Can We Eat Meat?
Xue Feng
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According to Buddhist teachings, one should not eat meat, because eating meat is killing and destroying LIFE, which is cruel and unmerciful. People who eat meat are not acceptable to Buddhism. Another view point is that the meat you eat may have come from your parents and relatives, because it may come from the animal that they happen to have been reincarnated into. Therefore, one should absolutely abstain from eating meat. Later Buddhist preachers proposed in light of the actual situation of followers living at home that "three clean meat" is eatable, namely, meat can be eatable if it does not come from the animal that is killed for you, that you do not want to kill, or that you have seen killed. That is to say, the meat that you eat does not come from the animal that is skilled specially for you, and you don't kill animals or see animals being killed. Tibetan Buddhism thinks that meat is eatable, because Tibetans are mostly herdsmen, for whom beef and mutton are their staple food, without which they can hardly survive.
Followers of Judaism, Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and orthodox church eat meat, but do not eat the meat of dead animals. They only eat the meat of killed animals. The Old Testament of the Bible has made a detailed classified description of the animals that can be eaten and the animals that cannot be eaten.
Islamism has a strict restriction on the eating of meat. This restriction comes from the Bible. As are different from Christians, Muslims (followers of Islamism) do not eat pork and carrion, because pork and carrion are not clean and thus will pollute man's spiritual nature. Besides, before killing animals, Muslims will chant scriptures to console animals and release their souls from purgatory, which reflects the mercy and care of Muslims for animals.
On the basis of abiding by the Bible, the witnesses of Yahweh strictly forbid the eating of animal blood, regarding blood not meat as the LIFE of animals.
Lifechanyuan holds the view point that LIFE is divided into different levels, LIFE at lower levels serves LIFE at higher levels, and by way of sacrifice LIFE can get over its plight and create condition for a higher realm.
LIFE should serve each other, LIFE is interrelated, and only by serving other forms of LIFE, can it attain a higher realm.
Therefore, Lifechanyuan neither objects to not supports the eating of meat. Whether one eats meat or not depends on the actual situation. Each individual can behave according to his habits and be flexible, act in accordance with our nature, and take advantage of the opportunities as they arise.
Lifechanyuan has several principles with regard to the eating of meat:
1. Do not eat the meat of wild animals, so that the chain of LIFE can be protected and will not be cut off.
2. When killing livestock and poultry for food, we had better learn from the Muslim approach and chant scriptures to release their souls from purgatory, offering them consolation at the end of their LIFE and minimizing their sufferings.
3. Let professionals do the killing, ordinary people do not do the killing, because professionals can minimize and shorten the sufferings of animals, while ordinary people are likely to bring a lot of pain to animals, and may prolong the sufferings.
4. Do not eat dog flesh, because dogs have very high spiritual nature. The higher the spiritual nature of an animal, the greater the damage will be to the person who eats its meat.
5. Eat the cattle, goats, pigs, and chickens that have been raised specially to provide meat, and one had better refrain from eating livestock and poultry that have not been raised for this purpose. There is affection between man and poultry and livestocks, which can only be felt by those who have taken great care in feeding them. I have seen cattle shedding tears, sheep looking sad, and chickens attaching to people. One cannot bear to kill those animals for which he has affection.
6. Chanyuan Celestials can have meat but should not kill animals and do not witness the killing of animals.
I have said, “eating vegetables makes one sober, eating meat makes one bemuddled, eating grains makes one wise, and eating qi makes one deity-like. The higher the spiritual nature of an animal and plant, the greater the damage will be to the person who eats them.
The meat of a killed animal is no longer LIFE but a kind of energy. Therefore, eating meat is only taking in the energy. However, any food has its structure and contains information, and one will be achiffected by the food he eats. One will be infected if he eats poultry contracted with bird flu, although poultry provides a kind of meat. Burging croton is a kind of energy, but one may suffer loose bowels after eating it. Chilli is a kind of energy, but one will feel unbearably hot after eating it. Any kind of food will have either more or less positive or negative effects on us.
The danger of eating meat lies in the fact that we are affected by the meat we eat, the hate of the animal eaten by us will be transferred to our body, and the natural endowments and instinct of the eaten animal will have effect on us. When an animal is being killed, its indignation and resentment will cause it to release a toxin in its meat. We will absorb the toxin when we eat the meat. Muslims are trying to lower the content of toxins to the greatest extent when they chant scriptures and release their souls from the purgatory and console them before killing animals. You can make an experiment. When you are enraged, your face will turn pale and blue, because your anger has triggered the release of toxins in your body.
You are what you eat, and this is only a matter of degree.
Why do I stress again and again that we should feel a sense of gratitude every time we have the meal? Because only with a feeling of gratitude can we convert the toxins in the food and change the structure of food to benefit our own health. Christians will make prayer to the god at each meal to thank him for the food he has given to people. And the deep level of reason for this is to convert the toxins.
You can eat whenever you want to, but you must be grateful. Do not eat if do not want to, but do not feel that you have not gained advantage as a result. You can eat when you have to, but you may try your best to refrain from eating or try to eat as little as you can.
You can understand the more profound ways concerning meat eating after you have learned non-form thinking and holographic thinking.
The best way is to eat nothing. “Eating qi is godlike”. We can directly assimilate the essence of the sun and the moon and the anima of the earth. I have already offered you the key to open the Dharma eye—consciousness, structure and energy. Any food is the conversion of energy. We eat mainly to absorb the energy contained in food. Then why do we still need to eat if we can absorb energy directly?
Actually whether one eats meat or not is related to the structure of everyone’s LIFE. Why doesn’t sheep eat meat? Why does wolf eat meat? This is determined by their different structure of LIFE. With self-cultivation and self-refinery, a person who likes meat very much will gradually lose interest in it, will grow averse to it, and may feel disgusted even at sight of it. Why? Because the nonmaterial structure of your LIFE has changed.
Do not pretend, do not force and push. Let’s conform to natural tendency. The core issue is to perfect the nonmaterial structure of LIFE, which is the key to solving problems and the key to self-refinery.
Dieting is mainly a habit of thinking. If we have unconventional thinking, we can do away with dieting.
When we say that we should pay off our debts in the human world, be sure to bear in mind that we still have to pay back the debts to nature, and the debts to plants. Why should we hold LIFE and nature in awe and respect? Why should we protect LIFE and nature? The purpose is to pay back our debts, not for the sake of morality.
In modern times, the best way to pay off our debts is to build Lifechanyuan. The reason behind this is very profound, so we must strive to perceive and understand it.
2007-3-28
lifechanyuan.org
Comments
OK, thanks for sharing your opinion about it, it's indeed a complicated issue... or maybe we make it complicated, i dunno.
Dear David,, thank you.
Conundrum and outcry are new words to me. :)
To answer your conundrum,,
Even in Islam, if no food anymore around, pig is allowable at the moment.
@NotAClue, I've a question for you since I don't have any vegan friend to ask about it at my surroundings and I'm curious about some vegan theories and opinions and I like to learn stuff from them. Probably it's a silly question and I'm not being sarcastic or anything here, it's just out of curiousity. You say (and I get that too) that is hypocrite to allow yourself to eat/buy meat when you're not able to kill any animal yourself. I don't know if you've pets like dogs and cats but if so, well... since they are predators/carnivorous you have to give them meat, you can't force them to change a diet that is vital for them. So you have to buy meat in these cases... Is that to be an "hypocrite" vegan too?
Wow!!