[Buddha-l] Victimized vegans?

[Richard Hayes]

On Tuesday 15 May 2007 09:16, Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:

> When I was still a Buddhist groupy, I followed Namkhai Norbu for a while
> and he said that it is a great opportunity for an animal to be
> slaughtered and eaten by a bodhisattva, because it gets a karmic
> connection and will be among the followers of that bodhisattva in a
> future life.

During my vegan days, a fellow Zen-practicing vegan friend and I got to 
talking about plants. He had just read a book about the plant kingdom and had 
become convinced that plants are fully conscious and feel suffering as 
animals do. I asked him how he could go on eating azuki beans and rice. His 
reply was that plants actually want to be eaten. What causes them suffering 
is being overlooked by a potential eater. Untestable hypotheses are an 
indispensable tool for those who venture into obsession.

-- 
Richard P Hayes (the P is for Prapanca)
Department of Prapancosophy