Is compassion or awareness the reason behind Buddhist vegetarianism?

In Buddhism, the views on vegetarianism vary between different schools of thought. According to Theravada, the Buddha allowed his monks to eat pork, chicken and fish if the monk was aware that the animal was not killed on their behalf. Theravada also believes that the Buddha allowed the monks to choose a vegetarian diet, but only prohibited them from eating human, elephant, cow, horse, dog, cat, lion, tiger, bear, leopard, and slug flesh.[1] According to Theravada, the Buddha did not prohibit any kind of meat-eating for his lay followers. In Vajrayana, the act of eating meat is not always prohibited. The Mahayana schools generally recommend a vegetarian diet, for some believe that the Buddha insisted that his followers should not eat the flesh of any sentient being.[2] Monks of the Mahayana traditions that follow the Brahma Net Sutra are forbidden by their vows from eating flesh of any kind.

more......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianis...

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma3/vegi.html

If you went far enough back in time, you'd likely find that the origin of religiously-proscribed vegetarianism (and all other religious diet restrictions) was poverty. Millions of Chinese and Indian peasants couldn't afford meat. So having the religion say how wonderful it was to not eat animals made eating nothing but plant foods more appealing.

When such peoples become prosperous enough to obtain animal foods.... They generally do so with some speed.

In Mahayana Buddhism it is said that compassion and awareness are like the two wings of a bird necessary for it to fly - so you need both equally. Compassionate motivation is all important. I have heard it said that there is a difference between living and being sentient. Plants are living things but they re not sentient - they don t have a mind. And of course, you have to eat something. If you bear in mind the welfare of others (including your own welfare), you can t go very wrong whatever you do.

We are humans that are parts of the food chain. If we carried on with all this we might think OMG I can't eat a carrot, it is living. We have become so modernized that we over think things. Buddha also told us to be the best we can be in our given religion. People don't talk about that.

This Buddha says, there are many paths to the same destination.........we all choose our own paths to fallow.

Vegetarianism developed in Mahayana when it reached China I think. There monks community lived by themselves - for example, Shaolin temple. As they live away from society, they lived without meat I think. They better live so. It's fine they maintain their way of vegetarianism. If you like it, follow it. It's good. Dig the history if you want more precise information.

After many years of the physical practices involved I found it very uncomfortable to have anything in me except water and fruits and nuts. Not mentally in any moral kind of way. But physically I just needed to have a body free of the things that contaminated it and intoxicated it and left it heavy with foods that prohibited my own personal comfort during the practices.

On the plants just as alive thing, almost but not quite. Plants ARE alive in that they are living, natural things, but they are NOT sentient like animals. They do not think or feel.

It is play-acting at compassion. A way to try to like ourselves better.

Awareness, in Buddhism, comes from meditation and from following the Five Precepts (many more Precepts if you become an ordained monk or nun).

You see .. usually when we have an urge we just blindly follow it. But if you have taken the Five Precepts vows (to not kill, not lie, not steal ... etc), then you do NOT blindly follow an urge. instead, you refrain from following it and then observe how wanting it affects you.

Buddhism is all about learning how you operate BY observing how you operate. Especially observing from the standpoint of "mindfulness" which you have developed through years of meditation.

You can use vegetarianism as a way to observe your craving for meat by NOT eating meat. If you wish.

But it is not awareness of the animals themselves.

It is not really compassion either .. because the place for compassion when eating meat is when you have that knife raised up high and are about to slaughter the animal. It is an act of compassion to NOT slaughter that animal.

Buddhist who eat meat have not killed that animal.

They are allowed to eat meat AS LONG AS (1) they did not kill the animal, and (2) the animals was not killed to feed specifically them (you go visit a farmer, and to celebrate your visit, they kill a chicken to feed you with).

Buddhists understand that ALL living beings suffer, and the ONLY thing that makes the suffering go away is to work and achieve enlightenment. To that end, they dedicate their efforts to achieving enlightenment ... and the Mahayana Buddhists also take a vow that once they have achieved enlightenment, they will continue to be reborn (even though they are no longer compelled to) in order to help all other beings achieve enlightenment. And that they will continue to rebirth until ALL sentient beings (yes even that mosquito) has attained enlightenment.

Buddhism is not about pretending you care. You cannot open the gate to freedom from suffering for others, until you have gotten out of the corral yourself.

That chicken? It is going to be killed by someone anyway. Or if it is not, it will still suffer the pains of disease and death, or the pains of growing old and dying. And then it will be reborn in another situation. Endlessly over and over.

True compassion is aimed at becoming free of this endless cycle and then helping others become free. The chicken, now, suffers, even if raised humanely and allowed to die a natural death. There is great suffering in being a creature living on auto-pilot, freaking out in fear over this and that (shadows, a human moving quickly, a dog barking ....etc), not being able to meditate and develop inner peace. Life to a chicken is pecking orders and threats, scrabbling away from perceived danger and being hungry-hungry-hungry ... 24/7 Always needing/needing/needing (ever seen a CALM contented chicken?). At least humans have the ability to pull away from living on auto-pilot and gain some perspective on their own internal realities. But even we suffer from our attachments and aversions, the ills of our body, the loss of people and possessions, from worry/fear/discontent/etc, from aging bodies that end up in death.

Many Buddhists voluntarily give up eating meat. It is good to be enthusiastic about undertaking the work and discipline of learning to work with yourself. But eating meat is not an abdication of the Method or the Practice. And especially for monks who survive off of whatever is put into their begging bowls, eating meat or not eating it is not an option. And for the Tibetans, where meat/milk/butter/barley are the basic food options they have, it is not practical or healthy to be a vegetarian.

Buddha was practical .. doesn't make sense to be a vegetarian if your options are meat.

Buddhism does not teach that all living things are part of one large living thing. Buddhism is about perceived reality ... tell me, if I stub my toe on the way into the kitchen, will YOU feel it?

No.

The idea of being-one-with-everything is a Hindu concept, not a Buddhist concept. It is a common Western misunderstanding.

Buddhism develops compassion on the grounds that WE learn to be aware of ALL our emotions (we usually hide our pain and hurt from our consciousness),, and to be aware that ALL other sentient beings also have the same feelings we do.

Compassion is based on the fact that all animals (including ourselves) know fear and death and desire. We are all trapped in the same boat, all share the same experience. it is not based on some concept of all being part of one.

And Buddhists develop compassion so that they are not so totally-focused on themselves and their desires/attachments/aversions.

Even modern psychology says that the more we focus on ourselves, the more neurotic and unhappy we will be.