Question: Are we supposed to become vegetarians?
Answer: There’s no “supposed to” in anything. It’s a question of deciding yourself, based on understanding karma, how you’d like to live your life.
Let’s talk about this one – it’s a huge topic, okay? Let’s talk about it. I think it’s also a very emotional topic because we’re very attached to eating food, are we not?
I’ve never yet had any person ask me the question, “What’s the karma of wearing a leather belt?” It’s the same principle, isn’t it, but we always ask about food because we’re very obsessed with food. And I think that’s why there’s so much fundamentalism and political activity around vegetarianism and veganism, right? You understand?
So the better question would be: “What is the karma we create when we use the flesh of animals who’ve been killed for this purpose?” Basically, that’s it – leather belts, silk, medicines, food, so many things that have involved the death of animals that we then benefit from – there’s no question.
But then, not only that, we’ve got to really remember even if we never eat a single piece of flesh, and never wear a leather belt, and never look at an egg, nevertheless, just by existing – and this is the broader point – just by existing we are harming sentient beings: just by breathing we are harming sentient beings; our body is like a zoo – under our armpit’s like a zoo; there’s an entire ecosystem in our mouth; there are billions of beings living in our body; you’re breathing in creatures; you’re standing on them; you’re driving cars – all of these things.
I always tell that story about when I was in Leeds, in England, and I was in a shop, a cheese shop, and I had a picture of me on Facebook buying this Kick Ass Cheddar, right? And so there’s all these fundamentalist vegans commenting: “How dare a Buddhist nun eat cheese!” Really rude, you know.
I didn’t want to be political in my response. I’d always wondered how many bugs get killed on the road, right? So of course you Google it and some guy has done the research, and I mean, just on the number plate, per car, per kilometer, I don’t know, trillions of creatures get slaughtered.
So I posted the story with no comment. And the guy who was complaining about me, he said, “Oh, you can’t help that, that’s just collateral damage.” So that shows how irrational: if you did that to eat the bugs you’d be a monster, but you just kill the bugs, who cares? I mean, it shows how narrow our compassion is – and the intensity of our attachment to food.
There’s no question that just by existing, we’re harming others – and we can’t argue with that, it’s a fact, you know, scientific fact.
So the best we can do is to try at least not harm others. That’s the best, that’s the very best. And that’s why living in vows of not killing you’re purifying your mind tremendously, but also you’re purifying the likelihood of meeting situations in which you feel you are forced to kill. So you’re protecting yourself and others by living in vows. This is tremendous!
When it comes to whether or not eating meat is the same as killing, there are various factors involved. For a complete action of killing there has to be: 1. a living being in front of you – a living being has to be there now, let’s say the fish; 2. you’d have the intention, “I will kill it,” and the motivation would be because I’m attached: the intensity of the karma we create is dependent upon the strength of the motivation; 3. you’d kill the fish; 4. the result: the fish is dead. That would be a complete action of killing.
Then you’d eat it: that’s another karma altogether, but obviously one impacted by the fact that you killed the fish, etc.
We obviously don’t do that. Well, we might, some of us – like, you know, someone who hunts might do that – but what most of us will do is we’ll go to the supermarket or go to the nice shops or go online and get them to deliver us a nice fish. We’ll know that someone’s killed it, but we don’t give it much thought.
Motivation is so important when it comes to creating karma. If we do decide not to eat meat or fish – and we can decide this – the reason that will be the best is because you have compassion: that’s so beneficial for yourself. Just not eating meat because it’s more healthy is not virtuous.
Not eating the flesh of these creatures is first of all, for your own benefit – there’s no question about that – because you’ve got compassion and you don’t want to be involved in eating the bodies of these creatures – the lamb, the fish, whatever it might be. That’s amazing! That’s an amazing practice!
But don’t get all carried away and think you’re saving lives. The fact of the matter is, simply speaking, I think the tipping point – this is my own personal opinion – the tipping point for the number of fish to stop being eaten in order for the whole shift to happen must be a tremendously powerful number.
How many creatures end up getting killed is also due to the karma of sentient beings. I remember in Maine one year suddenly 10 times more lobsters came into the waters of Maine.
Initially the fisherman were all happy. Then it collapsed the price – damned extra lobsters – and then the Maine state government had to spend millions on marketing these bloody lobsters. No one invited those lobsters, no one ordered more lobsters. That’s due to karma.
The other point too is if you’re looking for a job, if you don’t have any karma to kill, you won’t even notice an advertisement for a person in the slaughterhouse for a job. You won’t even see it, but if you do see it and you’ve got karma to kill, that’s the job you’ll see. It’s due to karma, you know?
There are people who’ve got the karma to kill, and there are people who are born the chickens and the fish due to the past killing who have the karma to be killed. That’s all going to keep going unless we live in vows and stop killing as much as we can, you know?
There are so many other factors involved than merely eating less or more. Do you understand what I’m saying, people? It’s important to think about it.
We’ve got to be very realistic, be conscious, be compassionate, and be aware of our actions every second. Not just go, “Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.” Be aware, be conscious, be intentional, and have compassion. Do you understand me?
If you’re going to eat fish and creatures, say a mantra, blow on the creature, and that will at least give some blessing to the mind of the being whose body you’re about to eat. And, as I said, eat with a compassionate motivation.
But you’ve got to be conscious, it’s got to be intentional, and we’ve got to have compassion, and do what we can, knowing our own mind, to not harm others. Do you understand? That’s the broadest answer.