Top 3 funny excuses Buddhists use to eat meat

The funniest of the Buddhists monks are the ones who make websites and YouTube videos spending their entire life trying to convince us that it’s okay to eat meat. Their life’s goal is to somehow prove that Buddha ate meat. They spend sleepless nights breaking code in Buddha’s teachings to find one more ridiculous reason to eat meat. Wherever they go they only talk about how eating meat is not a barrier to attain enlightenment. They hate vegetarians and condemn them as fools who will never attain enlightenment. That’s all they do, day in and day out. They’re the best spokespersons for meat brands because they do a pretty good job giving more reasons to kill animals for meat.

Majority of Buddhists are total hypocrites (including myself for a long time) when it comes to eating meat. One of the fundamental teachings and an absolute necessity for being a Buddhist is “Meththa” (Pali) – a combination of love, kindness and compassion to all animals. Here are the top 3 funny excuses used by most Buddhists to eat meat:

1. Buddha gave permission to eat meat

We all need to eat to live, although I accept some people live only to eat. But humans are no longer in Stone Age. We are not the cavemen who didn’t have the brain power to develop tools and methods to grow plants for food. We live in the 21st century with technologies from drip-irrigation to genetic-modification to make more than enough plant-based foods for the humanity. Ironically a large part of that production is fed to animals in industrial farms to make meat and dairy. The farm cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population on Earth. Since we don’t have to kill animals anymore to survive, killing animals for meat is really a choice.

Buddha indeed has given an interesting excuse to his disciples and followers to eat meat. He had said “if you haven’t seen it’s meat, if you haven’t heard it’s meat or if you have no doubt it’s meat, then it’s okay-meat”. This has been somewhat twisted by the obviously meat-loving disciples by later adding that what Buddha actually meant was “if you haven’t seen, heard or has no doubt the animal was killed for you, then it’s good-meat”.  You know, there’s good-meat and bad-meat depending on how you kill the animal!

But seriously, is there any such meat you haven’t seen, nor heard nor doubted to be meat?

Do you not see the meat you buy? Do you not hear the shouting of the fish vendor? Do you not see and hear the funny chicken advertisements on TV? Okay, for argument sake let’s say you didn’t see or hear what you are eating is meat, in fact you are told it’s not meat… But then are you telling me that you don’t notice it when you put it inside your mouth? Are you telling me that you don’t feel the taste on your tongue or the texture when you chew? If so, you have a serious problem in your senses. For people who wanted a flowchart to figure out good-meat, Buddha gave a clever answer because no meat that is consumed falls into those three qualifiers.

Even if we take the twisted version which states that it’s not meat, but the killing of the animal what matters, it is ridiculous to think that a modern-day consumer doesn’t see or hear that the meat they consume came from an animal killed for them, i.e. the consumer. The Marketing Teams of those meat companies and brands spend a lot of time and money understanding their consumer i.e. YOU and your meat eating habits and delivering those meat products to suit you. Why on Earth would the animals be killed if it’s not for the consumer? Oh, I know! you’re saying it wasn’t killed for you “personally”! And this is where it gets really hypocritical. 

2. Buddha only said not to kill animals, so it’s okay to eat animals killed by someone else

One of the cornerstones of Buddhism is utmost “love-kindness-compassion” to all animals. It is repeated over and over throughout his various teachings. In fact, he said that one must have the love, kindness and compassion to all animals as much as a “mother would love, be kind and feel for her only child”. Somebody asked me what about the mothers who kill their baby… I told him to go home and look up the word analogy. I’ve heard some twisted and hilarious interpretations of this particular teaching, I’m not going to even mention them here. The point is, Buddhists are essentially, fundamentally, absolutely loving, kind and compassionate people.

In the age of social media it is impossible to not see or hear or doubt the cruelty of meat and dairy industry. Do you think that animals willingly sacrifice their flesh for you? It is impossible to be ignorant of the millions of chickens being boiled alive, millions of chicks being crushed alive, billions of fish, small and large being suffocated daily, millions of goats, pigs and cows being beaten up and butchered daily, millions of calves grinded after a few days of birth, millions of other animals including rare species killed for meat and other products. Over 150 Billion animals are slaughtered ever year. It’s supply and demand. You keep eating, they keep killing. They keep killing, you keep eating.

One of the occupations that is frowned upon by Buddha is the meat industry. If Buddha actually suggested there is indeed this illusive good-to-eat-meat then why would he disapprove producing and selling meat? He should’ve said it’s okay to kill animals for meat as long as you don’t tell the buyer that it’s for them! Or Could it be that he had utmost love, kindness and compassion to all animals and therefore rejected any form of animal cruelty let alone killing animals?

For a Buddhist who meditates by focusing his thoughts to give utmost love and compassion to all animals; for a Buddhist who shout out verses of Buddha’s teachings such as “may all animals be happy”; for a Buddhist who constantly promises not to hurt any animal’s life, and then turning around and eating meat is utterly ridiculous.

3. Eating Meat is no different from eating Dhal

This is usually the last excuse in the book. You jolly well know it’s against the fundamentals of Buddhism (religion or philosophy) to eat meat because Buddhism can’t be both “Ahimsa (non-violent) and “Himsa (violent)”. You can’t have it both ways! So then, the pundits who claim to have mastered the deepest teachings of Buddha (which describes the construction of the self and the path to break the cycle of re-formation) yet who still can’t control their own taste buds to start with, preaches us that as long as you don’t crave for meat, it’s okay to eat it. They’re abusing another cornerstone of Buddhism which is “craving leads to suffering” as an excuse to eat meat.

It’s actually a jealous attack against vegetarians and vegans because what they are suggesting is vegetarians crave for plant-based foods and therefore you get the same Karmic reaction as by craving for meat. It’s not surprising for a meat craving Buddhist to think that vegetarians choose to be vegetarian because they crave for non-meat foods. It doesn’t occur to them perhaps vegetarians don’t eat meat because they are actually loving, kind and compassionate people, who doesn’t want any harm done to animals!!!

Of course there are vegetarians who still crave for the taste of meat and that’s why we have Soya products with chicken or prawn flavours. But the point is not about vegetarians vs meat-eaters or Karmic craving for meat or soya-meat. The reason why we should not eat meat is because meat is fundamentally against the principle of love, kindness and compassion. I would argue that a true Buddhist must stand against all forms of animal cruelty.

Meat and dairy industries are not only cruel, but detrimental to the planet. Animal agriculture is the second biggest contributor to global warming. It takes over 10 times more fossil fuel to produce a calorie of animal protein, than a calorie of plant protein. Methane which is 25 times worse than CO2; and Nitrous Oxide which is 300 times worse than CO2 are two gasses produced largely by the meat and dairy industries. Do you know that you can save 50% more CO2 by going vegan than buying a Prius? Do you know that it takes over 100 times more water to make meat than wheat? (more facts)

Meat eaters are responsible for more than double the amount of greenhouse gasses than vegans. So even if you can’t find a reason in Buddhism to stop eating meat, and you don’t believe in concepts like love, kindness and compassion; perhaps scientific evidence might make you think otherwise. Because after all, Buddhists are supposed to evaluate their observations, look at facts, critically analyse them and come to a conclusion on their own intellect.

Do you know any other funny excuses Buddhists use to eat meat? Please comment below.

Reference: 2.1.5 ජීවක සූත්‍රය » මජ්‌ඣිම නිකාය » මජ්ඣිම පන්නාසකය » 1. ගහපති වර්ගය:

Above Article was written by Mr Eranda Ginige – Author, Social Entrepreneur