For fear of causing terror to living beings…Let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining him or herself to attain Compassion, refrain from eating ~ Buddha Going vegetarian may be the most effective way to fight global warming. Buddhist practitioners have practiced vegetarianism over the last 2000 years. We are vegetarian with the intention to nourish our compassion towards the animals. Now we also know that we eat vegetarian in order to protect the earth. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat… In order to satisfy one human stomach, so many lives are taken away. We must promote vegetarianism. It is extremely important ~ H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama Dear friends, It was almost 50 years ago that I stopped eating meat. At the time, I had friends who were vegetarians for purely health concerns and their ideas about a non-meat diet interested me. Following a bout of amoebic dysentery (I was travelling at the time) and not eating solid food for several weeks, I experimented with not eating meat when I resumed eating solid foods. Many people find the transition to non-meat eating difficult, but for me it was never problematic. Once I made the decision, I never turned back and never missed it. I was happy with my choice, physically and ethically. (Disclosure: My father’s business was wholesale meats, as was my grandfathers, great-grandfathers all the way back to butchers in Germany. I grew up eating choice cuts of meat daily and would spend school holidays among a men’s culture of butchers, sharpened knives, cow carcasses hanging from iron hooks in refrigerated rooms, sawdust on one’s shoes and animal fat and blood on one’s white apron. All this was normal to me.) When I entered the Buddhist path several years later, I was already a practicing vegetarian. My first Zen teacher, Phillip Kapleau, was a committed and passionate vegetarian for both health and ethical reasons. While not an article of faith for our Rochester Zen community, many members, perhaps most, followed a vegetarian diet. Meat, fish, poultry and alcohol were never served at the Rochester Zen Center or any
For fear of causing terror to living beings…Let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining him or herself to attain Compassion, refrain from eating ~ Buddha Going vegetarian may be the most effective way to fight global warming. Buddhist practitioners have practiced vegetarianism over the last 2000 years. We are vegetarian with the intention to nourish our compassion towards the animals. Now we also know that we eat vegetarian in order to protect the earth. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat… In order to satisfy one human stomach, so many lives are taken away. We must promote vegetarianism. It is extremely important ~ H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama Dear friends, It was almost 50 years ago that I stopped eating meat. At the time, I had friends who were vegetarians for purely health concerns and their ideas about a non-meat diet interested me. Following a bout of amoebic dysentery (I was travelling at the time) and not eating solid food for several weeks, I experimented with not eating meat when I resumed eating solid foods. Many people find the transition to non-meat eating difficult, but for me it was never problematic. Once I made the decision, I never turned back and never missed it. I was happy with my choice, physically and ethically. (Disclosure: My father’s business was wholesale meats, as was my grandfathers, great-grandfathers all the way back to butchers in Germany. I grew up eating choice cuts of meat daily and would spend school holidays among a men’s culture of butchers, sharpened knives, cow carcasses hanging from iron hooks in refrigerated rooms, sawdust on one’s shoes and animal fat and blood on one’s white apron. All this was normal to me.) When I entered the Buddhist path several years later, I was already a practicing vegetarian. My first Zen teacher, Phillip Kapleau, was a committed and passionate vegetarian for both health and ethical reasons. While not an article of faith for our Rochester Zen community, many members, perhaps most, followed a vegetarian diet. Meat, fish, poultry and alcohol were never served at the Rochester Zen Center or any
On%20Eating%20Meat.docx