The answer to life, the universe and everything
Should buddhists and yogis eat meat? The Dalai Lama eats meat because his doctor tells him to for health reasons. Did the Buddha eat meat? Maybe, there seems to be some disagreement on this. Does eating meat violate the first yama of ahimsa or non-violence? Gandhi thought so:
“I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
web: Mahatma Gandhi
Zen Buddhist Philip Kapleau provided a very cogent set of arguments for why we shouldn’t eat meat in 1981. His argument focuses on suffering, cruelty and how we should have respect for all living beings. His views were essentially a very clear ethical and spiritual attack on what we now call speciesism. The section that set me thinking the most was when he discussed how we use linguistic trickery to hide from what we’re really doing:
“… we invent euphemisms like “ham”, “pork”, “steak”, “veal,” and “mutton” so we won’t be reminded that we are ingesting the scorched flesh of dead pigs, cows, calves, and sheep, slain for the pleasures of our palates. In fact the word “meat” itself is a euphemism. Originally referring to solid food, as in the expression “meat and drink,” it later came to mean the flesh of an animal.”
book: To Cherish All Life, Philip Kapleau
Sharon Gannon, co-founder of Jivamukti Yoga would agree. Yoga and Vegetarianism is a beautiful book which provides a well-constructed tsunami of arguments to explain why we should be vegetarian or even vegan. It really is difficult to believe anything else after reading the book. She recalls an interesting anecdote from a conversation with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois:
“He was initially very reluctant to teach Western students … when I asked him … why … he replied, “… it was because they weren’t vegetarians. If someone is not a vegetarian, they won’t be able to learn yoga. They will be too stiff in their body and their mind … But then students came to me … They had decided upon their own to become vegetarians … so I began teaching them because I felt they could learn.”
book: Yoga and Vegetarianism, Sharon Gannon
So, why am I not a vegetarian? Well, it’s kind of a work in progress. The more yoga I do the less meat I feel like I want to eat. I guess you could say that I’m a part-time vegetarian these days. I play a game where I give myself ‘V’ points every meal. One point for a vegetarian meal, two points for a vegan meal, three times per day. Last week I got 27 points out of a possible 42. Maybe I can get close to 42 by the end of the year.
How many V points did you get today? As The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy said, the answer to life, the universe and everything is …
