Sha za spong ba la gdams pa
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Description
Pema Dündul tells us that one day he was meditating on the Great Compassionate One (following a text of his own revelation) when his entire perception suddenly transformed. Noble Avalokiteśvara appeared directly and the lower realms of saṃsāra became clearly visible. He witnessed the Reviving Hell in particular—one of eighteen hells according to Buddhist cosmology and the destiny of meat eaters and practitioners of so-called red offerings. Thus, it would seem that the song’s references to “the suffering that meat eating brings” concern the infernal torment of those responsible for animals’ death, rather than the pain of the animals themselves. It could be that the suffering involved in slaughter is too obvious to warrant commentary, whereas its karmic consequences, which are not directly apparent, require explanation. In any case, Pema Dündul appeals to his audience’s compassion in other ways, such as when he argues that murder is no way to repay the kindness of beings who were one’s mother in previous lifetimes. More than once he highlights his own and others’ hypocrisy in lecturing others about the law of cause and effect while failing to adhere to its principles oneself. Meat eaters suffer in future lives, he says, but even in their current lifetime they will be plagued by illness and tormented by negative emotions and non-human spirits. In fact, they are just like demons themselves and find it impossible to develop genuine altruism. Vegetarians, by contrast, are widely revered, benefit from divine assistance and easily cultivate the love and compassion that aid progress along the path. Thus, the text is concerned not so much with the rules surrounding the consumption of flesh as with its consequences—both the negative effects of meat eating and the positive effects of abstention. Moreover, these karmic results are not proposed as theory or set out merely on the basis of scripture; they are reported as first-hand testimony that includes the authoritative voice of Avalokiteśvara.
The song concludes with a confession of past misdeeds and a pledge to abstain from meat eating in the future. Although Pema Dündul employs the first person here, the faults he lists apply to meat eaters in general. Thus, there can be little doubt that readers are also encouraged to share in the author’s declaration and make a similar commitment of their own. Effectively, the text captures a moment of conversion and invites others to re-enact it. (Source: Lotsawa House)
Vegetarianism is an important topic of debate in Buddhist circles—some argue that Buddhists should avoid meat entirely while others suggest that it is acceptable. For the most part, however, this ethical query has been conducted in the West without consulting traditional literature on the subject. The Faults of Meat brings together for the first time a collection of rich and intricate explorations of authoritative Tibetan views on eating meat. These fourteen nuanced texts, ranging from scholastic treatises to poetic verse, reveal vegetarianism as a significant, ongoing issue of debate for Tibetans across time and traditions, with a wide variety of voices marshaled against meat, and a few in favor. Authors include many important Tibetan teachers:
Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361) Khedrup Jé (1385–1438) The eighth Karmapa, Mikyö Dorjé (1507–1554) Shabkar Tsokdrük Rangdröl (1781–1851) Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö (1961– ) and many more.
These Buddhist teachers recognize both the ethical problems that surround meat eating and the practical challenges of maintaining a vegetarian diet; their skilled arguments are illuminated further by the translators’ introductions to each work.
The perspectives in The Faults of Meat are strikingly relevant to our discussions of vegetarianism today; they introduce us to new approaches and solutions to a contentious issue for Buddhists. (Source: Wisdom Publications)
