Buddhism & Meat - What the Lankavatara Sutra says

8/22/2019 Buddhism & Meat - What the Lankavatara Sutra says.

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368 LAN KA VATAR A SUTRA4 'Al l the Dhyanas , Apramanas , , Arupas , Samadhis , the

Cessation of Thought,all these are mental constructions,nothing of the sort is really attainable.

"The fruit resulting from the l ife of a Srotapanna, ofa Sakridagamin, or of an Anagamin, or of an Arhatall th isis m en tal confusion.

"The Dhyana p rac t i sed , Dhyana itself, and the subjectof Dhyana, the abandonment, the seeing of the truth,allthis is d iscr imination; he who understands is . released." 1

5. On Meat-eating (p. 244 et seq.)The motive for having this chapter appended to the

Lankavatara, when it has no organic connection with thetex t pro pe r, seems to lie in a passag e tow ard s the end. A c-cording to it, the Buddha evidently dislikes the idea of beingthought of as the one who has permitted meat-eating amonghis followers. H e says, th er e m ay be some une nlig hte ne dfollowers of m ine after m y d ea th, who, no t 'kno w ing th espirit of my teaching and training, may wrongly concludethat I allowed them to eat meat and that I myself ate it .Th is would be disastrou s. F o r how can those who are a bidingin a merciful heart , disciplining themselves-in asceticism,and trying to follow the path of Mahayana, tell others to eatan im al food? Ind eed , I have elsewhere given rule s as tothe eating and not eating of meat; ten rules for avoiding andthree rules for accepting it . B u t in this Lankavatara aswell as in the Hastikakshya, Mahdmegha, Nirvana, andAngulimdlika sutras, meat-eating is absolutely forbidden.Not only in the past, but in the future and now, all myfollowers are to shun animal food no matter how it has beenpr ep ar ed . If the re is an y one who wo uld accuse me ofeating meat myself and allowing others to eat it , he willsurely be born in an und esirable region. H oly peoplerefuse to eat even the food of ordinary people, how muchm ore so w ith m ea t-ea tin g! Th eir food is the food of t r u t h1 P. 121.


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SOME OF THE IMPORTANT THEORIES 369(dharmdhdra), the T ath ag ata ' s D harm aka ya is suppo r ted bytha t . 1

According to this, there must have been the accepting ofmeat-food among the followers of Buddhism in the timewhen the Lankavatara was compiled. Ev ide ntly , the B ud-dha did not object to their eating it if the animal was notespecially killed for them . T his caused un fav ou rab le com-ments among the other religions, for instance, the Lokayatas, 2and the Buddhists natural ly did not l ike them, and thismust have started the new effort to prohibit meat-eatingal together among the Mahayana advocates .

The following are the reasons for not eating animalfood as recounted in this sutra:(1) A ll sentien t beings are con stantly going thr ou gha cycle of transmigration and stand to one another in every

possible form of re la tio ns hi p. Some of these are liv ing a tpr es en t even as the lower an im als. W hile th ey so differfrom us now, they all are of the same kind as ourselves.To take their lives and eat their flesh is like eating our own.Human feelings cannot stand this unless one is quite callous.When this fact is realised even the Rakshasas may ceasefrom eatin g m eat. The Bo dhis attva who reg ard s all beingsas if th ey were his only child ca nn ot in du lge in flesh-eating.

(2) The essence of B od hisa ttva shi p is a gr ea t com pas-sionate heart, for without this the Bodhisattva looses hisbein g. Th erefore, he who re ga rd s othe rs as if the y werehimself (sarva-bhutdtmabhuta), and whose pi ty ing thou gh t(kripdtma) is to benefit others as well as himself, oughtno t to eat m eat. H e is w illing for th e sake of the t r u t h tosacrifice himself, his body, his l ife, his property; he has nogreed for anything; and full of compassion towards allsentient beings and ready to store up good merit , pure andfree from w ron g'dis crim ina tion , how can he have an y long-in g for me at ? H ow can he be affected by th e evil h ab itsof the carnivorous races ?1 P p . 254 -25 6. * Cf. p . 244.


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370 LAN KA VA TAR A SUTRA(3) T his cru el ha bit of ea tin g m eat causes an en tiretransformation in the features of a Bodhisattva, whose skinem its an offensive and poisonous od ou r. The an im als are

keen enough to sense the approach of such a person, a personwho is like a Rakshasa himself, and would be fr ightenedan d ru n away from him . H e who w alks in compassion(maitri-vihari), therefo re, oug ht not to eat m eat.

(4) The mission of a B od his attv a is to crea te amon ghis fellow-beings a kin dly he art a nd fr iend ly reg ard forB ud dh ist teach ing. If they see him eatin g m eat and caus-ing ter ror among animals , the i r hear ts wi l l na tura l ly turnaw ay from him an d from the tea ch ing he professes. Th eyvil l then lose fai th in Buddhism.

(5) If a B odh isattv a eats m eat, he canno t at ta in theend he wishes; for he will be alienated by the Devas, theheavenly beings who are his spir i tual sympathisers and pro-tectors. H is m ou th will smell b a d ; he m ay not sleepsoundly; when he awakes he is not refreshed; his dreams arefilled with inauspicious omens; when he is in a deserted place,all alone in the woods, he will be haunted by evil spir i ts;he will be nervous, excitable at least provocations; he willbe sickly, have no proper taste, digestion, nor assimilation;the course of his spiritual discipline will be constantly inter-ru pt ed . Th erefore, he who is in te nt on bene fitting himselfand others in their spir i tual progress, ought not to think ofpartaking of animal f lesh.

(6) A nim al food is filthy , no t at all clean as a no uris h-ing agency for the B od hisa ttva . It rea dily decays, putrifies,an d ta in ts . I t is filled w ith po llution s, an d th e odou r of itwhen burned is enough to injure anybody with refinedtaste for th ings spir i tual .

(7) The eate r of m eat share s in thi s po llution,sp ir i tu ally . Once K in g Sim hasaud asa who was fond ofeating meat began to eat human flesh, and this alienated theaffections of his people. H e was th ro w n out of his ownkingdom . Sa kre nd ra, a celestial being, once tu rn e d himself


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SOME OF THE IMPORTANT THEORIES 371into a hawk and chased a dove because of his past taint asa m eat-ea ter. M eat-ea ting not only th us pollute s the life ofthe individual concerned; but also his descendants.

(8) The p ro p er food of a B od his attv a, as was ado ptedby all the previous saintly followers of truth, is rice, barley,wheat, all kinds of beans, clarified butter, oil, honey, molasses,an d su ga r p re pa re d in va riou s w ays. "Where no m eat iseaten, there will be no butchers taking the lives of l ivingcreatures , and no unsympathet ic deeds (gataghrind) willbe committed in the world.

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Buddhism & Meat - What the Lankavatara Sutra says