The Question of Vegetarianism and Diet in Pāli Buddhism

This article is concerned with the question of whether Pāli Buddhism endorses vegetarianism and therefore whether a good Buddhist ought to abstain from eating meat. A prima facie case for vegetarianism will be presented that relies upon textual citation in which the Buddha stipulates that a good Buddhist must encourage others not to kill. The claim that the Buddha endorses vegetarianism, however, is challenged both by the fact that meat-eating is permissible in the Vinaya and that the Buddha himself seems to have eaten meat. The article will suggest that this conflict emerges as a distinct ethical and legal tension in the canonical texts but that the tension may have arisen as a consequence of difficult prudential decisions the Buddha may have had to make during his ministry. * School of Philosophy, University of Tasmania. Email: [email protected] 101 Journal of Buddhist Ethics The purpose of this study is to again consider the question of vegetarianism in Buddhism. It is now well understood that under Buddhist monastic legislation meat-eating is permitted and is in fact customary in many Buddhist countries. Nonetheless, there remains a prima facie case that the good Buddhist still ought to be a vegetarian. This prima facie case follows from arguments in the canonical literature against the killing of animals. It is noticeable that this implied endorsement of vegetarianism conflicts with the aforementioned monastic guidelines. This article will highlight this tension and attempt to explain its occurrence by claiming that the permissibility of meat-eating may have been a prudential necessity for the Buddha in order to avoid contributing to schism in the saṅgha. In general, this article looks favorably upon the possibility that Buddhism endorses vegetarianism as an implicit requirement following from its rejection of animal killing. An Argument for Vegetarianism The argument for vegetarianism in Buddhism starts with the question: what do humans owe animals? The Buddhist canonical texts seem to affirm the notion that we should not harm or kill animals. Does this mean that we should not eat them either? There are two parts to this analysis: First, I will argue that that it is clear from the texts that a good Buddhist should not kill either humans or non-human animals. Second, following some textual citation, I will also argue that the good Buddhist is committed to the non-eating of animals if he or she is to hold that we should not encourage their killing.