In Buddhism, the views on vegetarianism vary from school to school. In the schools of the Theravada and Vajrayana, the act of eating meat is not always prohibited; the Mahayana school generally recommends a vegetarian diet. This is based on the firm insistence by the Buddha in certain Mahayana sutras, that his followers should not eat meat or fish. Interestingly, the accepted legend of the Buddha’s death says that he died after accepting tainted meat (pork infected with Trichinosis) from his hosts while travelling. The meaning of the relevant word to describe this food, is however contested, for mamsa is not the usual term for meat. It is sukara-maddava, which translates as ‘pig’s delight’ and has been interpreted as meaning a kind of truffle favoured by pigs.
 There is a divergence of views within Buddhism as to whether vegetarianism is necessary, with some schools of Buddhism rejecting such a requirement. The first precept in Buddhism is usually translated as: I undertake the precept to refrain from taking life. Some Buddhists see this as implying that Buddhists should not eat meat, while others argue that this is not necessarily the case. Some Buddhists do strongly oppose meat-eating on the basis of emphatic scriptural injunctions against flesh-eating, issuing from the Buddha himself.
 In the Anguttara Nikaya 3.38 Sukhamala Sutra, Buddha describes his family as being wealthy enough to provide non-vegetarian meals even to the servants. After becoming Buddha, he accepted any food offered with respect as alms, including meat. But there is no reference to him eating meat during his seven years as an ascetic.
 On one occasion, according to the scriptures, a general sent a servant to purchase meat specifically to feed the Buddha. The Buddha declared that meat should not be eaten under three circumstances: when it is seen or heard or suspected that a living being has been purposely slaughtered for the eater. These Jivaka are the three circumstances in which meat should not be eaten. Jivaka! I declare there are three circumstances in which meat can be eaten: when it is not seen or heard or suspected that a living being has been purposely slaughtered for the eater.
 In this particular sutra, Buddha instructs a monk or nun to accept, without any discrimination, whatever food is offered as alms with good will, including meat. However, in the Vanijja Sutra, the Buddha declares the meat trade to be a wrong means of livelihood. Monks! Lay followers should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants and business in poison. These are the five types of businesses that a lay follower should not engage in.
 In the Nirvana sutra, a Mahayana Buddhist scripture purporting to give the Buddha’s final teachings, he insists that his followers should not eat any kind of meat or fish, and that even vegetarian food that has been touched by meat should be washed before being eaten. Also, it is not permissible for the monk or nun just to pick out the non-meat portions of a diet and leave the rest – the whole meal must be rejected.

