VEGETARIANISM

Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating meat. Some vegetarians will eat no animal products - milk, eggs or butter - and are called vegans. Vegetarianism was just starting to be advocated around the Buddha's time, mainly by Jainism, but the Buddha himself was not vegetarian nor did he require his disciples to be (M.I,369). The reason for this seems to be because he made a distinction between killing directly - killing an animal oneself or getting someone else to kill it - and indirect killing - purchasing the meat of an animal that has already been slaughtered. Killing directly makes one directly responsible for a death, whereas purchasing and eating meat killed without one's consent or knowledge makes one only distantly responsible. Vegetarians or critics of the Buddha might think that this is hair-splitting, but actually it is not. Even the strictest vegetarians kill tiny animals every time they walk and the vegetables they eat have been sprayed to kill animals that might eat or destroy them. Thus the vegetarian is indirectly and distantly responsible for killing just as the person who buys meat from a supermarket is.

However, mature Buddhists think not just of the effects their actions have on themselves but the effects they have on others also, and whether one kills an animal with one's own hands or buys meat from a supermarket, in both cases a sentient being is dead. Consequently, there are Buddhists who feel that by not eating meat they are helping to lessen some of the cruelty in the world and to this degree vegetarianism is more consistent with the general spirit of the first Precept. In Sri Lanka vegetarianism is common although by no means universal and it is almost unknown in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Tibet. Many Chinese Buddhists and all Chinese monks and nuns are strictly vegetarian.