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FACE TO FACE | EASTERN HORIZON 49

and views meat as the flesh of one’s own son. Even if Buddha’s teaching which is “compassion” for all sentient
one’s master or faithful devotees offer meat-food with beings based on universal humanistic values. (c) To
genuine devotion, one should see it as the flesh of your awaken our innate love and compassion and inspire us
own son.” to pursue a compassionate lifestyle.

Lastly, Buddha said, “There is no end if I speak What would you regard as the biggest
thoroughly about the reasons I do not approve of meat compassionate action that the Buddha has done for
eating. I give you a brief answer on this important the benefit of all sentient beings?
matter because the time has come for my Parinirvana.”
He went on and said, “Dialecticians who are meat-eaters The most extraordinary compassionate act of Buddha
will not understand this. These closeminded meat- Shakyamuni was the introduction of unconditional
eating gossipers will one day blame me, saying that love and compassion for all sentient beings, showing
Buddha has said that it is not wrong to eat meat and a scientific path to liberation from all sufferings by
that Buddha himself ate meat.” introducing the Four Noble Truths and the truth of
dependent origination.
There are many more statements from the Buddha in
different sūtras as well as by other great masters in Since compassion is synonymous with non-killing,
their commentaries. is it justified if one were to kill a serial killer who is
about to kill young innocent kids in a school? How
Did the Buddha give any exception on eating meat? to consider such an action from the angle of karma?

While the basic premise is that we should avoid eating I am not sure if non-killing is exactly synonymous with
meat, the main exception is that when you are really compassion; it really depends on one’s intention. In my
hungry with no food and you come across an animal opinion, there is no way to justify a killing of any sort.
that has died a natural death, you can then consume the Even with a serial killer, the first attempt should be
meat for your survival. In this case the animal is already to bring the situation under control through peaceful
dead due to the natural course of life and its remains means. However, if a situation doesn’t allow this, then in
can come into use for someone else’s survival. order to save many innocent lives, it is better to put that
one serial killer down. Karma takes its own course no
On the other hand, in a sūtra on medicine and treatment matter what; in this situation, if you commit the act of
in the Vinaya, we are told that if a monk is critically ill killing, there will be consequential outcomes. But on the
and a doctor recommends a particular protein (meat or other hand, you’ve earned profound virtuous merit by
broth) for his healing, this is allowed. The Buddha said, saving many innocent lives. That karma of trying to save
“The monk’s assistant should season the meat with herbs many lives from the serial killer will dilute the karma of
and spices, mix it with other food and feed it to him as taking the life of the serial killer. Besides, one can also
medicine.” Thus, the Buddha’s teachings are spontaneous wholeheartedly confess and purify the karma of the
and always based on compassion and reason. killing because the intention is compassion to protect
many innocent lives.
You are the founder of the Universal Compassion
Foundation. What is the main objective of this Would you consider it as a compassionate action
organization? if the children of a coma patient were to instruct
the doctor to terminate the life of their parent to
The Universal Compassion Foundation (originally the prevent him from further suffering?
Universal Compassion Movement) has three main
objectives: (a) To bring awareness about the cruelty Yes, if the coma patient has no chance to recover, then
behind our food habits. (b) To highlight the core of keeping him or her on life support serves no purpose;