Eating meat versus killing

Life is destroyed when farmers plough the ground or when food is cooked and insects are caught in the fire. Consequently, some Jain sources advocate avoidance of activities which are seen to have a more direct connection to killing, including all farming and eating of food, meat and root vegetables, which results in indirect destruction of animal and plant life. Some Jain monks are known to practice self-termination by starving themselves.
 In Buddhism, what is most important is to recognise that existence, by nature, is the cause of direct or indirect suffering and death (samsara). One should avoid gluttony and greedy consumption while maintaining a healthy diet, and a lifestyle which is conducive to attaining enlightenment. In the Pali canon which all Buddhist sects consider to be generally authentic, the Buddha, when asked, refused to institute vegetarianism in the monastic code.
 Mahayana Buddhism argues that if one pursues the path of the Bodhisattva for enlightenment, one should avoid meat eating to cultivate compassion for all living beings. Similarly, in Theravada Buddhism, avoiding meat eating for the purpose of cultivation of metta (loving kindness) is also seen to be in accord with Buddhist dharma. In most Buddhist branches, one may adopt vegetarianism if one so wishes, but it is not considered appropriate to attack another for eating meat.
 In Chinese Mahayana, vegetarianism is seen as a prerequisite for pursuing the path of the Bodhisattva. The argument for vegetarianism is made more forcefully, often to the extent of accusing those who eat meat of lacking compassion. Chinese Mahayanists do not accept the Pali sutras as definitive when they conflict with the Mahayana sutras, and consequently some do not accept that Gautama Buddha ever ate meat or permitted eating it, in accordance with the Lankavatara sutra.
 In the Pali canon, Buddha explicitly declared meat-eating to be karma neutral and once explicitly refused to institute vegetarianism in the monastic order. Theravada commentaries explain that the Buddha was making a distinction between the direct destruction of life and eating of already dead meat. Moreover, they point out that cultivation of vegetables also involves proxy killing. In fact, any act of consumption would cause some degree of proxy killing.
 Hence the Buddha advised his followers to avoid gluttony, or any other act of craving which leads to overconsumption.
 Certain Mahayana sutras do present the Buddha as very vigorously and unreservedly denouncing the eating of meat, mainly on the grounds that such an act is linked to the spreading of fear amongst sentient beings (who can allegedly sense the odour of death that lingers about the meat-eater, and who consequently fear for their own lives) and violates the Bodhisattva’s fundamental cultivation of compassion.
 Moreover, according to the Buddha, in the Angulimaliya sutra, since all beings share the same ‘dhatu’ (spiritual principle or essence) and are intimately related to one another, killing and eating other sentient creatures is tantamount to a form of self-killing and cannibalism. The sutras which inveigh against meat-eating include the Nirvana sutra, the Shurangama sutra, the Brahmajala sutra, the Angulimaliya sutra, the Mahamegha sutra and the Lankavatara sutra, as well as the Buddha’s comments on the negative karmic effects of meat consumption in the Karma sutra.
 In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana sutra, which presents itself as the final elucidatory and definitive Mahayana teachings of the Buddha on the very eve of his death, the Buddha states that ‘the eating of meat extinguishes the seed of Great Kindness’, adding that all and every kind of meat and fish consumption (even of animals found already dead) is prohibited by him. He specifically rejects the idea that monks who go out begging and receive meat from a donor should eat it: “. . . it should be rejected . . . I say that even meat, fish, game, dried hooves and scraps of meat left over by others constitutes an infraction . . . I teach the harm arising from meat-eating.” The Buddha also predicts in this sutra, that later monks will ‘hold spurious writings to be the authentic Dharma’ and will concoct their own sutras and falsely claim that the Buddha allows the eating of meat, whereas he does not. A long passage in the Lankavatara sutra shows the Buddha speaking out very forcefully against meat consumption, and unequivocally in favor of vegetarianism, since the eating of the flesh of fellow sentient beings is said by him to be incompatible with the compassion that a Bodhisattva should strive to cultivate. In several other Mahayana scriptures too, (e.g., the Mahayana jatakas), the Buddha is seen clearly to indicate that meat-eating is undesirable and karmically unwholesome.
 In Tibetan Buddhism, a strong emphasis was placed on the number of esoteric sutras which were transmitted from Northern India. In these sutras, it is clearly stated that the practice of ‘Vajrayana’ would make vegetarianism unnecessary. A number of tantric texts frequently recommend alcohol and meat, though not all take such passages literally. Many traditions of the Ganachakra which is a type of Panchamakara puja, prescribe the offering and ingestion of meat and alcohol.
 

Buddhist views today

In the modern world, attitudes toward vegetarianism vary by location. In the Theravada countries of South East Asia and Sri Lanka, monks are allowed by the vinaya to accept almost any food that is offered to them including meat, unless they suspect the meat was slaughtered specifically for them; in China, Korea and Vietnam, monks are expected to eat no meat. In Taiwan, Buddhist monks, nuns and most lay followers eat no animal products or the fetid vegetables – traditionally garlic, Allium chinense, asafoetida, shallot, and Allium victorialis (victory onion or mountain leek) – although in modern times this rule is often interpreted to include other vegetables of the onion genus, as well as coriander. This is called Su vegetarianism. In Japan, some clergy practice vegetarianism, and most will do so at least when training at a monastery, but otherwise they typically do eat meat. In Tibet, where vegetables have been historically very scarce and the adopted vinaya was the Nikaya Sarvastivada, vegetarianism is very rare, although the Dalai Lama and other esteemed lamas invite their audiences to adopt vegetarianism when they can. Chatral Rinpoche in particular, has stated that anyone who wishes to be his student must be vegetarian.
 In the end, we can say that it should be left to your sensibilities and aesthetics to decide for yourself. So readers, use your conscience to know what you wish to do. Our attempt was to provide information in general and specifically in the Buddhist context.

