Eating Meat

“People think of animals as if they were vegetables, and that is not right. We have to change the way people think about animals. I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesn’t cause suffering.”
– H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

In the last couple of posts I mentioned that the basis for Buddhist ethics is determining whether actions are harmful to sentient beings and then refraining from those things which are determined to be harmful. So when it comes to the topic of eating meat we have to examine whether doing so is harmful to others. There are countless writings illuminating the suffering involved in the production of animal products in our society. If you are not familiar, you might take a look at Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals, watch the film Food Inc. , or read one of Michael Pollan's books. I really enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma. These are not Buddhist arguments, but rather general writings on the ethics of food production in our society.

Taking a look from a Buddhist perspective we might take note that Buddhists consider the time of death a particularly important moment in one's life. It is said that one's state of mind at the time of death is a major factor in determining one's next rebirth. When we kill an animal for food, we have no idea what state its mind is in, and if we were able to view its thoughts we would likely see fear or anger. Therefore by killing it at that moment we may be condemning the animal to a poor rebirth filled with intense suffering. We might also consider how our own karma might be affected by eating meat. A karmic result of killing or being involved in the killing of animals (even if it is an indirect action) may be a habituation to killing, leading to being one who easily kills in future lives. It may also lead to being killed oneself or may result in a rebirth filled with suffering. For these reasons it would be wise to refrain from killing animals. We may think that it doesn't matter because we don't actually kill the animals ourselves, but rather purchase animal products at the supermarket, but having others kill for us means we are condemning those people to the same karmic suffering. Further to the point, Buddha explained that all sentient beings have been reborn over and over again since beginningless time. If that is so, then we can infer that we have been every type of sentient being and have been in relationship with every sentient being in our previous lives. The Buddhist teachings encourage us to see every sentient being as our mother, since each has been our mother at some point in the past. Some of us have strained relationships with our parents but in general you see mothers providing tremendous love and care to their children, whether the mother is an elephant or a human. Remembering your appreciation for that motherly love and care and then imagining that the spider crawling across the floor once provided that for you, the cow in the burger you just ate gave that to you, the guy who cut you off on the highway provided that for you, even the grumpy teller at the bank once cared for you as a mother, can dramatically change your relationship with the beings around you.

 All of these points lead us to think that a vegetarian diet is the most compassionate way to sustain ourselves. However I think it important to remember compassion for ourselves and those around us, remembering to "start where we are". If vegetarianism is not an easy option for you, you might like to try a day without animal products once per week. Any little bit helps. Check out Meatless Monday for more info on the one day a week idea. I was mostly vegan for 15 years, but then my Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor suggested I eat meat due to an illness I was having trouble overcoming. At the time the hardest part was letting go of the identity of being a vegetarian and the experience gave me a new understanding of how I had been judgmental of others in the past and how attached I had become to a certain image of myself. I became more appreciative through the process of having to change my diet. More recently, I returned to a mostly vegetarian diet but this time I have found it much more difficult due to the complexities of my family situation. I started the family on Meatless Mondays a couple of years ago and soon enough my meat and potatoes partner was reading Dr. Esselstyn's book and was Gung Ho for a change to a vegan diet . We don't always adhere 100% (my son in particular is a big meat eater) but we do our best with a "middle way" sort of attitude and feel better about our relationship to the world around us for it.

The majority of Buddhist cultures prescribe a vegetarian diet. Often monks and nuns follow a vegetarian diet, even if lay people do not. In Tibet however, Buddhism encountered a strong meat eating culture and incorporated it. While I was living in a Tibetan refugee community in India I found that Tibetan Buddhists were often meat eaters and had various reasons for it. Some said that it was hard at a high altitude to find enough vegetarian foods for proper nutrition. Some said that they were not wealthy enough to purchase vitamins like we do in developed countries and felt a vegetarian diet without supplements would not keep them healthy. Others told me that they feel it is okay to eat meat because it is possible to purify actions after committing them ( Purification practices are something like the Buddhist equivalent of saying confession and doing a number of Hail Mary's) . There was also the argument I mentioned in the last post that at least if they eat a yak they can take one life and feed the whole village, whereas if they ate fish it would require taking a large number of lives to feed the same number of people. While spending time with Tibetans it became clear to me that they have a strong cultural attachment to eating meat and dairy products, after generations of reliance on animals as nomadic peoples. A long term Dharma friend, Zhiwa, recently pointed me in the direction of a Tibetan by the name of Geshe Phelgye who is trying to change that with his Universal Compassion Movement. Here is his website.

