Friday, January 4, 2008

Vegetarian

Written by Living Buddha Lian-sheng, Sheng-yen Lu


Someone once asked the Dalai Lama: In Tantric Buddhism, are practitioners required to be vegetarian??

The Dalai Lama replied: Personally I am a vegetarian, but the lamas are not.
If one is not a vegetarian, then one kills; isn’t that a violation of the precepts?
The Dalai Lama ambiguously replied, Even if one eats meat, one does not necessarily kill. Being a vegetarian is not necessarily relevant to killing. With an awkward smile, he added: The lamas do not kill, yet they are not vegetarians?


When I was dining with Ganbu, a senior monk at the Drepung monastery, we were served only meat.

To my knowledge, vegetarianism is a product of Chinese Buddhism. It was originally created by Xiao Yan, the Emperor Wudi of the Liang dynasty for Buddhist practitioners. The idea was to cultivate compassion and alleviate the creation of negative karma.


There are benefits to vegetarianism, however it is not the primary requirement for Buddhahood; otherwise the cows, horses, and sheep would all have become Buddhas.

Many Buddhist novices are not adapted to being vegetarians. In this case, they may start by eating three kinds of clean meats, such as: not witnessing the slaughter, not hearing the slaughter, and not asking someone else to kill for them. This is a convenient way to enter into vegetarianism.

Do I require True Buddha Tantric practitioners to be vegetarian?

My answer is that it is voluntary.

Although this is the case, those who consume meat should first purify the food by blowing the air. By reciting the Manjusri Deliverance Mantra, this delivers the spirits of those to be consumed to a better realm. Since we are generating compassion towards them, we will not be creating any negative karma. Therefore eating meat is fine if this method is practiced.


In terms of vegetarianism, there is a difference between Sutric and Tantric Buddhism. In any case, please remember the following teaching of the Buddha:
A mouthful of pure water
Contains millions of living organisms.
If one does not recite mantra,
It is as if one kills.

Although it may seem insignificant, one cannot afford to neglect this principle.