The enlightenment at which Zen aims comes by itself. Like consciousness, one moment it does not exist – the next it does. Man goes through life as if walking in mud; dragging his feet and his true nature. Zen talks about a gradual and an instant path to enlightenment. Enlightenment was symbolized by the bull in Tao and later adapted to Zen philosophy.
In the twelfth century, the Chinese master Kakuan drew the ten bulls based on earlier Taoist versions. His comments in prose and verse are translated here. Kakuan’s version is pure Zen; it goes deeper than earlier ones which ended with the eighth picture. A constant source of inspiration to students, many illustrations of Kakuan’s bulls have been made down the years.
The illustrations reproduced here are a modern version by the noted woodblock artist, Tomikichiro Tokuriki, a descendant of a long line of artists and proprietor of the Daruma-do teashop (Daruma is Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch). His ox-herding pictures are as direct and meaningful as Kakuan’s original pictures must have been.
The bull is the eternal principle of life – truth in action. The ten bulls represent the steps toward the realization of ones true nature. This sequence is as potent today as when Kakuan developed it from earlier works. Basically, there were eight pictures of unknown origin which were not Buddhist but Taoist. Nobody knows who painted the first bulls, but in the twelfth century, a Chinese Zen master, Kakuan, repainted them. He also added two, taking the total to ten. The Taoist pictures ended with the eighth which is emptiness or nothingness. Kakuan added two new pictures – his contribution to Zen and religious consciousness.

Zen does not divide life into the worldly and the spiritual.
The mind and the world are not two entities, but one

Zen does not distinguish between the worldly and the spiritual, but when one starts an inner journey, one renounces all that is nonessential and a hinderance, in order to seek the essential. This journey is to reach the greatest height – the pinnacle of human possibilities, so one tries to unburden oneself to make the journey easier. The climax is right where you are, but to reach it takes many lifetimes. One renounces not only the world but also the mind, as the mind is the cause of the world.
The mind and the world are one – they are not two different entities. The world of desires and possessions is the external part; the internal is the mind with its desires, lust, jealousy, competition and thoughts. It is the seat of delusion, desire, hope and malice. One renounces the outer and begins to desire rewards in the inner realm. One may wish to progress, but renunciation is not complete till you have cast off the inner greed. One becomes totally empty only when one renounces even the so called spiritual state. That is what meditation is all about! Total emptiness!
But is this the end? The Taoist pictures end with nothingness. Kakuan, says that this is not the end – one comes back to the world, to the marketplace and only then is the circle complete. Of course, one comes back totally new.
One never comes back with the old which is gone forever. One is totally renewed, resurrected and refreshed. One comes back to the world and again one lives in the world, yet beyond it. Again one chops wood, carries water, walks, sits, sleeps – one becomes absolutely ordinary. Deep inside, the emptiness remains uncorrupted. It simply lingers on; one lives in the world but is not of the world. One is untouched, like a lotus in the swamp.
The last two pictures bring the seeker back to the world. One comes back for those who are seeking; there are many who are stumbling on the path and are in deep darkness. One comes back to the world due to compassion, to help other travelers arrive. One has arrived and now one helps others arrive. One has become enlightened and now one helps others achieve the same goal. Each and everyone is searching for the same goal. One becomes a light house, helping ships to anchor safely.
The eight Taoist bulls are incomplete; beautiful, but something is missing. Emptiness is perfect, but further perfection is to be attained. Emptiness is perfect, let me repeat it, but there is a perfection yet to be attained. Emptiness is perfect in a negative way. You have renounced – that is negative; you have not loved yet; the positive is missing. Unhappiness and misery are gone, but you are not yet ecstatic. You have attained a silence which is beautiful, but your silence is not yet a fulfillment; it is not an overflowing blissful dance of your inner being.
Kakuan goes beyond Taoism and Buddhism — both end with emptiness, as if the journey were complete. You have reached Everest: cool, collected, calm. Why go back to the marketplace? If your meditation does not become compassionate, then it is concealing your ego even now; it is still selfish. If your meditation does not make you simple and innocent like a child, then it is not true meditation. If you are scared of the world, then the world is still reality for you; till it is not an illusion, you have not arrived at the truth.
The Ten Bulls are more than poetry or pictures. They are a revelation of spiritual experience. May the reader, like the Chinese patriarch, discover the footprints of his potential self, and carrying the staff of his purpose and the wine of true desire, frequent the market place, and there enlighten others. The last picture, the most important one, shows the unification of maya and brahman – there is no distinction, so there is nothing to renounce and nothing to hold on to. Life becomes a celebration, a festival.

