buddhist meditation and mindfullness

[Newcomer4831]

No, and i know the name of the song, it's like "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" it's suppose to be "in the Garden of Eden"

[HiJolly]

No, and i know the name of the song, it's like "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" it's suppose to be "in the Garden of Eden"

You guys are OLD. Do you actually remember it playing on the radio? <I do>

HiJolly

[bodhigirlsmiles]

I always thought that Buddhist were hardcore vegans. Well in the Dhammapada, Devadatta tried to create another Sangha with additional rules, one of which is that monks had to be vegans. So being a vegetarian is not a requirement, and what I mean by that, if meat happens to fall in your begging bowl and is the only thing you have to eat, then eat it right? But you can't ask for meat or "prefer" it.

yes....and no. i am aware of his five new precepts that he proposed to the buddha (which he knew the buddha would ultimately reject).

must buddhists be vegetarian?

no.

why the fuss then?

though the buddha never made it a compulsory rule that all his followers have to be vegetarians, i believe he did strongly encourage us to be. in the bodhisattva practice of minimising harm to all beings (the first precept) and benefiting them as much as possible, the practice of vegetarianism as far as possible plays an essential role. this can be seen in many of the buddha's teachings.

The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great Compassion.

-Mahaparinirvana Sutra

"...Ananda, I permit the bhiksus (monks) to eat only the five kinds of pure flesh* which are the product of my transcendental power of transformation and not of animal slaughter. You, Brahman, live in a country where vegetables do not grow because it is too damp and hot and because of all the gravel and rock. I use my spiritual power of compassion to provide you with illusory meat to satisfy your appetite. How then, after my nirvana, can you eat the flesh of living beings and so pretend to be my disciple?..."

"...All monks who live purely and all Bodhisattvas always refrain even from walking on grass; how can they agree to uproot it? How then can those who practise great Compassion feed on the flesh and blood of living beings?..."

”...How can a monk, who hopes to become a deliverer of others, himself be living on the flesh of sentient beings?...”

”...If a man can (control) his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal products, I say he will really be liberated. This teaching of mine is that of the Buddha whereas any others that of evil demons..."

-Surangama Sutra

”The Bodhisattva, whose nature is Compassion, is not to eat any meat… For fear of causing terror to living beings…let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain Compassion, refrain from eating flesh.”

-Lankavatara Sutra

"If a bhikkhu sees, hears or suspects that it has been killed for him, he may not eat it."

-Mahavagga of Vinaya Pitaka

"Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, nor sanction the acts of those who do so. Let him refrain from even hurting any creature, both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world."

-Sutta-Nipata

i firmly believe that all true practitioners of the bodhisattva path must eventually relinquish meat-eating.

while nothing we eat makes us impure, our choice of diet is an action with implications. if our choice of diet arises from greed, sustaining the greed obviously makes us impure.

so, if being vegetarian is so important on the Bodhisattva path,

why was the buddha not one?

as you mentioned earlier in this thread, the buddha and the sangha in his time were not total vegetarians as they consumed alms food offered by lay followers, whom they encountered “randomly” from place to place. though the buddha never requested specific food to be offered, he spoke against the intentional acquiring of meat for him and the sangha. in this way, the buddha neither directly nor indirectly cause the death of any being for his food. on the other hand, we have the freedom of the choice of our diet, since we do not eat alms food. why not make the kinder and wiser decision?

can’t a person be a good buddhist who is not vegetarian?

the short answer is, of course we can. one who eats meat can cultivate a pure heart just as one who is vegetarian might have an impure heart. but why not cultivate a pure heart while making the extra effort to further the practice of compassion by being vegetarian?

isn’t killing vegetables taking life too?

yes, of course. however, plant life is not sentient life- they are not beings with reason and emotion.

"A vegetarian diet is not obligatory for Buddhists. Still, for those of us who follow the teachings of the Great Vehicle, it is important. But the teachings of the Buddha were open and flexible on this subject, and each practitioner has the choice to be vegetarian or not."

-His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

of course, the form of buddhism with which i have the most familiarity is tibetan. vegetarianism is something not very new in tibetan society. generally, in the old tibetan society, most of the people try to avoid taking meat specifically killed to feed individual person. this is evident in very level of tibetan society (at least, my father tells me so :) ).

may all beings be free from fear, harm and danger.

may all beings be well and happy.

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

A Buddhist walks up to a hot dog vendor and say, "Make me one with everything."

T-shirt design from a million years ago.

Meditation has many flavors.

There used to be a very good book about this, "On the Psychology of Meditation" by Robert Ornstein, but it's long out of print. Searching Amazon, I find Meditation and Modern Psychology by the same author but I don't know if it's any good or not. Edited April 1, 2009 by Captain_Curmudgeon
add book

[HiJolly]

i firmly believe that all true practitioners of the bodhisattva path must eventually relinquish meat-eating.

I agree. I am not yet at the point where I am willing to do so -- but I agree in principle. I also agree with the Dalai Lama, that to *require* abstention from meats in not in harmony with the bodhisatva mind. So also says the Bible.

while nothing we eat makes us impure, our choice of diet is an action with implications. if our choice of diet arises from greed, sustaining the greed obviously makes us impure.

Absolutely.

yes, of course. however, plant life is not sentient life- they are not beings with reason and emotion.

I actually believe the whilst plants do not have reason or cognitive functions, they *do* indeed experience emotion. Just to say it.

may all beings be free from fear, harm and danger.

may all beings be well and happy.

How can we hope this for ourselves and not for others?

HiJolly

[pam]

No, and i know the name of the song, it's like "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" it's suppose to be "in the Garden of Eden"

Moksha knew that. He was being his usual silly self.

[prospectmom]

Dossen't that song have a great drum solo??? My dear departed Mother in law loved the drum solo......

[Newcomer4831]

Bodhigirl is absolutely correct