To be vegetarian or not?

To be vegetarian or not?

There was the story of a slave girl from the lowest caste who spend the whole night in the kitchen of a rich family grinding grain. After she had finished, she was allowed to gather the loose bits that fell from the grinding pedestal in which she managed to make into a coarse kind of prata. She left for home singing happily thinking how she will enjoy the prata back home. 

On the way back she saw the Buddha and his retinue of monks going for alms food.

Immediately she took her priced prata and offered it to the Buddha who accepted it. Then a question came to her mind, will the Buddha eat her coarse prata? 

The Buddha could read her mind and told Ananda his personal attendant to prepare a seat as he will take his meal here and now. 

When the slave girl saw that her heart was filled with bliss and joy.

There was another story of how Maha Kassapa, the foremost disciple of the Buddha, once accepted an offering from a leper women.

So you see offering to the Buddha is the highest form of Dana, the merits gained is immeasurable.   

The Buddha and his retinue of monks called the Sangha, walked barefooted the length and breadth of then Ancient India to teach to those who had merits to understand the Buddha Dharma and also to allow lay people to gain merit by the way of offering Dana to the Buddha and his monks. This was the way of life for those who walk the Noble Path. 

Eating vegetables alone will not make you pure if so then it is better to be born as cows and goats as they will be assured of purity.

But if we were to take the path of Universal Compassion where our loving kindness spread to all beings throughout the Universe then our compassion will make us naturally give up killing and eating the body of other beings. Until then we will be attached to the taste of blood from the body parts of animals whether cooked or uncooked when we eat meat.

When a monk develop compassion and mindfulness while accepting only alms food without discrimination then only can he eat whatever food is offered.

Look into your own heart, see if you have dislike when you do not have meat for a week, a month or a year.        

Where there is dislike there is attachment and when you cannot have what you like, then there is craving for want. Hence suffering.

When you suffer because you cannot get what you want, it is call craving. Loba can also turn to Dosa and when your mind is stuck in either state without realizing it then you are in the state of Moha.

Monks are forbidden to destroy plants and trees let alone kill insects, worms and other living creatures for sustenance of this impermanent body that is why their daily meal must be offered by lay people according to the lay devotee’s own ability and free will. Monks do not eat more than one meal a day so that lay people are not over burden to feed their own family and at the same time share what little food they have with the monks. That is why the Buddha and his disciples move on to other villages and also allow more lay people gain immeasurable merits by offering Dana to the Blessed One and his disciples.