The Peaceful Veg Diet - A Common Thread Amongst All Enlightened Masters, Part 1 of 4

Buddhism is based purely on a universal idea of compassion for all life. According to Buddhism, sentient beings are subject to rebirth as other sentient beings, thus all living beings are interconnected. Shakyamuni Buddha preached vegetarianism as an important and key component in being compassionate. The Buddha states in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, that "the eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion", adding that all and every kind of meat and fish consumption, even of animals already found dead, is prohibited.

“You should know that those who eat meat, though their minds may open and realize a semblance of Samadhi, are but great raksasas who, after this life, will sink back into the bitter ocean of samsara and cannot be my disciples. They will kill and devour one another ceaselessly; how then can they escape from the three worlds of existence?”

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

The Surangama Sutra vividly depicts the dreadful consequences for flesh eaters, and explains in detail why noninjury and nonkilling should be upheld by those who practice for enlightenment and Buddhahood. “The Blessed One said this to him: For innumerable reasons, Mahamati, the Bodhisattva, whose nature is compassion, is not to eat any meat; I will explain them: Mahamati, in this long course of transmigration here, there is not one living being that, having assumed the form of a living being, has not been your mother, or father, or brother, or sister, or son, or daughter, or the one or the other, in various degrees of kinship; and when acquiring another form of life may live as a beast, as a domestic animal, as a bird, or as a womb-born, or as something standing in some relationship to you; [this being so] how can the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva who desires to approach all living beings as if they were himself and to practice the Buddha-truths, eat the flesh of any living being that is of the same nature as himself? ...Thus, Mahamati, 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...”