Please also take a look at Zhiwa's comments and website. After practicing law for many years he is very skillful with the written and spoken word. He shares his thoughts as a Buddhist environmental activist on the subject of eating meat here on his website. Scroll down to the section called Anti-Establishment Planetarianism! for the "meat" of  it.

Practice: This week spend some time thinking about the love and care your mother provided for you. If you have a strained relationship with your mother you may want to choose another person in your life who has cared for you, such as a father, grandparent, guardian, carer, etc. Spend some time focusing on your feelings around that person and generate true appreciation for their care. Think about how you would like to repay their kindness. Then spend some time thinking about the concept of rebirth and the possibility of all sentient beings around you having been your mother at some point in the past. Try to generate a genuine feeling of love and compassion for all sentient beings.

Have a great week!

Metta,

Dharma Mama

Buddhist Ethics - The Five Precepts

In introducing the topic of ethics last week I mentioned the 5 Precepts to which lay Buddhists adhere. There are different levels within each precept. For example, the first is not to kill. Breaking the precept at the root is to kill a human, but once you start to examine your behaviour to see if any of your actions, words or thoughts are harmful to others, you might also decide to avoid stepping on bugs or eating meat, or you might decide to take the fewest lives possible. I find it quite interesting that in western society we tend to evaluate the value of a life according to a hierarchy. Some westerners say they don't mind eating fish or chicken but won't touch larger more "sophisticated" animals like cows or pigs, for example. Others opt out of eating animals with a face, but are happy to munch on a muscle or a scallop. Buddhists on the other hand, tend not to apply this hierarchy and rather focus solely on taking as few lives as possible . Therefore they would rather kill one yak which can feed an entire village than kill the heap of fish necessary to feed the same village, as it would be necessary to end many more lives. I have heard it said that a bug's life is just as precious to that bug, as a cow's life is to a cow, as yours is to you. Some Buddhists advocate for eating a vegetarian diet. We will discuss that more next week.
The other four of the 5 Precepts similarly have different layers. The vow against intoxicants usually refers to alcohol and mind altering drugs of the non-prescription variety, but taken further it can mean abstaining from caffeine, sugar, television, or even friends and environments that do not support a calm mind. The precept to refrain from stealing has been explained to me as not taking what is not your own and has not been given. That means pens from work, or sugar packets from the cafe! The vow against lying is about refraining from saying that what is not true (even to the telemarketer on the phone who has interrupted your dinner!), but my teacher also points out that exaggeration is also included, such as embellishing a story to make it sound better or complaining that your partner NEVER does the dishes.  The precept regarding sexual misconduct refers to adultery, but if you look deeper you can also ask yourself if you use your body or sexuality in other ways which are harmful. My teacher includes abstaining from the use of pornography.

So how do these precepts relate to our relationship with food? I don't know about you but I am pretty sure that I am at least somewhat deceitful, at least to myself, in terms of what and how I eat. I may even polish off the last bit off my partner's chocolate, or "borrow" a few coins from my son's piggy bank for my morning caffeine when I am low on change. When it comes to intoxicants, I am pretty sure that my sweet treats or my "habit" for a strong cup of tea counts at some level. Perhaps there is something for us all to learn from these basic vows. As I mentioned last week, the basis for Buddhist ethics is examining weather a specific action could be harmful to other sentient beings and then choosing actions which are beneficial. I suspect that if we all did just that we might make some changes to our eating habits. In the modern era that might mean choosing organic, non-GMO, or local foods or to purchase items from farmers markets so that packaging is kept to a minimum. It may mean only eating enough to sustain us and donating extras to those in need.  At the very least I think it would mean that we would treat ourselves with compassion and choose foods that are not harmful to our own health. Choosing foods that make us feel our best might also help us to be more compassionate, loving and wise with others.

