181: Vegetarianism and Theravada Buddhism

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Tasabhado Rado Sama Sambudassa Namo Tasabhado Radho Sama Sambudasa Namo Tasabhagwado Rado Sama Sambudassa Tirabada Buddhism series top number four Vegetarianism and Tirabara Buddhism. This talk is an approach to vegetarianism from the Tiravara Buddhist point of view. I fully understand that many people have different point of view on it. Definitely here, no intention is involved to create controversy. During forty-five years of Buddha's ministry, he set out disciplines and rules for the monks and nuns who follow him when specific occasion calls for it. One of the rules is monks must go for arms round, collecting food every day. Monks must go for arms round. Arms round means collecting food. Every day to collect enough food for a meal and must not store the food overnight. You have to discard it. That's why you collect only for one person consumption. But he may collect more than one or more than personal consumption if there is a sick or a frail monks who cannot go for arms round and was in need of food provision. And also the monks must accept any kind of food. The people donate it without any discrimination. The monks have no choice what kind of food they will be receiving, and whatever they receive, they must accept it and consume it. Monks are not supposed to put any burden on the people for their personal interest or for personal needs, including food preferences. According to this framework, Tiravada Buddhist monk cannot become a vegetarian. They must eat any food that is offered to them. However, monks must refuse meat offered to them under three circumstances. If they have seen, or if they have heard, or even if they suspect seen, heard, or suspect that an animal was killed with an intention to feed them. I'll repeat here again. That an animal was killed with an intention to feed them. Under that conditions, the monks must refuse that meat. So these are the rules. The setting. How are Tiravada monks can be or cannot be a vegetarian? But at the same time, all the food he collects are all vegetables and fruits. That day he's a vegetarian. This related to vegetarianism. And a lot of his relatives also cousins. They became monks. It's called Bekhu. Ordain and became follow the Buddha's way. So there was one monk Beku. His name is Devadata. Actually, he was a cousin of Buddha. Very proud. Great ego. Because he had practice, Samatha meditation, and he has attained all the high jhanas. And even he can exercise some psychical power. And there was a son of a king in the kingdom. When that son saw that they were data showing this psychical power, he was really impressed. And he visited him every day with all the foods and flowers and whatever the monk needs. And it was said that that prince will bring enough food for about 500 monks. Every day. So he was thinking like just like any one of us. In his setting, when a king passes away, the prince became a the next king. Or he has the highest, greatest power next to the king. So the way he was thinking is Buddha is the leader among these Sangha Beku. And he wants to take Buddha's place. He wants to manage the system. So he was always thinking and scheming. To do that he has to popularize himself. So one day he was thinking about that. Because it's a situation where some of the people in the kingdom call the Buddhist monk, meat-eater. Like as a disgrace, putting down meat-eating monks. Meat eating Buddhist monks. That was going around. Because at that time there are many other religions flourishing in India. Two famous ones are Jainism and Hinduism. And in those systems, the holy person, the wise of those religions, they are vegetarian. It is a necessary for their growth and progress on their own path towards God. So from the ordinary people's point of view, it is very impressive. Ordinary people eat meat and these so it must be very holy. Buddhist monks are not holy that much because they eat meat. So that's a story going around in the circuit of the people. So he used that opportunity and he knows that Buddha wouldn't approve it, or at least he guessed. He went to the Buddha with all his followers and demanded the Buddha to set out a rule. Please set out a rule or a discipline for all monks must be a vegetarian. And he didn't he didn't set the vegetarianism rule. Because the system, Buddhist system is different. The monks must go arms round every day, cannot keep any food, store food overnight, and must eat whatever it is given. If that's the case, they have to take anything, meat, vegetables, fruits, or whatever. And if you set out a rule that vegetarian, that the people, if they want to donate, they have to cook a vegetarian meal. But if not, they can just take some food that they are cooking for themselves every day. Save a few, keep a few, and give it to the monk quite easily. And that way, provisions, food provision for the monks is quite easy and accessible. Especially if the Sangha grows. It was demanded by Devodatta, but Buddha refused. Meaning he didn't set that rule. So it's quite clear Buddha's monks can eat anything that is offered. Meaning they cannot be the pure vegetarianism. But Buddha is skillful in