Dalai Lama (i'm almost done)

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Observations on Buddhists and the eating of meat that is " freely given "

http://www.wadi.org.uk/article_54.htm

 

 

A contemplative observed: " The true followers of Buddha obviously feel that they

are entitled to say that ‘their religion is on a higher spiritual level than

Christianity’ because Buddha, their spiritual founder, specifically ordained

that no meat should be eaten under any circumstances: ‘All meat-eating in any

form in any manner and in any place is unconditionally, and once and for all

prohibited to all’. (See ref. The Lankavatara Sutra, translation D.T. Suzuki, p.

219.)

 

However, some Buddhists apparently attempt to justify that they eat meat by

stating that it is acceptable to do so providing that it is ‘freely given’. " The

contemplative continued: " Clearly, it is irrelevant who killed the innocent

animal. What matters is that anyone eating its flesh is culpable of having

become an accessory to such killing. Or, as stated by Tom McGuire in the article

Killing them Softly:‘It is complicity, a shared responsibility for the deaths of

innocent beings that no amount of scriptural exegesis can rationalize.’ (See

ref. Satya publication, April 1998.) Steven Rosen in ‘Diet for Transcendence’

puts it slightly differently " Thus while a monk, for instance, may not

consciously be killing an animal ...as he begs alms from the householder, he is

in a very real sense supporting the killing by accepting the flesh.

 

The contemplative added that we must return to what Buddha proclaimed in his

reverence for all living things. But ‘What about the Dalai Lama, who eats meat

behind the façade of ‘doctor’s orders’?’ What is most distressing in this

respect is that the Lankavatara Sutra is an official text for the Mahayana form

of Buddhism, to which Lamaism, the religion of Tibet also belongs. Moreover the

Dalai Lama himself is regarded as the reincarnation of Buddha. (Ref. Pears

Cyclopaedia.) Therefore, one would have expected him to continue the mandate of

the founder, Buddha.

 

 

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