encourage the belief
that one can get to the pure land because of one's own moral 
superiority, rather than through reliance on the wisdom and compassion 
of Amida Buddha.  And it may be relevant to that that when the Shin
school was started by Shinran, its adherents were farmers and fishermen
and, perhaps, bartenders who were not welcome among those more 
self-rightious Buddhist schools whose members, convinced of 
their moral suppority, ate the produce supplied by the low caste
followers of Shinran.

--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger at samsara.law.cwru.edu    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu