This is with reference to the letter by Dr. C. Godamunne ("Meet T.V. programme butchers" The Island 2/11/2001).

I wish to state quite categorically that Buddhism has no connection whatsoever with meat eating. A follower of the Buddha’s teaching is free to eat or not to eat meat as he chooses subject to the guidelines laid down.

In one discourse the Buddha gives several reasons why he is held in such high esteem. Two of the reasons are extremely significant. They are (a) he does not accept uncooked grain and (b) he does not accept uncooked meat. Since cooked grain was accepted by the Buddha the obvious implication is that he accepted cooked meat.

Furthermore the controversy that arose as to his last meal viz. whether it was pork or mushroom, could never have arisen, if it had been well-known that he was a vegetarian.

Buddhist priests have been offered and have accepted cooked meat and fish for centuries. Buddhists in other countries too eat meat. Vegetarians and animal lovers should stand on their own feet without invoking Buddhism to their aid.

The animal kingdom is one of the four hells mentioned in Buddhism. The Buddha has declared that few human beings will be reborn as human beings in their next birth.

The implication undoubtedly is that the vast majority will be reborn in one of the four hells. We need not be surprised at this because we see the sins, crimes and high-handed acts committed by human beings even when there is no election around the corner. Hell is a place of suffering.

The bull attracts the butcher’s knife not because a Buddhist eats beef but because it has been born to suffer in various ways for its sins in the past. Even pampered animals are unfortunate creatures.

They are the slaves of their masters who can restrict their freedom or kill them at will. Animals in the wild are always in danger of death or injury and suffer through man, predator and the forces of nature.

(1) Though animals and man inhabit the same planet and see each other, they are on two different planes of existence.

(2) The animal world is one of the four hells mentioned in Buddhism and therefore it is natural that animals "should" suffer in various ways.

(3) Rebirth in any of the four hells is due to grave sins committed in past lives.

(4) Those who shorten the lives of others (man or animal) will find their own lives shortened in subsequent births and that those who cause suffering to others will suffer in turn in various ways through incurable diseases, attacks by animals, meeting with accidents etc.

Once all this is understood a Buddhist can watch the TV programme referred to without his mind being affected by it in anyway.
Bhikkhu C. Mahinda
Makola