To Eat Food Made With Animal Meat Which Is Not Seen, Not Heard, Not Suspected

 

TO EAT FOOD MADE WITH ANIMAL MEAT WHICH IS NOT SEEN,NOT HEARD, NOT SUSPECTED

The six evil occupations have been taught in this book, we have made further note for you the Monks and the lay followers to clearly understand.

Why do the Monks of the Southern School eat food made with animal meat? 

Did the Buddha allow the Monks to eat food made with animal meat? 

We will answer these questions and bring clarity to Buddhism and we will see with what teaching of the Buddha, the Southern School Monks dare to eat animal meat.

Dear the Most Venerables, the Monks and the lay Buddhist followers, please read the sutta 55 (Jivaka sutta), page 71, the Middle Length Discourses of The Buddha (Majjhima Nikaya) – Volume 2, Vietnamese Sutta Pitaka, translated by the Most Venerable Thich Minh Chau from Pali to Vietnamese. 

In the first part of this discourse, the Buddha taught the monks/nuns not to eat animal meat when it is seen, heard, or suspected: “Jivaka, I say that there are three instances in which meat should not be eaten: when it is seen, heard, or suspected”^[9].

According to the meaning of this sutta, when a Bhikkhu “sees” that the food offered by the lay Buddhist follower made with meat of living beings, he should not eat. This is the first instance. 

When the food offered by the lay Buddhist follower is “not seen” to be made of meat of living beings, however the Bhikkhu “hears” other people say that food is made with meat, he should not eat. This is the second instance. 

When the food offered by the lay Buddhist follower is “not seen” and also “not heard” to be made with meat of living beings, but the Bhikkhus “suspects” that this food is made with meat of living beings because of its fishy smell or animal smell, he should not eat. This is the third instance. 

With the above three instances, it is clear that the Buddha did not forbid people to eat the meat of living beings, he only had advice for the Bhikkhus to have awareness of the sufferings of the living beings so that they would not eat the meat. Being aware of the suffering of the living beings and thus not to eat the meat means to practice the mind of love and compassion towards the living beings, i.e. to live in accordance with the virtue of having love and compassion for life. But regarding forbidding i.e. the precept of prohibition, the precept of prohibition means a force to forbid people to eat the meat, i.e. to force them to eat vegetarian food, but this is the way of eating vegetarian food of Mahayana Brahminism (eat vegetarian food because of the precept of prohibition). By contrast, the Original Buddhism only uses the precept of virtue, there is no prohibition but advice for the monks/nuns how to eat in a voluntary manner to manifest the path of love and compassion with the mind of love and compassion. 

The first and second instances are very clear, but for the third instance of suspecting, it seems to be unclear, but in fact, the meat of living beings has their smell, even though we do not see or hear, how can fish not have its fishy smell or beef the smell of cow, pork the smell of pig, chicken meat the smell of chicken etc.? Different types of animal meat have their specific smells, how can we not have suspicion, once we have suspicion, we are not allowed to eat, it is our conscience and love that do not allow us to maintain our life with the sufferings of other living beings. 

The Buddha continued the second teaching: “Jivaka! I say that there are three instances in which meat may be eaten: when it is not seen, not heard, and not suspected”^[10]. Maybe, based on this teaching that monks of the Southern School argue in favor of their sinful acts: “Not seen means not to see people slaughter the animal for the Bhikkhu; not heard means not to hear the sound of screaming of the animal when it is killed for the Bhikkhu; not suspected means when seeing the food made with animal meat offered by the lay Buddhist followers, the Bhikkhu does not suspect that people have killed animal to prepare food for him”. Therefore in the Jivaka sutta, there is a phrase which is parenthesized (that the living being has been slaughtered for the Bhikkhu). This phrase was added by the people of following generations to satisfy their desire to eat the meat of living beings. In the past, there was nothing that the Patriarchs did not dare to do, they considerably added or cut details in the Original canons, similarly nowadays, they dare to wrongly argue to distort the teachings of the Buddha, sometimes it is for defending their honor while they violate the precepts and also sometimes it is because they do not understand the method or because they have not attained full enlightenment. 

If the sutta stopped here, it would be difficult for us to make clarification for Buddhism. But the sutta continues with the second and the third parts, therefore we can obviously see the evil face and the craving of the monks of the Southern School who have skillfully made addition and skillfully argued to distort the suttas of the Buddha to carry out their heinous sin, as a result in all the places of Buddhism of the Southern School people could not have good result with their practice, they enter the crazy concentration of “Vipassana” which does not correctly practice the Four Places of Mindfulness and the Four Noble Concentrations of Buddhism. They split the method of the Four Places of Mindfulness into different parts: This is the school of Meditation for the Mind of Mindfulness, this is the school of Meditation for the Body of Mindfulness, and this is the school of Meditation for the Feeling of Mindfulness. Further to chopping up the method of the Four Places of Mindfulness, they have also hectically written and publicized canons everywhere, thus make the next generations misunderstand the Buddhist method, wrongly practice and unable to resolve the matter of life, aging, sickness and death. Whereas, the method of the Four Places of Mindfulness is very wonderful, the result is immediate when we start to practice it, it results in transcendent supernatural powers that ordinary people could hardly imagine. Due to chopping up the method of the Four Places of Mindfulness, the monks of the Southern School do not have proper result in their practice, they are limited in the concentrations of imagination and can never attain the liberation of Buddhism. 

