Buddhist and Vegetarian - They Are Not The Same

Here's another entry that arose from some questions posted by Quietfight in the forum. In the thread, she posted the following questions.

1) Why certain the Chinese Buddhists go a step further beyond vegetarian and strictly forbid the use of onion, garlic, leeks, chives and shallots to flavour cooking. Isn't maintaining a meat free diet already considered being a committed Buddhist?

2) Onion, garlic, leeks, chives and shallots excite the senses. Why is it wrong to excite the senses while enjoying a meal, even if its a meat free one?

Let's reflect back on the 5 precepts and their meanings. The precepts are meant to be a guide for the disciples to foster a healthy environment where there is love, peace and joy in the way of living and within the community. By doing so, it also allows the discple to have a conducive environment to further his insights and develop wisdom and compassion leading to the ultimate liberation. One of the characteristics that a Buddhist seek to develop by following these precepts is humility.

To contemplate on this, let's go back to the days of Buddha. In those days, the disciples of Buddha relied on alms begged from nearby towns and villages and when doing so, it is also a way to practice their humility for they cannot refuse what was given and they cannot ask for more than what is given. So, regardless of meat or vegetables, they are to accept the alms as long it was given in good faith and especially when the families whom provided the alms sacrificed whatever little they have to eat to the disciples and the amount could be substantial resulting in the family having to be less than full for a meal.

However, there is the precept of non-killing to consider as Buddhists revere life and practice compassion for all sentient beings. Let's reflect on this precept, why did Buddha request disciples to follow this precept? To lessen the suffering of sentient beings, not to create more. In that Buddha laid down the rule that one should not accept the meat if the meat was derived from an animal that was killed for purposely for the monk(s). Killing the animal for the purpose of alms giving defeats the intention to lessen suffering of sentient beings. That's the reason why Buddhists commit themselves to a diet that does not include "live" meat or a full vegetarian diet. All of these being done to further spiritual development, to foster metta (loving-kindness).

So reflecting on these points, as an illustration, do we purposely estranged ourselves from our parents or families because they put meat on the dinner table, refusing to eat them, arguing with them in anger and insisting that a separate meal to be prepared because of our commitment not to take meat? That's not the way to live with your families, not when we know that it took no small kamma for us to be born as the child of our parents, siblings to our brothers and sisters. One way is to take them since they are prepared with the love of your parents or families and it make no sense to create unnecessary anger or suffering within the family. In time if possible, we may wish to gradually guide them to a more wholesome meal when lesser meat or even no meat is used in preparing the meal so they can generate merits as well.

Afterall, isn't it contradicting for a vegetarian who loves and buys leather goods since meat and leather goods are both produced by the death of an animal? Below is a good read on vegetarianism.

Vegetarianism

As for the exclusion of the 5 pungent vegetables, there is a good answer on this by Master Chin Kong in the article, Art of Living - check it on page 34 to 35 of the pdf file in the link below. In summary, the restriction is to assist spiritual development as any of these taken in large quantities can cause irritation to the body, lessening the ability to concentrate, thereby diminishing spiritual development.

Art of Living

As for exciting the senses, there is no right and wrong answer in that. What Buddha taught was to free ourselves of attachments so that we can liberate ourselves. If we are too attached to the notion of exciting our senses, then obviously there is great attachment there and we should try to free ourselves from it. This is more in line with the precept of not taking alcohol and intoxicants as this precept seeks to remind us not to indulge in our senses, dulling the clarity of the mind. So all in all, there is nothing wrong in having an enjoyable meal but we do not need to be too attached to having an exciting meal all the time.