buddhist diet = vegan?

Oh thats good..I will check that book out thanks for the recommendation.
Sounds like a great book

 

"Whereever YOU go there you are": but it all leads to heeding rather than feeding.

 

when i buy food i do not buy meat [or dairy]

when other people give me meat i eat it

 

Enlightenment is so quiet it's practically unheard of.

 

There is a tone that a human being may strike that will loosen the molecular bonds of glass, shattering glass.
There is also a tone one can strike that mends every broken thing.

 

There is Good Merit, and there is Bad Merit ... which merit did the monks tell you you would be creating?

Merit is another word for the accumulation of results for ones actions. An accumulation of good results from good actions is Good Merit. An accumulation of bad results from bad actions is Bad Merit.

You can even accumulate merit, but then what you have is just ... well ... an accumulation of merit. You can accumulate both good and bad merit, together. One does not eliminate the other, or cancels out the other. You collect both together. When you exhaust one, you're left with the other.

This is the whole birth process within samsara. An accumulation of good merit will be the cause for one to be born in higher realms of existence, or higher states of existence. And, an accumulation of bad merit will be the cause for one to be born in lower realms of existence, or lower states of existence.

If one is born in a higher realm of existence, one still has their bad merit. Once the good merit that was the cause for ones birth in the higher states have become exhausted, what one is left with are the merits which give cause to one being born in lower states of existence.

In Buddhism, the human realm is the only realm one can accumulate merit. Don't know if I subscribe to this idea or thought, but it is a teaching passed in both Mahayana and Hinayana schools of Buddhism. That once having been born into a higher state of existence, one collects neither good nor bad merit. That once having been born into a lower state of existence, one collects neither good nor bad merit. In these states, one exhausts the merit which gave cause for the appearance in that particular realm.

Once having been exhausted one then begins taking birth in realms conditioned by ones merit, i.e. conditioned by the results of ones actions ... whether that merit is good or bad.

So, it really is important to understand which merit was being referred to.

Understanding by omission is not a reason for believing one way or the other.

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Not killing IS the number one precept one takes when one practices the teachings of the Buddha.

One DOES NOT have to take nor keep the precepts in order to practice Buddhism.

Practicing Buddhism is trying to understand teachings of the Buddha and trying to apply this practice and understanding to ones own idea of reality.

One takes and keeps the precepts because one has made an effort to eliminate as much desire which is the motivation of greed from ones life so as to keep the mind quiet and settled in order for concentration to develop.

With that in mind, 100% of the population of planet Earth are not practicing Buddhists. Therefore that percentage that is not, there WILL be animals killed for food. Unfortunately there will also be animals killed for fun, for sport, for other reasons which do not include being added to ones own physical existence.

Buddha did not disallow eating meats.

He did say there were certain meats one could not eat.

Horse. Elephant. Snake. Lion/Tiger/Leopard, the larger cats. Human beings.

As a practicing Buddhist lay person, one is not encouraged to kill any animal for food. One is not encouraged to ask anyone else to kill it for them. Nor is one encouraged to accept meat was was killed specifically for them. And this applies to monks.

However, for the lay person, one is never told they HAVE to keep the precepts. One understands that all action have results. Good actions have good results. Bad actions have bad results. That keeping the precepts helps in quieting the mind which in turn helps one to keep which actions one experiences under check by keeping the mind focused and concentrated as opposed to being scattered and busy.

Buying meats is not disallowed by monks. Eating meats is not disallowed by monks. Killing is disallowed. Encouraging killing is disallowed. Accepting meat of an animal killed specifically for them is disallowed. If a farmer raises chickens and that farmer donates the body of a chicken, even if it has already been cooked, it WILL be assumed that the farmer killed one of his chickens to feed whomever he donated it to and as a result will be disallowed.

This whole idea about not eating meats is not a thought taught or propogated through teaching in the Buddhist teachings. It is a thought developed in the minds of those who think. Those who project their ideas.

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I'll make no pretensions of being an expert in Buddhist philosophy or scripture (or an expert in anything, really).

But here goes: the concepts of "all killing being wrong" and "eating meat" seem directly contradictory... and any kind of justification (ie: the meat wasn't killed specifically for me) seems like a huge rationalization.

I am not what most would consider an orthodox Buddhist, so take that with whatever grains of salt you like.

 

Plants dont suffer when you eat them either?

 

It took my poor Dad a long time to get used to me keeping (or at least attempting to keep) the precepts when I'd visit. He loves to hunt and fish (His God gave him dominion over all the animals on Earth). I've let him know many times that I don't judge or even oppose that. In Texas, the deer would overpopulate and die horrible deaths from illness and starvation if hunters didn't control the population, being as how we killed off all of the mountain lions and grizzly bears that used to control them generations ago.

If he shoots a deer, I'll eat some venison, since it was killed for the whole family, but if he kills a dove or a quail, I refuse, since the whole animal would be killed just for me. If he catches a fish, I decline that too, for the same reason, yet if he buys fish at the store I don't have a problem.

Poor guy. He's getting used to it, but I can see myself how confusing it would be.