The Buddha: a title applied to Guatama Siddhartha, a nobleman and religious
teacher of N.India, regarded by his followers as the most recent rediscoverer
of the path to enlightenment; the founder of Bhuddism.
buddha: 1. a person who has achieved a state of enlightenment. 2. an image or
picture of the Buddha.
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Buddhist writings:
from The Extended Circle by Jon Wynne-Tyson. Direct link: amazon.co.uk
For the sake of love of purity, the Bodhisattva should refrain from eating flesh,
which is born of semen, blood, etc. For fear of causing terror to living beings
let the Bodhisattva, who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain
from eating flesh...
It is not true that meat is proper food and permissible when the animal was
not killed by himself, when he did not order others to kill it, when it was
not specially meant for him Again, there may be some people in the future who
.. . being under the influence of the taste for meat will string together in
various ways sophistic arguments to defend meat eating .
But... meat eating in any form, in any manncr, and in any place is unconditionally
and once for all prohibited... Meat eating I have not permitted to anyone, I
do not permit, I will not permit . - Lankavatara
The reason for practising dhyana [concentration of mind and seeking to attain
Samadhi [equilibrium; tranquility; heightened and expanded awareness] 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 abhorrent, you will never
be able to escape from the bondage of the world's life. . . After my Parinirvana
[complete extinction] in the last kalpa [the time between the start of a world
cycle and its extinction] different kinds of 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
he living on the flesh of other sentient beings? - Surangama
The eating of rneat extinguishes the seed of great compassion. - Mahaparinirvana
I have enforced the law 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 beings. -
Asoka's Edicts
Hurt not others with that which pains yourself. - Udanavarga
By whomsoever no evil is done in deed, or word, or thought, him I call a brahmin
who is guarded in these three. - Dhammapada
The Buddha has mercy even on the meanest thing. - Vinaya, Cullavagga Khandhaka
To serve the creatures is to serve the Buddha. - Indian Proverb
All beings seek for happiness; so let your compassion extend itself to all.
- Mahavamsa
The sacred eightfold path or middle way - right views, right resolve, right
speech, right action, right living, right effort, right attention, right meditation
. . which lead to the extinction of suffering and Nirvana. - Buddha's first
sermon 4th truth. Vinaya, Mahavagga
The Goddess of Mercy has a thousand hands - and needs them all. - Japanese Proverb
He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings who also long for
happiness, will not find happiness after death. - Dhammapada
Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, nor sanction
the acts of those who do so. Let him refrain from even hurting any creature,
both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world. - Sutta-Nipata
Because he has pity on every living creature, therefore is a man called 'holy'.
- Dhammapada
Full of love for all things in the world, practising virtue, in order to benefit
others, this man alone is happy. - Dhammapada
One act of pure love in saving life is greater than spending the whole of one's
time in religious offerings to the gods - Dhammapada
Some comments from readers of these pages:
1. Many sources say Buddha died from eating bad mushrooms, not pork. It is understood
that the Buddha taught his monks against killing animals, but, since they were
to live on alms, to accept meat given to them so long as the animal had not
been killed specifically for their benefit. However, people who offered food
to Buddha would have certainly known his preference for vegetarian meals, so
may have prepared fitting food.
2. While there have been arguments that he ate meat when it was given as an
alm, there are just as many arguments to the contrary (See To Cherish all Life
by Roshi P. Kapleau). It is against the basic tenants of Buddhism to eat meat,
and only those who whish to justify meat eating will argue differently.
3. The Buddha was most certainly a vegetarian. There are many sutras composed
after his death containing almost any imaginable sort of distortion or misrepresentation
of the original teachings, so the fact that some sutra somewhere (or even many)
claim that he ate meat is in itself meaningless. The only important criterion
is what those sutras which are indisputably authentic say. These, without exception,
very strongly advocate, even mandate, vegetarianism. I am a medical student
at the Albert Einstein Collge of Medicine in NYC, and was a history major concentrating
on Asian history, at Cornell U. I have lived in Japan for two and a half years,
and my wife is Japanese and Buddhist. (She eats meat, just as many Christians
do not forgive their enemies, etc. The practice of the nominal followers of
the founder of a religion is no guide to the lives or even teachings of that
founder.) 4.