Dalai lama & vegetarianism

[Susana]

YY, this reminds me that I had been told by a vegan friend that he does not eat onions and garlic along with some other things I don't remember (maybe peppers?), and certain spices. It may have been his specific way of eating, however.

Can you explain to us why the Buddist and Jain vegetarians do not use the five pungent plants?

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Can you explain to us why the Buddist and Jain vegetarians do not use the five pungent plants?

I don't know if Buddhist is the same reason but I guess so. These are root plants and the pulling of them destroys the whole plant. All root crops are forbidden in Jainism.

David

[yy]

Sorry, I forgot to mention Hare Krishna Hindus, in addition to Jain and Buddhist vegetarians.

Besides the Jains' concern about damaging/killing plants by digging them up roots and all, all these vegetarians also have the concern that these pungent plants serve to increase one's negative mental states of sexual desires, anger and restlessness, which are detrimental to keeping a virtuous, peaceful mind and upholding proper behaviour and speech.

For this reason, my non-religious frds who are serious about yoga and meditation avoid these 5 pungent plants too, as advised by their gurus.

[Tim]

I have considered myself a vegetarian for at least two decades. On rare occasions I'll eat something I know has some meat product, but I prefer not to. Worrying about a small amount of fish sauce in a Thai meal is hardly concern, in fact there are proven health benefits.

So why am I vegetarian? Beats me! I've never been able to succinctly give reasons when asked. Health, ethical concerns, my personal wimpishness at killing, slaughtering and butchering animals, an understanding that society today doesn't need to consume animal products to the extent it does -- all these play a part.

I talked with a Thai Buddhist monk about this, because I also find it odd that most Thai Buddhists do regularly eat meat. He told me there was no strict prohibition against it in the Buddha's teachings, and also said that it's something each person can meditate about and decide for oneself. That's fair enough, and is usually the way I answer the question now, though I strongly suspect it's actually not true for most Thais. It is often easier to go with the flow rather than to search inside oneself.

I do eat dairy and very occasionally fish products, though I've been considering using small amounts of fish sauce more often in my own cooking. There is no way I'm giving up the so-called pungent plants -- no disrespect to anyone else's choices, but the reasons given for avoiding these wonderful foods don't make the slightest bit of sense to me. Be that as it may, I don't make much of a big deal about my food choices, nor do I advocate as to what others should eat.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Whilst not being vegeatarian myself I can understand that others are and they refrain from eating products (I use the word products because some vegeatarians include root crops that you would kill the whole plant) that have to be killed, or using such products (like leather) derived from a dead product.

But the one thing I don't understand is not drinking milk as that is designed as a foodstuff, kills nothing, and being mammals we produce and consume human milk?

David

[Marie]

My being (semi) vegetarian has nothing to do with any spiritual or religious basis. My sister got afflicted with cancer and her doctor prescribed special diet for her. This made us conscious of eating healthy foods and we had a maid trained to cook not only for her but for the whole family. My sister is gone but the awareness for a healthy diet, which is mainly vegetable-based, remained ingrained in us. Thus we have a vegetable dish ready for every single meal, though we could have a secondary side course if we liked, mostly fish. But no meat. If anyone hankers for meat all they have to do is eat outside, as it is not available at home.

When I travel or go out with friends and I don't have control of the situation, I can be flexible and don't have to eat vegetables all the time. One time I was on an offical fieldtrip in the countryside and we were all very hungry and needed to stop for lunch in a small roadside eatery. I overheard my colleague saying, " Now, we have a problem. There's nothing that Marie would eat here! "I did not want to become such a burden and ate what was available. (In fact I ate a lot! LOL)

At work, I am friendly with the office cafeteria owner and the cooks there. If it so happened that I didn't like what's on the menu for the day, there's always something I could order at short notice, even just tomato omelet! So, basically, my trying to stick to being partly vegetarian presents no big inconvenience for me or others. :-)

[yy]

From what I understand about the vegan philosophy of not drinking milk, the principle is that as long as animals are purposely being kept for human use, a certain degree of animal exploitation is inevitable. N the vegans aim to root out any form of such exploitation and to instead leave the animals to their own freewill subject to the natural cycle of death and decay, survival and predation. In this sense, many vegans will avoid patronising any circus where there are performing animals, and some will not support zoos as well, but rather campaign for animal safaris. They do not use accessories derived from animals, as discussed earlier by David.

Personally for me, I believe veganism is the ideal but I have long reconciled myself with the self knowledge that I will never be able to live up to being a true-blue vegan. Since more than a decade ago, I have discarded all my luxury brand leather products and have not looked back since; instead, learning to appreciate more and more each day those ethnic handicraft purses (and occasionally, shoes) I procure on my travels. My current handwoven cloth purse which protrays Laotian people in their everyday but very meaningful lives e.g. planting crops, chopping up firewood etc costs me a very comfortable THB100 and is still going strong months into its 2nd birthday ...Funny thing that it is easy to destroy and throw away that Gucci or Prada, but I know I will never be able to live and eat in such a way that milk, honey and cheese products are totally omitted from my life. Nowadays, I will never purposely purchase bottled honey, and have been trying to reduce drinking milk (opting for fortified soy and oats milk instead when finances allow) and eating cheese, but I know I will never say no to a slice of the birthday cake nor will I give up Cabury's milk chocolate.