Buddha
The Lankavatara Sutra
On Meat Eating
「c599-510 BCE」Siddhartha Guatama (Buddha, Sakyamuni), “On Meat Eating” chap. 8 in The Lankavatara Sutra「do1, translated by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (London: 1932; Online at http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-nondiacritical.htm, 2005).
Wherever there is the evolution of living beings, let people cherish the thought of kinship with them, and, thinking that all beings are 「to be loved as if they were」an only child, let them refrain from eating meat.
For the sake of love of purity…refrain from eating flesh.
For fear of causing terror to living beings…refrain from eating flesh.
Meat which is liked by unwise people is full of bad smell and its eating gives one a bad reputation which turns wise people away.…There is generally an offensive odour to a corpse, which goes against nature… when flesh is burned, whether it be that of a dead man or of some other living creature, there is no distinction in the odour. When flesh of either kind is burned, the odour emitted is equally noxious. Therefore…who is ever desirous of purity in his discipline, wholly refrain from eating meat.
When I teach to regard food as if it were eating the flesh of one’s own child…how can I permit my disciples…to eat food consisting of flesh and blood, which is gratifying to the unwise but is abhorred by the wise, which brings many evils and keeps away many merits…and is altogether unsuitable? Thus…meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit.
If…meat is not eaten by anybody for any reason, there will be no destroyer of life. …In the majority of cases the slaughtering of innocent living beings is done for pride and very rarely for other causes. Alas… one addicted to the love of「meat-」taste should eat human flesh!
Meat is not agreeable to the wise: it has a nauseating odour, it causes a bad reputation, it is food for the carnivorous;…it is not to be eaten.
To those who eat「meat」there are detrimental effects, to those who do not, merits;…meat-eaters bring detrimental effects upon themselves.
Let the Yogin refrain from eating flesh as it is born of himself, as「the eating」involves transgression, as 「flesh」is produced of semen and blood, and as「the killing of animals」causes terror to living beings.
Let the Yogin always refrain from meat.
From eating「meat」arrogance is born, from arrogance erroneous imaginations issue, and from imagination is born greed; and for this reason refrain from eating「meat」.
For profit sentient beings are destroyed, for flesh money is paid out, they are both evil-doers. (Buddha, The Lankavatara Sutra, “On Meat Eating”)
One who eats flesh, trespassing against the words of the Muni, is evil-minded; he is pointed out in the teachings of the Sakya as the destroyer of the welfare of the two worlds.
Those evil-doers go to the most horrifying hell; meat-eaters are matured in the terrific hells such as Raurava, etc.
「The meat-eater」is ill-smelling, contemptuous, and born deprived of intelligence.
Meat-eating is rejected by me in such sutras as the Hastikakshya, the Mahãmegha, the Nirvãna, the Aglimãlika, and the Lãnkãvatãra.
「Meat-eating」is condemned by the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Sravakas; if one devours「meat」 out of shamelessness he will always be devoid of sense. (Buddha, The Lankavatara Sutra, “On Meat Eating”)
As greed is the hindrance to emancipation, so are meat-eating, liquor, etc., hindrances. (Buddha, The Lankavatara Sutra, “On Meat Eating”)
There may be in time to come people who make foolish remarks about meat-eating, saying, “Meat is proper to eat, unobjectionable, and permitted by the Buddha.”
「Meat-eating」is forbidden by me everywhere and all the time for those who are abiding in compassion.
Therefore, do not eat meat which will cause terror among people, because it hinders the truth of emancipation;「not to eat meat—」this is the mark of the wise.