many ways. One interesting and thoughtful idea the Buddha did was teaching the monks how to mindfully eat their food, their meals. You simply just don't eat. You must eat mindfully. That's a part of the program. Part of the teaching, a part of the discipline that how the monks must eat mindfully. Eating mindfully means the person must be focusing on the process of eating, on the process of eating, such as collecting food, lifting the food, putting the food in the mouth, chewing, movements, grinding. If there's a taste tasting, swallowing, that's it. Every spoonful or every handful or every mouthful must be eating in such a fashion. You focus on the process. You don't focus on what a great dish I have or what a great meat I have or what are my favorite curry dishes coming. They are all out of the window. No intention put on meat or vegetables or any kind of food that the monk is eating. That is mindfully eating. Not just meat, including any type of food, any type of curry, dishes, style. Simply food is consumed for nutritional purpose only so that the body could sustain and the body could do or function whatever is necessary of the day of the life. The purpose is simply clear. Consuming foods for nutritional purpose to sustain the body, for the monk to do the Dharma works, for the lay people to do whatever the job that they are doing. The emphasis is different, the attitude is different. Nothing about the actual content of the food. Eating with that mindset, it makes no difference whether you are eating vegetables or meats or fruits or rice or bread. Especially the monks. And even us, the yogis, the practitioners. We are supposed to eat mindfully. The best that we can, of course, because you are a householder. Let's say one is eating vegetables. You're a vegetarian. But you are not a vegetarian from the beginning. When you're young, you eat whatever your parents eat, so you are have some taste for the meat. But now you are a vegetarian. Or let's call it a transitional state. You're eating vegetables, and suddenly you have a yearning for meat. Oh that beef, that chicken, that pork. My mom made. A little thought flashed up. That means yearning for meat while you're eating your meal. And that is craving. Which is a mental defilement. That little thought is a craving. It creates mental defilement in oneself. That's a craving. Or you just become dissatisfied. Oh my meal, there's no meat, all vegetables and rice. Dissatisfied. Because there's no meat. That means at that moment that person is developing anger. Another mental defilement. Kilisa. Whether it's loba or dosa, greed or anger, is arising. Purely on a thought level based on the condition of not having meat. If that thought arises, of course. So what kind of mental state one is developing while eating? Whatever you are eating is the important point, is the vital point, is the critical point. Your mindset, your mental state while you are eating is making you kusla or akusla, wholesome karma or unwholesome karma. That is critical. So so far we are talking, emphasizing more on the monks, but let's drop it down to the lay people level for lay people. Let's extend vegetarian and meat. To have a meat you have to kill. Let's go to the point of killing. Let's cover the domain of killing. If one kill or ask someone to kill or trick someone to kill, an animal, a fish, a crab, a prawn. With volition, with intention for eating, for consumption. You want to eat that crab that is kicking in the water tank. That's prom that is kicking in the water tank. You are someone to kill and prepare food. And at that moment, that person is developing greed and anger. Of course, we don't know, we are not mindful because we are in a state of grasping. At that moment, there's a mental state of greed and anger is developing in that person. Whether he killed himself or he asked somebody to kill or he tricks somebody to kill some animals for your own food consumption. However, if the animal was killed and the meat was available for general consumption, one may eat the meat. So two things. But there's a meat available to the public for consumption, you may eat that meat if you want to. So in here, if you look at it, there are two actions involved. Killing and eating. The first scenario. Two actions involved. One is intentionally killing, volitionally killing. There's an intention to kill. And whenever there's a killing, intentionally there's a mental state of anger. Killing and dosa. They go hand in hand. Killing always is out of. That's one action, killing. But there's another action. The another action is eating. Okay. Another action is eating. You eat with craving. You create with eat with greed. You eat with grasping. That's eating. In other words, at that moment you are having Achilles, a mental defilement of lobak greed. While eating, loba, greed. Mental defilement is involved. Killing, dosak, anger, mental defilement is involved. Because we are doing just like naturally like everybody. We don't know, but those mental states, negative mental states, are developing and developing and developing. We don't even know it is developing. But it is. Mental state. Its associated mental state is non-greed, non-anger, and non-delusion. If