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12/07: Quote by Patrul Rinpoche
Especially, nowadays most people crave meat and consume flesh and blood with a second thought, completely oblivious to all the diseases caused by old meat or harmful meat spirits. Unhealthy diets and lifestyles can also give rise to tumours, disorders of phlegm, dropsy and other diseases, causing innumerable deaths...“
...Some people imagine that only the person who physically carried out the killing is creating a negative karmic effect, and that the person who just gave the orders is not - or, if he is, then only a little. But you should know that the same karmic result comes to everyone involved... Each person gets the whole karmic result of killing one animal. It is not as if one act of killing could be divided up among many people. ”
From : Words of My Perfect Teacher
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12/07: Quote by The Great Dzogchen Yogi, Kyabje Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche
Meat, the sinful food, is not permitted according to the three vows: the vows of individual liberation, the Bodhisattva vows and the tantric vows.
Thus Buddha stated: I have never approved, do not approve, and will never approve of a meat diet. He declared: “my followers must never eat meat.”
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12/07: Quote by The late Great Drubwang Konchok Norbu Rinpoche (1921-2007)
As practitioners of this precious Dharma, we need to eradicate all non-virtuous deeds in general, particularly the consumption of meat, as it has the heaviest negative karma. This is because all the livings beings that we eat are actually our own parents who have been very kind to us in many lifetimes. Eating meat is a non-virtuous act with such heavy misgivings that the Buddha Himself also mentioned that consuming the meat of other sentient beings who have been our parents one lifetime or another is the gravest and most heinous deed to commit.
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17/06: Talk : Vegetarianism by H.H. the 17th Karmapa
6 pages of 17th Karmapa talks on Vegetarianism, please click here.
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10/05: Vesak : Exhibition on Environmentalism & Vegetarianism
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16/01: Vegetarianism : Chinese Buddhism
Many people wonder how plants should be understood in light of the precept against killing. Since plants clearly are living beings, is it not also wrong to kill plants? The Buddha said that since animals and insects have awareness, or sentience, they are very different from plants. In the end, all of the things of this world have Buddha Nature and all of them should be respected, but since animals have sentience, they should be treated with special respect, for they, like us, are in the midst of a journey that ends only in complete awakening.
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27/12: Tribute to His Eminence Drubwang Konchok Norbu Rinpoche (1921-2007)
If on the one hand, we chant the [Mani] mantra and on the other hand,
we eat the meat of another sentient being,
then our words and actions do not tally with one another. Drubwang Rinpoche
One of the greatest obstacles to the birth of Bodhicitta
in our minds is our craving for meat. Shabkar
__________
In his final years, the late great His Eminence Drubwang Konchok Norbu Rinpoche (1921-2007) repeatedly touched upon two teachings in his talks during the popular Mani retreats that he held. The first is the urgency of upholding the Mani mantra (Om Mani Padme Hung), and the second is the urgency of abstaining from eating meat. At first glance, these seem to be unrelated subjects. However, they are closely linked indeed. The Mani mantra, if chanted well, invokes one's compassion. The more it is invoked, the more perfectly all-encompassing it becomes. It would include compassion for all animals too.
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30/07: Quote by Sir Edwin Arnold
The birds and beasts and creeping things
‘tis writ
Had sense of Buddha’s vast embracing love,
And took the promise of his piteous speech.
From: Light of Asia, bk. 8
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30/07: Quote from Engaged Buddhist Reader
As the crisis of feeding the world's population grows, breeding of animals for human consumption becomes less acceptable out of compassion for the suffering of animals and the awareness that it is a grossly inefficient use of water and grain. A new relationship with the animal kingdom is part of our changing perception of the Earth. Animals are part of us, and part of our practice.
By Allan Hunt Badiner
The first precept in Buddhism is ‘Do not kill.’ This precept is not merely a legalistic prohibition, but a realization of our affinity with all who share the gift of life. A compassionate heart provides a firm ground for this precept.
By Chatsumarn Kabilsingh
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30/07: Quote by David N. Snyder, Ph.D.
An understanding and acceptance of the theory of evolution is important because without that acceptance there is a perception of a great separation between humans and animals which simply is not true.
From: Right Understanding
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30/07: Quote by Senaka Weeraratna
Kill and eat is not a Buddhist principle.
From: “Export of meat products from Sri Lanka harms country's Buddhist image,” Buddhist News Network.
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30/07: Quote by Bodhin Kjolhede
It is sad to see how many American Buddhists are managing to find a self-satisfying accommodation to eating meat. Some airily cite the doctrine of Emptiness, insisting that ultimately there is no killing and no sentient being being killed. Others find cover behind the excuse that taking life is the natural order of things and, after all, “the life of a carrot and that of a cow are equal.” The truth is, though, that as humans we are endowed with discriminating minds that we can use to educate ourselves to the implications of our volitional acts and to choose those foods that minimize suffering to living beings.
From: “A Debate on Food and Practice,” Tricycle, Winter 1994
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30/07: Quote by Hakuun Yasutani Roshi
On the Precept of Non-Harm
These days many voices proclaim the sanctity of human life. Human life should of course be valued highly, but at the same time the lives of other living beings should also be treasured. Human beings snatch away the lives of other creatures whenever it suits their purposes. The way of thinking that encourages this behavior arises from a specifically human brand of violence that defiles the self-evident laws of the universe, opposes the growth of the myriad things in nature, and destroys feelings of compassion and reverence arising from our Buddha-nature. In view of such needless destruction of life, it is essential that laymen and monks together conscientiously uphold this precept.
As quoted in To Cherish All Life
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30/07: Quote by Sensei Sevan Ross
Buddhism teaches us that all our suffering issues from our desires. A desirous mind state generates harmfulness in all its forms, both toward others, and toward ourselves. As has been witnessed throughout the millennia in both monastic and strong lay practice in several traditions, when one goes without meat or fish, one may well find oneself released from the desire for these foods (although not instantly, of course) and one may even “soften” to the suffering of all creatures through a closer identity with them. Vegetarianism can be an aid to learning to live a life of actions taken outside the realm of doing harm. It is hard to say, in fact, which may come first, and which way the cycle may spiral non meat eating leading to sympathy for the plight of animals, or growing sympathy arising from deep and dedicated spiritual practice leading to a gathering unwillingness to cause harm by supporting animal slaughter. But it becomes clear, along the road to vegetarianism, that the less meat one desires, the closer one feels toward all life, the more harmless one feels, and the more aware of the suffering of the helpless beasts one is. If, and possibly only if, vegetarianism is supported by involved and sincere spiritual practice, it serves to soften us up. It actually (forgive me) tenderizes us.
From: Vegetarianism and Zen Practice
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