Practicing Buddhists undertake to abide by a number of
precepts. Lay Buddhists have five,
ordained members of the Triratna Buddhist Order have ten and Buddhist monks
have many more. However, the first universal
precept is, ‘I undertake to abstain from taking life’. Now, as there is no Buddhist pope sending out
edicts on what is right and what is wrong, it is up to each individual Buddhist
to interpret this precept and decide to what degree it should be applied. The religious group known as Jains, take this to extraordinary
extremes. They sweep the ground in front
of them as they walk to avoid accidentally stepping on any insects. They also wear veils over their faces so they
will not accidentally breath in any insects.
The Buddha consistently taught us to seek ‘the middle way’
between extremes. He decreed that
animals should not be slaughtered to feed him but when he stood in the villages
with his alms bowl, he accepted whatever was given and this may have included
meat. His view was that to refuse a gift
was to deny the giver the merit that comes from generosity. Although the overwhelming majority of Triratna
order members do not eat meat or fish, you could no more say that all Buddhists
are vegetarian than you could say all vegetarians are Buddhists. The Dalai Lama was once a vegan but following
a severe bout of jaundice, he began eating meat on the advice of doctors,
whilst still advocating vegetarianism.
My personal interpretation of the second precept is that as
far as I am able, I avoid killing harmless bugs. I don’t kill spiders but I would take
measures to clear an infestation of ants in the kitchen. I don’t want mice in the house but I hate to
use mouse traps, so we have an electrical device that sends out a signal to
make mice uncomfortable and less inclined to take up residence. I would not
hesitate to use the most powerful anti-nit treatment if, in the unlikely event
they were that desperate to find somewhere to live. I am one of the fortunate few who seldom get
bitten by mosquitoes but if I saw one feeding on my arm, I wouldn’t hesitate to swat
it.
Because of this precept, I gave up eating meat. You could argue that no animal is slaughtered
for my particular benefit, but I don’t accept that premise. Someone has to do the killing and by doing so
there is a danger that they will become hardened to the suffering of their
victims, and this would have a powerful karmic effect. I try to avoid eating fish although as I now live in Spain, I either have to eat fish or go without. I also have to confess that from time to time
I eat traditional fish and chips, albeit rather guiltily.
The world is changing and it is predicted that as the
population of this planet swells it is going to become increasingly difficult
to continue to feed everyone with animal protein. Some say that in the future we will derive
our protein from insects specially bred for the purpose, whilst others say that
we would be perfectly able to feed the entire population of Mother Earth if we
ate the vegetable protein we currently feed to sheep, cattle and pigs.
We experienced CJD in beef, an influenza epidemic created by
poultry, salmonella poisoning in eggs and massive outbreaks of swine fever and
foot and mouth disease, all due to intensive farming methods. It seems to me that nature is telling us
something and we really should take notice.
I am not suggesting that the entire population will become vegetarian
sometime soon, but as we become more aware of the suffering inflicted on
animals in order to provide us with affordable animal protein we will demand
improvements to their welfare and perhaps eat a little less meat. As we learn more about depleting fish stocks,
we may also be encouraged to eat less fish.
A few years ago lived surrounded by fields
full of cattle. From my bedroom window I would
see them grazing peacefully with their suckling calves. Human beings are the only creatures to demand
that we should drink milk throughout their entire adult lives, so in order that
we should have the milk rather than the calves, the male calves are taken away
to be slaughtered and the young cows are taken off to eventually become milking
cattle. The moment the cows are
separated from their calves they become distressed and start calling for
them. Their calls become increasingly
desperate, even through the night and frequently one or two will force their way out of the field and
run up and down the lane, bellowing for their young. This goes on for at least a week until they
calm down. Eventually they will be put
to the bull, and the whole process starts again. I found this upsetting and consequently moved slightly
towards veganism by cutting cow’s milk from my diet. To my shame, I still eat cheese as it seems
currently beyond food scientists to invent an acceptable alternative. We eat eggs but never from the supermarket. Fortunately we have friends who
keep chickens and allow them to joyfully run about freely.
That’s purely my personal viewpoint, but I would bring out
the heavy artillery to tackle nits but think twice before stamping on a spider,
look for alternatives to trapping mice and consider eating a little less meat. But please don’t cook bacon when I am around,
even after over 25 years as a vegetarian, the smell of bacon frying still makes my mouth water.