you are eating mindfully, you are not grabbing and holding and swallowing and just shoving it down and talking about how great the food, how tastes the food, where do you got it freshly from the running chicken farm? It is directly from the natural ocean coming out of it. You don't talk about it, you don't think about it because you are mindfully eating. That means of course you don't purposely go and look for those kind of products and find for those products with great zeal. If you started with that, mindfully eating would not help. So if you eat with that, that is the non-greed. Ah loba mental state is involved. If you're mindfully eating and if you're not killing anything, searching anything for you to consume, there's no anger. Non-anger. A dosa mental state is involved. And then you're eating mindfully. You know hot as hot, cold as cold, movement as movement, lifting as lifting, pushing as pushing, grinding as grinding, tasting and tasting. You know everything as it is at that moment when it is happening. That means you have clarity on whatever is happening. You know everything moment to moment. That is, you have no delusion about it, you have no uncertainty about it. You are delusion free. You are illusion free. You are not ignorant. Ah Moha Nelusion. So that's a mental state one is developing. You take a whatever you can get from public consumption without discriminating and specifying, and then you eat mindfully, you are developing mental state of a loba, a dosa, a moha, non-greed, non-anger, non-delusion. Simply we are all eating, but at the same time, based on the condition it arrives there and conditions that what one is doing, whether you are developing positive mental states or negative mental state is happening, and at the same time we are not aware of it. But when these are repeated again and again and again, it becomes a big knot in you, a habit of those negative states or positive states. All our actions are revolving around wholesome karma, kusalak karma or unwholesome karma akusalakama. Whatever actions we do become wholesome karma or unwholesome karma. And let's track back to vegetarianism. One who is a vegetarian. At that moment, that person is developing ego, increasing ego. Conceit. That's a mental defilement. Yeah, you're a vegetarian, a good thing to do, but you eat with the you look down upon people who eat meat, then you are developing mental defilements called conceit. Ego conceit. And if one is a vegetarian, okay, you become a vegetarian because you know something, you had something, some dharma. Okay. If you are a vegetarian, you are, I'm going to be a vegetarian to accumulate good karma, because you know about karma. I'm going to be a vegetarian so that I'll have a better existence in next life. If that's the case, that's fine. You exactly know what you want and you are doing the the right thing, the cause and effect. Eating, being a vegetarian with that objective, and you know what it is going to be, then that's fine. That's your choice. But still you have to remember greed. Loba is involved. The greed for the better existent. For that reason you become a vegetarian, the greed for the better existence. Let's go another one. If one thinks it is a requisite to be a vegetarian, to escape from sanshara, to escape from suffering, you must be a vegetarian. If you want to escape from the rounds of rebirth sansara or suffering. If you think that's a requisite, it's a requirement. That person is holding the wrong view. Just being a vegetarian would not make you escape from the rounds of rebirth or suffering. It's very subtle doing the same thing, but how your mindset is, how your mental attitude is, what you believe in. Buddha quite often reminded us that the attachment to strongly held view is the fundamental cause of suffering. Attachment to strongly held view is the fundamental cause of suffering. Buddha's reminded here and there and here and there, everywhere, in one way or the other, wherever is suitable, he inserted this attachment craving is the cause of suffering. Let's go back to vegetarian again. However, if one becomes a vegetarian, out of compassion towards the animals, land or sea. If you become a vegetarian out of compassion for the animals in the air, in land and in sea, that is the right approach. And it is very noble. And it is very admirable. Compassion. The world needs it. And also this compassion is in line with Buddha's teaching of compassion. In other words, your action that you become a vegetarianism is out of kindness to the animals. And it is the compassion. Buddha's taught us many times, many ways how to express compassion towards all beings. So again, your mental attitude, why you are a vegetarian. Kindness, love, and compassion towards all these land animals, air animals, and sea animal. It's admirable. It's very noble. It is our choice that creates suffering or peace. We are choosing all the time one leads to suffering and one leads to peace. Physical, verbal, or mental actions with right attitudes and view will set all things in the right direction. May all of you bear wise attention. Yoni Somanasi Kara and all the choices you make while you are journeying on the path to eliminate all form of suffering.