buddhist diet = vegan?

Isn't part of enlightenment to move away from ALL forms of creating suffering? Including killing animals for flesh or exploiting them for cheese or dairy?

Is that a diet most Buddhist prescribe to, vegan?

Isn't that what all the teachings point to??? The removal of suffering caused by desire?

What is eating meat or dairy other than creating suffering directly through our desire for the flesh of other sacred beings?

 

Hi! Good question!

Short answer:
Only monks must avoid flesh.

Long answer:
I'm vegetarian and I think, someday, I'll go vegan. But I think that eating meat and dairy is a matter of habits rather than desire.
Anyway, I agree with you: vegan is the best diet for buddhists, but you will always kill some sentient beings. You can avoid vegetable grown with pesticides, you even can grow your own lattuce, but some little insect will die, eventually.

So, yes, you should go vegan if you can, but you can't be mortified if, for some reasons, you still eat flesh or dairy. What is important is to do the best you can to avoid others' suffering.

That's my opinion.



P.S. I'm sorry if my post is full of mistakes!

 

Actually, monks and nuns of many orders do eat meat, on the condition that they did not kill the animal, the animal was not killed on their behalf, and the meat passed through at least three hands (overly simple example: the butcher, the cook, and the waiter) before being offered to the monk. Keep in mind that mendicants are instructed to eat what is offered to them (with the above exceptions), not making request for or avoiding any kind of food as a personal preference.

The precept against killing, even for food in Buddhism does not have the same "sin" connotation as in Western religions. If one seeks the enlightenment described by the Buddha, abstaining from killing is literally the first precept in his instructions on how to follow his path, but the choice to follow other paths is still respected. My understanding is that Muslims are often welcomed, and even valued in Tibetan villages, to fill the role of village butcher, who chooses which animals to kill, prepare, and sell. Buddhists wouldn't go into his store and order a specific kind of meat, which might cause an animal to be killed specifically for them, but if their favorite kind of meat is already prepared, they can buy it. This way, the Buddhist customers can follow the Buddha's path, and the Muslim butcher is respected for following Muhammad's path.

By the way. I've had monks tell me that just eating a single vegetarian meal now and then is a good way to create merit.

 

I'm sorry I was wrong. I was really convinced monks shouldn't eat meat. Sorry again!

But is it a little hypocritical? I never liked when someone said "I eat meat but I don't kill animals": *you* eat meat and because of *you* the animal got killed. Am I missing something?

 

Eating meat loses the individual's being in touch with His ageing for Necessity of a Caring community. Instead in the violent cicumstances of the Day, it is the Ego which recollects it's Age in History.

 

i believe the current dalai llama does in fact eat meat occasionally as do most tibetans.
please correct me if i'm wrong,

 

It seems so:

http://www.dalailama.com/biography/questions-and-answers/routine-day


Edit:
On Wikipedia there's an article that explain a bunch of things! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianism

 

Cutting the specifics: if you want to be the best you can be, either go vegan or cultivate your own food.

 

Enlightenment is not doctrinaire.

 

In the book ''Anger'' byThich Nhat Hanh
Talks about how if an animal was killed
in anger and suffering and if u consume it
it will cause you anger which is suffering.
Why because anger is not only a menal
illness but anger or any emotion we feel,
our body starts to change in a chemical way..
Im not to sure how to explain this.but I recommend you
this book it talks about this..
By the way this book is mostly all based with Buddhism.

 

Certainly, no apologies needed (but accepted anyway).

I look at it this way: The modern American (or I'm sure, Italiian) grocery store really works the same way as a the village butcher. I go to the grocery store, and see beef, pork, chicken, lamb....but no giraffe.

If I were to order a giraffe roast, they might go kill a giraffe just for me. (Yeah, right! ) I don't tell them to go kill cows, pigs, chickens, or sheep. That's their choice. On the other hand, I don't try to put them out of business either.

If they chose not to kill "food" animals they way they don't kill giraffes, I would have to buy something else. I neither condemn nor lose respect for someone making their living killing animals for meat. If they sought Buddhist Enlightenment, I might recommend a career change, but if they choose to follow another path, that's perfectly acceptable.

 

Interesting. Just wanted to see what others thought of it.

Sweetleaf63: Sometimes when I talk to people about it, I'll also mention that there are actually enzymes that are released by an animal into their muscles before they die, enzymes generated from fear and suffering. I have a feeling these enzymes might not be good for you, per say. But I tend to only use that approach if people can't dig the fact that it's actual vibrational frequencies that their meat has absorbed and is now projected. Frequencies of decay!

 

Have you ever noticed the great, great vibes of an apple.

mmmmm apppleeesssss...

 

Yea there you go its a really interesting topic..I really recommend this book

 

I read that book (Anger) a long time ago... I think I passed it along to someone and need to find a copy again... but yes, he does break it down really well in that book.
When I first read it I wasn't ready for it, I'd probably really dig it now.

The book I read that flipped me out was called "The World Peace Diet" - you can actually download a copy for free and then make a donation... just google for the website. It's not Buddhist, per say, but it does talk about the universal truths of interconnectedness and such in relation to what we eat and do on this planet.

And yes, APPLES are GREAT. I'm hooked on granny smith apples.

 

I like the book " Seven Ways to Happiness". How to make the big time, and not even try to understand that all the people you meet are indifferent to that promise (for you, anyway).

 

Not necessarily. Being a buddhist doesn't mean removing all desires but instead finding good balance. You don't have to give up something completly, you only have to remove yourself from your desire to the extent that it no longer controls you . If there is greater good from what you're doing (nutrition) and you are not eating animals excessively (greed) then you are not at loss. Choosing to be vegan, or a vegetarian shows compassion for other beings so of course there are many buddhists who choose to be one. At some point in our life things will have to die so we can survive. Plants...bugs, etc. (animals if you eat meat). We can not avoid death, but some of us choose to leave behind the smallest imprint possible, to set our life goal to be as unselfish as possible and put other beings before ourselves. That said, alot of buddhists are herbivores but you don't have to be a vegan or vegetarian to be a 'buddhist'. Alot of buddhists are actually offended by the termonology 'buddhist' because it refers to it like a western society religion. Instead we say 'buddha-sasana' the teachings of buddha. Read his words, decide what is right on your own. Buddha himself said "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. "

 

Buddha said that Nothing is the stage on the way to enlightenment due to the baring of suffering. Isn't that common logic?

 

Yea you may see it as common logic.But really some people dont think of this because its so common that people just eat meat..

 

definitely agree