The nations that follow Buddhism of the Southern School consider Buddhism as their National Religion, all youths at a certain age have to enter pagodas to practice for three years, if they wish to practice they can stay and continue to practice, if they don’t want to continue to practice, they “leave the monkhood”. To leave the monkhood means to return to secular life and get married. But these youths, having practiced Buddhism, have no mind of love and compassion, they dare to take knives, guns, weapons to destroy their own people like to kill pigs, chicken, goats etc. 

Because eating the meat of living beings while practicing will turn people into monsters, they can never become Buddha. Despite the teachings of the Buddha in the Jivaka sutta, the Patriarchs of the Southern School dared to fabricate the eating of five types of unclean meat. It is heart-breaking. 

Why so? Because the monks of the Southern School eat meat and thus their minds are very aggressive and cruel. Their life of practice goes against the morality of not creating sufferings to oneself, to others and to all living beings of Buddhism. 

Buddhism is the morality of humanity, how can people following the morality of humanity have the heart to eat the meat of living beings without any love and compassion. So, are these monks/nuns the Buddhist monks/nuns? Please have your own answer. 

Also in this sutta, the Buddha continued to teach the Bhikkhus that they should not to eat the meat of living beings with the method to practice and cultivate “The Four Immeasurable Minds”.

The sutta continued: “Here, Jivaka, a Bhikkhu lives in dependence upon a certain village or town, he should always practice his mind so that it completely pervades one quarter with love and dwells in peace, also the second, the third, the fourth quarters, and above, below, around, and everywhere, his mind is completely pervading the all-encompassing world with great and immeasurable love without resentment, anger and dwells in peace”.

With the meaning of this part of the sutta, when a Bhikkhu eats he has to thoroughly observe the food, simultaneously has the mind of love and compassion towards all the living beings, if he sees there is meat of living beings in the food, he would rather die than eat. It is the performance of the Path of love and compassion and one’s mind of having love and compassion for life. The teachings in the sutta are so clear, nevertheless, the monks of the Southern School have the heart to eat meat, we really feel pity for them, they only have a life of practice but bring no benefit to themselves and to all other living beings. 

In this part of the sutta, the Buddha clearly ascertained that a Buddhist practitioner always has to practice “The Four Immeasurable Minds”. A person who has practiced the Four Immeasurable Minds can have no heart to eat the meat of living beings. Is this true? Nevertheless, the monks of the Southern School still can swallow the meat of living beings, it is strange!

For the Bhikkhus, the Buddha taught them not to eat the meat of living beings with the two great teachings: 

1. Eating the meat of living beings which is not seen, not heard and not suspected. 

2. Eating the meat of living beings with the mind of love and compassion which is pervasive everywhere. 

Also in the same sutta, the Buddha taught the lay followers to offer food to the Buddha and the Holy Monks: “Jivaka! If anyone slaughters a living being for the Tathagata or his disciples, he lays up much demerit in five instances. When he says: 'Go and fetch that living being', this is the first instance in which he lays up much demerit. When that living being experiences pain and grief on being led along with a neck-halter, this is the second instance in which he lays up much demerit. When he says: 'Go and slaughter that living being,' this is the third instance in which he lays up much demerit. When that living being experiences pain and grief on being slaughtered, this is the fourth instance in which he lays up much demerit. When he provides the Tathagata or his disciples with food that is not permissible, this is the fifth instance in which he lays up much demerit”^[11].

From this part of the sutta, we clearly see that the Buddha carefully taught the lay followers not to offer the Buddha and the Holy Monks the food made with animal meat, because such offering is against the method and brings people no good fortune but a loss of virtue and a burden of serious sin of killing living beings. 

This is a very valuable sutta for the monks of the Southern School. The Jivaka sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya has confirmed that the Buddhist practitioners are not allowed to eat the meat of living beings and they should eat vegetarian food for the purpose of cultivating their minds of love, compassion, joy and let-go in order to abandon desire and evilness, thus make their minds and bodies pure to enter the Concentrations to be able to master the life, death and rebirth. In contrast, if a practitioner still eats the meat of living beings, it means he has not abandoned desire and evilness in his mind, it is such a huge waste for a life of practice following Buddhism without attaining any liberation of Buddhism but falling into hell (the hell here is not the realm of hell but the state of suffering of the body or the distress of the mind). Practice with such cruel mind will make the practitioner be indebted to the supporters and donors in this life and in so many following lives. At present, the monks of the Southern School enjoy the pleasure of eating and make their bodies stout, taking evilness to maintain their bodies, then their bodies will have to receive innumerous sufferings, as they have brought into their bodies the sufferings of living beings, such sufferings are inevitable for them.

