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MEAT
EATING IN BUDDHISM
In Indien betonte
Buddha Shakyamuni die Bedeutung von Ahimsa,
dem Prinzip, nichts Lebendes zu verletzen. Er warnte Seine Schüler davor, Fleisch
zu essen; andere lebende Wesen würden dadurch Angst vor ihnen bekommen. Buddha
machte dazu folgende Bemerkungen: "Das Essen von Fleisch ist nur eine erworbene
Gewohnheit. Wir wurden anfänglich nicht mit einem Verlangen
danach geboren." Vegetarismus
- Lat.: vegetus, "unversehrt, gesund". AHIMSA - NON-VIOLENCE "For the sake of love of purity, let the Bodhisattva refrain from eating flesh, which is born of semen, blood etc. To avoid causing terror to living beings, let the disciple, who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating meat... It is not true that meat is proper food and permissible when the animal was not killed by himself, when he did not order to kill it, when it was not especially meant for him. There may be some people in the future who, being under the influence of taste for meat will string together in various ways sophistic arguments to defend meat eating. But meat-eating in any form, in any manner and in any place is unconditionally and once and for all prohibited.
"Meat eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit and will not permit..." - Lord Buddha, (Lanka vatara Sutra ) 1 After my paranirvana in
the last kalpa different ghosts will be encountered everywhere deceiving people
and teaching them that they can eat meat and still attain enlightenment.. .How
can a bhikshu, who hopes to become a deliverer of others, himself be living on
the flesh of other sentient beings?" "All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill."- Lord Buddha, Dhammapada, 129 "One who, while seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other living beings who also desire happinesss, will not find happiness hereafter."- Lord Buddha, Dhammapada, 131 "He who has renounced all violence towards all living beings, weak or strong, who neither kills nor causes others to kill - him I do call a holy man." - Lord Buddha, Dhammapada, 405 3
"Anyone familiar with the
numerous accounts of the Buddha's extraordinary compassion and reverence for living
beings - for example his insistence that his monks strain the water they drink
lest they inadvertently cause the death of any micro-organisms 4 -
could never believe that he would be indifferent to the sufferings of domestic
animals caused by their slaughter of food" "The inhabitants are numerous and happy... Throuhout the country the people do not kill any living creature, nor drink intoxicating liquor.. .they do not keep pigs and foul, and do not sell live cattle; in the markets there are no butcher shops and no dealers in intoxicating drink... Only the Chandalas (lowest cast) are fisherman and hunters and sell flesh meat." 6 - famous 4th century Chines Buddhist traveller Fa-hsien "I have enforced the laws against killing certain animals and many others. But the greatest progress of Righteousness among men comes from the exhortation in favour of non-injury to life and abstention from killing living things. " 7 - Pillar Edict of King Ashoka (268-233 BC) "The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion"
"The reason for practicing dhyana and seeking to attain samadhi is to escape from the suffering of life, but in seeking to escape from suffering ourselves why should we inflict it upon others? Unless you can so control your minds that even the thought of brutal unkindness and killing is abhorred, you will never be able to escape from the bondage of the world's life... The 13th Century Zen Master Doyen, while visiting China, asked this question: "What must the mental attitude and daily activities of a student be when he is engaged in Buddhist Meditation and practice? Ju-Ching answered that one of the things he should avoid is eating meat. 8 "The salvation of birds and beasts, oneself included -this is the object of Shakyamuni's religious austerities." - Zen Master Ikkyu "In China and Japan the eating of meat was looked upon as an evil and was ostracised.. .The eating of meat gradually ceased (around 517) and the tended to become general. It became a matter of course not to use any kind of meat in the meals of temples and monasteries." 9 - Encyclopaedia of Buddhism "There is just no reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. Man can live without meat." - The Dalai Lama The 14 th
century Saint Srila Jayadeva Gosvami in his Dasavatara-stotra sings: "It is said about Lord Buddha here: sadaya-hrdaya darsita-pasu-qhatam. He saw the whole human race going to hell by this animal killing. So he appeared to teach ahimsa, non-violence, being compassionate on the animals and human beings. Actually animal-killing, no religion sanctions. In Christian religion also, it is clearly stated, 'Thou shall not kill'. Everywhere animal killing is restricted. In no religion unnecessary killing of animals is actually allowed or supported. But for this nobody cares nowadays. The killing of animals is increasing, and so are the reactions. Every ten years you will find a war. These are the reactions." - His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, the Hare Krishna Movement. 1The
Lankavatara Sutra, / Daisez Susuki, London: Routiedge 1932 |
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