[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Joy Vriens]

Ames sensibles s'abstenir

Stephen Hodge wrote:

> 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.

Since my lunch hour is not due immediately, I take the liberty of 
pointing out that the French 17th century quietist, Madame Guyon, was in 
fact a closet Tantrist and not a fake one like the ones you are alluding 
at. Others qualified her not as a quietist or a mystic but as half-mad 
or mad. She imposed all sorts of mortifications on herself, including 
one of swallowing juicy gobs on the street to break her 
attraction/repulsion, in which according to herself she succeeded.

Joy