[Buddha-l] Buddhist ethics in a contemporary world

[Michel Clasquin]

Michael Rolig wrote:
> another example, I don't know the sources, is of a great buddhist
> teacher who, as you would expect, was vegetarian and didn't kill. 
> Yet, when his mother was dying and requested a meal of fish to be her
> last, he happily went to the market to bring her the fish.

I also am a vegetarian. But I wouldn't dream of imposing my ethical 
beliefs on other people. For him to recoil in horror and loudly declare 
that as a monk and a teacher he couldn't do such a thing would be to 
"stink of sanctity". He had to choose between showing compassion to his 
dying mother and showing compassion to a fish. Mom won.

I imagine it would have been a little tougher if she had asked for a 
meal of human flesh!