diet

diet. The Buddha's advice concerning dietary habits is addressed primarily to those who have embraced the monastic life rather than to lay society. An important principle underlying Buddhist monasticism is that monks should be dependent upon the laity for alms and should go out daily into the local community to beg for food. It is a familiar sight in the Buddhist countries of south Asia to see a line of saffron-clad monks walking soberly in single file from house to house and pausing with downcast eyes while offerings of food are placed in their bowls by the laity. After completing their round the monks return to the monastery where they must consume their food before midday. Thereafter, except in case of illness, they may take only liquids before the next day. The Buddha commended the practice of eating but once a day for its benefits in terms of overall mental and physical well-being.

As regards the type of food that may be consumed, the general principle is that monks should accept with gratitude whatever they are given and not be selective in preferring or rejecting particular dishes. In Theravāda Buddhism there is no prohibition on eating meat providing that the monk has not ‘seen, heard or suspected’ that the animal was slaughtered specifically on his behalf, thus avoiding complicity in the breaking of the First Precept (see pañca-śīla) against taking life. To understand this, one must first separate the issues of killing animals from that of eating meat. While the first is definitely demeritorious and productive of bad karma, the second may not be. The Buddha himself is said to have died after consuming pork, although the precise nature of this dish has been disputed (see sūkara-maddava). Since Buddhism is concerned primarily with the effect that moral actions have on the development of mental states and habits, it observes that actually killing an animal requires a state of mind characterized by anger, cruelty, or indifference, while simply eating meat carries no such strong signature. Thus, the Buddha did not categorically prohibit his followers from eating meat, even when it was suggested to him as a way of intensifying the religious practice of the community. Ten specific kinds of flesh, however, were thought to be inappropriate for human consumption, for instance, the flesh of elephants, tigers, and serpents. Monks and lay-people in Theravāda countries still consume meat although they may refrain from it on certain days and they also regard the occupation of butchery as being a form of wrong livelihood. Thus, early Buddhism shows what might be termed a mixed attitude: it recommends that no one make their living as a hunter or butcher, and certainly commends those who undertake a commitment to vegetarianism, but constantly asks that those who do so examine their motives and thoughts for any trace of rigid attachment to views and precepts, and does not tar those who eat meat with the same brush as those who produce the meat. As well as the Theravāda countries, this is especially true in Tibet and Mongolia, where the harsh and cold climate make the mass adoption of a vegetarian lifestyle impractical. Meat-eating was accepted in Tibetan Buddhist circles on account of the lack of vegetable produce in Tibet, and today even the Dalai Lama does not follow a wholly vegetarian diet.

The advent of Mahāyāna in India saw a movement towards the total abstention from meat-eating as this was felt to contradict a Bodhisattva's cultivation of compassion. Additionally, a number of Mahāyāna texts such as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra are quite specific in their condemnation of meat-eating, as the tathāgata-garbha or Buddha-nature doctrines they teach imply that all living beings are embryonic Buddhas. The popularity of these texts in east Asia has resulted in almost universal vegetarianism among members of the Saṃgha. In east Asian cultures, one of the standard ways of caricaturing wayward clergy and monasteries was to accuse them of ‘eating meat and drinking wine’. China has kept to this practice very strictly, and has thus developed a very sophisticated and tasty repertoire of vegetarian cuisine, all the more surprising since the same scripture also teaches (as does the Vinaya) the avoidance of the Five Pungent Herbs (onions, garlic, scallions, leeks, and chives). The term ‘vegetarian’ is not entirely accurate in describing the ideal diet among Buddhists in east Asia, since the term implies only the avoidance of meat. Although the ideal Buddhist diet in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam certainly proscribes meat, the term used, chih su (‘eat vegetarian’) or su shih (‘vegetarian diet’) also indicates an avoidance of alcohol and the Five Pungent Herbs. The proscriptions on meat and alcohol are explained as fulfilling the requirements of several sets of rules, including the Five Precepts for laymen (pañca-śīla) and the Ten Novice's Precepts against killing and taking intoxicants. The rule against the Five Pungent Herbs is derived from the eighth fascicle of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, which explains that these are very ‘hot’ vegetables that will act as an aphrodisiac and make practice difficult, in addition to which they make the breath foul, which drives away any potential audience one might have for preaching the Dharma, drives away protective deities, and attracts demons. Japan and Korea, while sharing this concern for vegetarianism early in their history, have in recent centuries been more tolerant of meat-eating among the clergy, while still admiring vegetarianism as an additional discipline that some may choose.