Note: 

Reading the Jivaka sutta, we have comments on Buddhism. Buddhism is a self-reliant religion and teaches the moral foundation, which is based on the causality law and regards humans as its centre for development, in a very practical and specific manner. As such, the Buddha was a psychologist who had a thorough insight into the feelings, thoughts and wishes of people. So his teachings are all about morality for people to become true human beings. As teaching morality for people to become true humans, he profoundly addressed the human psychology: 

1. Teach the lay followers not to follow evil occupations to avoid bad consequences e.g. accidents, sicknesses, untimely death etc. 

2. Teach the Monks not to eat the meat of living beings with carefulness in their eating food, with an immense heart of love and compassion for all living beings. 

3. Teach the Buddhist followers not to offer food made with meat of living beings for the Buddha and the Holy Monks. Such offering is against the method and it is a demerit (i.e. gain no good fortune but commit more sins).

The teachings of the Buddha include goodness at preliminary level, goodness at middle level and goodness at ultimate level. He taught people the method to live in goodness and to prevent and finish evilness. Therefore, at the first step, the Buddha taught the lay followers not to carry out the six evil occupations as mentioned above. 

The practicing method of Buddhism is very specific. Here, the Monks and the Buddhist followers should clearly understand that to change occupation or not to carry out evil occupations means to practice, to practice means to correct, to change, to make things better, to turn things into goodness and not to create sufferings to oneself, to others and to all living beings. To practice does not mean to sit to strike wooden bells, to recite suttas, to repeat the Buddha’s name, to turn the rosaries, to sit in Meditation or kowtow to the Buddha’s great names in repentance with a wish that such activities will reduce or finish their sins and bring them fortunes etc.

You should not misunderstand and follow the guidance for practice of the scholars of some sects who guide people that when practicing they have to sit in Meditation, to enter an isolated hut or accommodation, to recite suttas, to be in repentance, to repeat the Buddha’s name, to repeat mantras, or to practice transmission of the mind seal, to shout, to beat or push to realize the Buddha-nature. Such practice is influenced by other religions, it does not help us to get rid of greed, anger, ignorance, sorrow, love, dislike, resentment, hate, jealousy, doubts and other evilness.

The practicing method of Buddhism in the Original canons is more practical and specific with immediate result when one starts to practice, it is different from the above mentioned methods of the scholars following the expanded canons of some sects. 

As we have mentioned, when you change from evil occupation to good occupation, you no longer create sufferings to living beings, it means you do not bring sufferings to yourself, and not to bring sufferings to yourself means liberation. 

To teach people not to follow evil occupations and not to perform evil deeds mean to practice the goodness. Do you understand this?

To teach people not to offer food made with meat of living beings means to create a body karma of little sickness and longevity. 

To teach the Monks not to eat meat of living beings means to cultivate the mind of love, compassion, joy and let-go to defeat the mind of greed, anger, ignorance, selfishness, mean-mindedness etc. 

In this sutta, the Monks and the Buddhist followers should heed the teaching of the Buddha: “to eat meat when it is not seen, not heard, and not suspected”. This teaching means in the eating, we have to train our eyes and ears, have to be careful, when we eat we must be aware if the food contains flesh, blood, death and sufferings of living beings, if it does we would rather die in the precepts of the Buddha than eat in violation of precepts. 

Why so?

Because, the Buddhist practitioners constantly cultivate their minds and bodies to have immense love for all living beings, for all human beings everywhere. 

If only because of nutrition for this perishable and impure body, we run after sensual pleasures and illusive delicious tastes of the sense of taste, we are not the true Buddhist practitioners with the mind of love and compassion. 

The act of eating vegetarian food of Buddhism surpasses the vegetarian diet, as eating vegetarian food is stemmed from the unlimited love and compassion for all living beings. By contrast, in this world, there are people who are vegetarians and do not eat meat of living beings but they make food resembling the meat of living beings, this is a secular way of vegetarian diet, though on vegetarian diet, they are still desirous of eating meat, therefore they make food similar to the meat of living beings to somehow quench such desire. 

The Buddha did not accept such way of eating vegetarian food. Buddhist practice is true, every good deed is stemmed from good heart, one eats vegetarian food because of the genuine compassion towards the living beings and thus one does not have the heart to eat the meat of the living beings. 

People eat vegetarian food because they are afraid of hell, of Demon of Impermanence and Demon of Yaksa torturing, burning, thrusting, cutting their tongue, pulling out throat, cutting tendon etc. 

People eat vegetarian food because they wish to gain rebirth to the Pure Land and Heaven etc. 

People eat vegetarian food because they wish to overcome mishaps and accidents, finishing sickness and having longevity etc. 

Buddhism does not accept such ways of eating vegetarian food, they are not the practice method for liberation, they are the kind of eating vegetarian food to console the mind, such ways of eating vegetarian food are similar a cow eating grass, there is no meaning of a Path of liberation. 

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[9] [Translator] page 474, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, WISDOM PUBLICATIONS, Boston, Massachusetts, 1995.

[10] [Translator] similar to the previous footnote.

[11] [Translator] similar to the previous footnote.