Are buddhists allowed to eat meat or do I just have a disorder or something?

Question

While I was cooking fried rice today it was really hard for me to look at meat while it was being cut. I was able to cut carrots sort of. I thought I felt guilty for cutting fish (seriously, even back in the day during biology class when students disected star fish I couldn't even look and I felt like crying when people made fun of it or dishonored its death). I know this could sound silly to some of you but please have some respect. So I was wondering if Buddhists are even supposed to eat meat. I heard hard core buddhist teachings are against eating meat but don't plants reincarnate too?

Why is that so where buddhists can not eat meat? I love the Dalai Lima by the way! ^_^

Answer 1

I read my grand spiritual masters glorifications of Buddha in his first print of Srimad Bhagavatam.
He stated that Buddha original incarnated because He felt compassion for the animals that people were slaughtering in the name of the Vedic religion. That is why He teaches AHIMSA or non violence.

Did you ever see that movie with Brad Pitt called Seven Years in Tibet? I remember there was a part in there where the Bhudists were protecting even the worms. The said that the worm could be a person in its last life and we could easily take the birth of a worm for killing them.
It's all connected with bad karma and such.

Answer 2

Buddhists are allowed to eat meat, although many don't.
The idea comes from the precept of not killing.
I was just at a teaching a few weeks ago in which this was discussed. We do kill things every day living in this world... bugs by driving our cars & walking on the street for example.
Killing animals for food is something we do, but may not be required to do.
The main thing we dont want to do is kill with intent & malice & then feel good about what we have done.
One thing you may want to do is say a prayer for the animal you are about to eat & thank it. Some Buddhists say mantras over food to bless it & help remove negative karma from eating meat.
Many Tibetans for example must eat meat because of the cold climate-- they cant be vegetarian as its too hard to farm there & they must eat meat to survive.
As mentioned, the Dalai Lama tried to become vegetarian, but became ill & his doctors told him to eat meat.

Plants are not sentient beings- they dont have a mind & a soul.

Answer 3

Let me be more specific of who are the buddhist who can eat meat or not :
There are 2 types of people:
- A follower(common people) are refrain from eating 3 types of meat:
1) If the animal is kill because of you, you cant eat. (if you know its because of you)
2) if you see them being killed under your own eyes, you cant eat.
3) If you order someone to kill for you, you can't eat...
->so this type of people can only buy it off the shelf in the supermarket if they really want to eat.

- I am a devotee/believer moreover I already "baptise"(Taking the 5 refuges), so I don't eat meat at all, I go pure vegetarian on every meal...and I feel more healthier...it have been 4-5yrs since I last fall sick.
Did you notice all disease comes from animal too? Bird Flu, Mad Cow disease etc..well, we vegetarian don't experience it.

As for why I go vegetarian its from a Darmma lesson that I go one day and after hearing from one of the sangha these word, I suddenly realise I need to become a vegetarian in future:
"Since all meat are meat, why don't we eat our parent meat when they die." <-these words really zap into my mind deep to go vegetarian.

Yes you are right, hard core Buddhist teachings are against eating meat and don't plants reincarnate. Because there is this thing call "Cause and effect" or in short : Karma
if you have eaten them, some day you will bound to being killed and be eaten by other too after you have reincarnate into other beings.

P/S: if you are interested and wish to go in depth you can always refer to my other Q&A regarding Buddhism

Hope that answer your question.
Amitabha!

Answer 4

They tend not to eat meat so that they don't harm another living thing, however, there is a mantra for eating meat so that the animal will have a pleasant rebirth:

OM AHBIRA KAY TSARA HUNG
Recite this seven times over the meat to stop the fault of eating meat and to help the sentient beings whose flesh it was to be reborn in a happy realm.

Answer 5

from what i have read about buddhism most do not eat meat, but some do. plants do not reincarnate because they do not have a soul. the souls of man and animal are one in the same, you can become lets say a fish in another life or the fish can become human. the souls transmigrate and all are equal. ignore the people that might make fun of you and your respect for your fellow beings, just stay strong in your beliefs. i would and could not kill an animal because they do have souls and they consider their lives important.

Answer 6

Plants are not thought to reincarnate. Only Animals. Many Buddhists are vegetarian or vegan, but it is not a requirement. Many Buddhists do eat meat, including the Dalai Lama.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 7

Many choose not to, but some do. Zen Buddhists do not all follow the belief of reincarnation, and some of them do in fact eat meat.

Answer 8

I don't know of any 12-year-olds raised by vegans who are not happy being vegan themselves, so I'll assume that this is a hypothetical question, if not an outright troll, based on your uniformed, stated bias. So are the parents underweight? Should a child whose parents are overweight be able to take their parents to court? We'd have quite a backlog of cases. By the way, I am a former Guardian ad Litem/Court-Appointed Special Advocate. I've investigated cases of child abuse and neglect, and not one of them involved vegan parents. Please do a little research. Children do not need meat protein to develop.

Answer 9

You're allowed to eat meat if your health, like via your doctor's orders, needs it. The Buddha always told his monks not to eat meat they suspected were slaughtered specifically for them, but if it was otherwise dropped into their begging bowl they were to eat it.

There's a huge movement in Buddhism now to ask people to be vegetarian or vegan if one can for the benefit of all sentient beings. Plants are not considered sentient beings in Buddhism.

_()_

Answer 10

Officially Buddhists are allowed to make the decision to eat meat or not eat meat, but once you realize you are eating a dead sentient being, you don't want meat anymore...the awareness of Buddhism changes us...