Want more? This is a link to a teaching by Venerable Thubten Chodron on Ethics. She discusses the 8 worldly concerns which we will discuss more in the coming weeks.  This one is about the Eightfold Path which Buddha prescribed. Again, we will get to that as well, before we finish with ethics. Stay tuned for more on ethics including; the Bodhisattva Vows, Monastic Vows, The Noble Eightfold Path, The Eight Worldly Concerns, Eating Meat (who does, who doesn't, why and how), Fasting, and more...as always I welcome your comments, questions, and additions. I look forward to hearing from you. Until then. Have a great week!

Practice: This week let's take a closer look at how our actions and thoughts in relation to food harm or help ourselves and others. Do a short breathing meditation to calm your mind and then spend some time contemplating the 5 precepts in relation to your own experience.

Metta,

Dharma Mama

Moving on from Attachment

Since it is the beginning of a new month, it is time to move on from the subject of attachment to a new topic but since attachment is such a huge subject, and we have barely scratched the surface, we will return to the discussion again soon. Before we move on however I thought I would share this quote I found this week.

"Unfortunately, we can easily confuse nonattachment with avoidance of attachment. Avoidance of attachment, however, is not freedom from attachment. It’s another form of clinging—clinging to the denial of your human attachment needs, out of distrust that love is reliable."

- John Welwood, "Human Nature, Buddha Nature"

So it seems that avoiding the chocolate cake in my life is not the answer. Rather, I have to address the root cause of my attachment, which Buddha would refer to as "ignorance", ignorance about the true nature of the chocolate cake and the true nature of myself. And how do we become wise? Not just by reading books, listening to teachings and following blogs (although those things do help) but by meditating. There are heaps of types of meditation and countless meditation teachers out there so we will take a look at meditation in a Buddhist context soon. If you want to start a meditation practice in the meantime, go for it but remember to start small (even 5 minutes will do) and build a regular and consistent practice, then slowly add to the length of time. A good starting practice is breathing meditation to calm the mind. Mindfulness pratice is also great. Here is a link to a great book on how to meditate. I referenced the book a lot when I led meditations in a Dharma Centre in the US. You can even download some guided meditations from the author on the web page. I was also just introduced to Tricycle Magazine's "Meditation Doctor" here. What a great concept!

Okay, now on to something new. I am inspired to focus on  the topic of ethics this month because I have signed up for the Plastic Free July Challenge and would like to examine the impact of my actions and behaviours more broadly. Do you think about what, when, where, why and how you eat? We will do so this month as we explore ethics in the Buddhist context.

Buddhist ethics are essentially governed by examining whether an action has potential to be harmful to one's self or to others, and by avoiding actions that might possibly be harmful.  Buddha set out the Eightfold Path for ending suffering and attaining enlightenment. In addition, lay Buddhists take vows called the 5 precepts, abstaining from killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct and taking intoxicants. Monks and Nuns take hundreds of vows. We will delve deeper into these vows and their meaning in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, here are a couple of interesting links on different topics. I love getting my geek on with Buddhist Geeks. Whether you want to learn about brain science and Buddhism or the similarities between gamers and Bodhisattvas, they have fabulous pod casts and videos to satisfy your curiosity. Check out their website here. This episode is a discussion with one of my favourite teachers, renowned scholar Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins. I am also looking forward to sitting down and watching this full length documentary about a Tibetan Buddhist master and his western born son. Hope you enjoy it too.

Practice: This week let's make a commitment to sit down for a meditation session. If you can do one every day fantastic. If not,  do what you can. It is really helpful to set a commitment to yourself and keep it so try for something realistic like 5 or 10 minutes for how many days you think is realistic. Set a timer so you aren't watching the clock. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. You can focus on the feeling of your breath going in and out at the tip of your nose or you can focus on the rise and fall of your chest. Choose either one but stay with your choice for the entire session, don't switch back and forth. Try to stay present in your breath. If you drift away, don't judge, just refocus your attention on the breath and continue. Try it out and let me know how you go!

Have a great week!

Metta,

Dharma Mama