Ahiṃsā and Vegetarianism in the History of Buddhism
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Ahiṃsā and Vegetarianism in the History of Buddhism
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Description
The history of vegetarianism in the Buddhist world has followed a complicated and in some respects perhaps surprising course. Although the idea of Ahiṃsā 'non-harming' is generally proclaimed and respected in Buddhist thought and practice, what might seem to be its logical corollary, namely abstention from eating the flesh of animals killed for their meat, is both relatively rarely discussed in Buddhist literature and far from generally practised in most parts of the Buddhist world. That the idea of vegetarianism was however at least partially thematised in Buddhist thought from an early period is shown by the references in the Vinaya to abstention from meat-eating in certain conditions and also, curiously enough, by the mention of it as one of the ascetic practices that the Buddha's cousin-antagonist Devadatta insisted upon.
Citation
Ruegg, David Seyfort. "Ahiṃsā and Vegetarianism in the History of Buddhism." In Buddhist Studies in Honour of Walpola Rahula, edited by Somaratna Balasooriya et al., 234–41. London: Gordon Fraser, 1980.
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