[Buddha-l] on eating meat

[Mike Austin]

In message <1129759091.6234.4.camel at localhost.localdomain>, Richard P. 
Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> writes
>On Wed, 2005-10-19 at 20:05 +0100, Mike Austin wrote:
>
>> >So you seek a fatwa from the Dalia Lama in which he says in so many
>> >words "Eating meat is bad karma"? Does this not strike you as a
>> >remarkably limited and unimaginative way of looking at an important
>> >issue?
>>
>> No, but I do see your comment as a remarkably limited and unimaginative
>> response to a sincere request for a reference - not just from the Dalai
>> Lama - that can clarify whether eating or buying meet is bad karma.
>
>Let me try putting it another way. It seems to me that you have already
>received an abundance of materials from various sources, including the
>Dalai Lama, that make it clear in every possible way that buying meat is
>an unwholesome activity in that it leads to the suffering of sentient
>beings. What you do not have is a single sentence that summarizes all
>this material up for you in the words "Buying meat is bad karma."  But
>do you really need that sentence? Can you not see that that is precisely
>what is being said by the material that your friends on buddha-l have
>been giving to you?

Sigh. I really did not want to get into a discussion but... First, there 
is the simple eating of meat that is not addressed.  OK, it is mentioned 
in the Lanka, but I have addressed that elsewhere. Then, there is buying 
meat. People suggest that this causes the death of animals because it is 
tantamount to ordering the butcher, or whoever is at the end of the line 
of business, to kill another animal for meat.  Now I agree that there is 
an interdependence here. It is pretty damn obvious. But then there is an 
interdependence between my living in peace and my government maintaining 
an army - an army that kills humans in foreign countries. Now I complain 
against that and, if asked, I would tell them not to do it on my behalf. 
I would also ask a slaughterer of animals not to do it- particularly not 
on my behalf. Yet, it is done.  There is meat on the shelf and I benefit 
from it.  It appears to me, by the arguments put forward, that I am also 
implicated - responsible even - for any bad actions that I benefit from. 
So, by simply enjoying the conditions I have now, I am ordering those in 
power to pursue the same actions that they think produce that peace. And 
the same applies to unfair economic policies and so on.

It is this multitude of dependencies that, I feel, are hard to reconcile 
with one's own actions of body, speech and mind. Is it through these one 
accumulates good or bad karma?  Or is it by any interdependency with any 
evil act in the world. If it were the latter, we would all be doomed. It 
is my current opinion that eating meat or buying meat is neutral, on the 
basis of the three doors of action.  It is also my opinion that being an 
ethical vegetarian (as opposed to just preferring to eat vegetables)  is 
positive because of the intention. I could even suppose that eating meat 
would be positive if it were for medical purposes and the intention were 
to enable one to benefit more beings.  (I don't claim that intention for 
myself, though.)

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin