Affirming Life: The First Precept

Описание: One of the most common expressions of this by Western Buddhists is the choice to be vegetarian. And some of you have made that choice. To eat meat or not and the contemplation of such a decision is a mindfulness training.

That being said, that does not mean you have to be a vegetarian to be a Buddhist. No – again the precepts are non-normative. In the West it is said that our laws are based on the ten commandments, the precepts are also different from the commandments in this way.

The precepts were not collective injunctions for all of society but were given to individuals who wanted to wake up. It is up to each individual to apply them in their practice and aspirations to wake up. This is especially true for lay practitioners such as us. It is an individual choice. It is not our place to judge how well someone else is doing.

Many of us fall on a continuum when it comes to our engagement with this precept. Some eat meat. Some don’t. As a Sangha our retreats mean are vegetarian – but no one is expected to be a vegetarian.

Our local Jodo Shin Shu minister has a book of his dharma talks title Teriyaki Priest because of the teriyaki chicken he is known for. And there are others who feel that being a vegetarian isn’t even enough, that to be truly Buddhist and live the first precept one MUST be vegan.

Interesting to note that in the Mahayana tradition all living things are thought to be sentient on some level – trees, plants a grass breath – and as new discoveries of science have a sort of sentience…so killing plants also would be a not following of the precept. There is an inherent paradox in the first precept. Life consumes life to live.

I appreciate this from Bernie Glassman of the Zen Peacekeeper speaking about such a paradox – this is from a dharma talk given during their Auschwitz retreat.

"Whereas the literal perspective sees this precept in absolute terms of either killing or not-killing, maintaining both the literal and the subjective standpoints requires the compromise of minimizing the destruction of life. . . . The powerful irony at the heart of Zen practice is that the strongest way to follow this precept of non-killing is by killing the self! If we can kill—that is, truly forget—the self, we are at that very moment the infinite life of the Buddha, and are this nurturing and fostering life in the fullest, most genuine manner possible.”

Life is full of such paradoxes. I love that Buddhism does not run away from them or try to fix them but has us engage the paradox.

Now for those who have chosen the vegan lifestyle because of their practice, a deep bow. For those who have not, a deep bow.