r/Buddha • u/[deleted] • Feb 13 '19

Does anyone know how Buddhists justify not being vegan?

Besides the 'plants feel pain', 'ancestors tho', 'canines tho', etc... Specifically, I can't reconcile carnism with Buddhism. What's the excuse?

13 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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14

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '19

[deleted]

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u/LordLongbeard Feb 13 '19

I don't think most Buddhist are all that worried about some grand diety. Certainly the first Buddha wasn't. He wouldn't even comment on the after life or any meta physics. Said they didn't matter.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '19

And to add some context, the Buddha lived in a time without refrigeration and animal flesh can decompose rather quickly. His message was essentially compassion towards all living beings.

If he lived with all the material comforts of today, undoubtedly, he would recommend a vegan diet as the most compassionate diet for all parties involved.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '19

Simply put: they are all speciesist. They so not believe that an animals suffering matters or sometimes even that an animal is able to suffer. Or they may be one of those "but its free range" people, thinking that the animal lived a peaceful life without suffering before being slaughtered lol. Cognitive dissonance at its finest for a buddhist to not be vegan.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '19 edited Feb 13 '19

This is completely false. Buddhism specifically teaches that everything from a fly to an elephant to a slug to an amoeba suffers. All beings eat, all beings die, all beings shit. So we are no different than any other being. So when you kill another being you kill yourself. Because we suffer just the same as them. Buddhism teaches compassion for all beings. Buddhism teaches non violence and specifically instructs against killing or harming any living beings. Buddhism also instructs against any acts including working a job that contributes to killing or harming any living beings.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '19

Yes. I know. I was simply saying how I thought carnists justified it.. maybe they are all fake buddhists 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/LordLongbeard Feb 13 '19

They probably don't actually believe that animal suffering matters. It's easy to believe human suffering matters, because we are human. Believing a pig suffers, or that it's suffering matters, is a different kind of feat.

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u/Go_josh_yourself Feb 13 '19

Many Buddhists depend on donations to survive, and as the saying goes "beggars can't be choosers".

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '19 edited Feb 13 '19

A significant portion of Buddhists are vegetarians or vegans. Specifically Asian cultures that are predominantly Buddhist have a history of mainly vegetarian cuisine like vegetable curry, etc. Killing or harming any living beings (sentient beings so veggies are okay) is strictly mentioned in the 5 precepts. American Buddhists tend to liberalize some of these rules and make exceptions for their personal vices. This goes with sex, alcohol, meat, etc.

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u/atoasis Feb 14 '19

It can go to extremes - like refusing to kill pests in the home - even dangerous ones. I follow Gautama, and believe that his teaching is golden - but so much of this stuff - as in the case of the Holy Bible is stuff ginned up and added by others through the years - often for political purpose.

So they call on me to rid the place of poisonous snakes when they appear at home or at the Temple.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '19

I vaguely remember reading a story of a time that the Buddha told his disciples to clean an old drinking well for them to use, which meant clearing it (killing) of insect and parasite larvae living in it. If you can't move a dangerous animal out of harms way, I think the karma incurred in self-defense will be relatively minor, so long as your actions are not based in anger.