1. The Search for the Bull

In the pasture of this world, I endlessly push aside
the tall grasses in search of the bull.
Following unnamed rivers, lost upon the interpenetrating paths of distant mountains,
My strength failing and my vitality exhausted, I
cannot find the bull.
I only hear the locusts chirping through the forest at
night.

Comment: The bull was never lost. What need is there to search? Due to separation from my true nature, I fail to find him. In the confusion of the senses, I lose even his track. Far from home, I see many crossroads, but which is the right one I know not. Greed and fear, good and bad, entangle me.

2. Discovering the Footprints

Along the riverbank under the trees,
I discover footprints!
Even under the fragrant grass I see his prints.
Deep in remote mountains they are found.
These traces no more can be hidden than one’s nose, looking heavenward.

Comment: Understanding the teaching, I see the footprints of the bull. Then I learn that, just as many utensils are made from one metal, so too are myriad entities made of the fabric of the self. Unless I discriminate, how will I perceive the true from the untrue? Not yet having entered the gate, nevertheless I have discerned the path.

3. Perceiving the Bull

I hear the song of the nightingale.
The sun is warm, the wind is mild,
willows are green along the shore,
Here no bull can hide!
What artist can draw that massive head, those majestic horns?

Comment: When one hears the voice, one can sense its source. As soon as the six senses merge, the gate is entered. Wherever one enters one sees the head of the bull! This unity is like salt in water, like color in dyestuff. The slightest thing is
not apart from the self.

4. Catching the Bull

I seize him with a terrific struggle.
His great will and power are inexhaustible.
He charges to the high plateau far above the cloud-mists,
Or in an impenetrable ravine he stands.

Comment: He dwelt in the forest a long time, but I caught him today! Infatuation for scenery interferes with his direction. Longing for sweeter grass, he wanders away. His mind is still stubborn and unbridled. If I wish him to submit, I must raise my whip.

5. Taming the Bull

The whip and rope are necessary,
Else he might stray off down some dusty road.
Being well trained, he becomes naturally gentle.
Then, unfettered, he obeys his master.

Comment: When one thought arises, another follows. When the first thought springs from enlightenment, all subsequent ones are true. Through delusion, one makes everything untrue. Delusion is not caused by objectivity; it is the result of subjectivity. Hold the nose-ring tight and do not allow even a doubt.

6. Riding the Bull Home

Mounting the bull, slowly I return homeward.
The voice of my flute intones through the evening.
Measuring with hand-beats the pulsating harmony, I
direct the endless rhythm.
Whoever hears this melody will join me.

Comment: The struggle is over; gain and loss assimilated, I sing the song of the village woodsman and play the tunes of the children. Astride the bull, I observe the clouds above. Onward I go, no matter who may wish to call me back.

7. The Bull Transcended

Astride the bull, I reach home.
I am serene. The bull too can rest.
The dawn has come. In blissful repose,
Within my thatched dwelling I have abandoned the
whip and rope.

Comment: All is one law, not two. We make the bull only a temporary subject. It is as the relation of rabbit and trap, fish and net. It is as gold and dross, or the moon emerging from a cloud. One path of clear light travels on throughout endless time.

8. Both Bull and Self Transcended

Whip, rope, person and bull – all merge in No-Thing.
This heaven is so vast no message can stain it.
How may a snowflake exist in a raging fire?
Here are the footprints of the patriarchs.

Comment: Mediocrity is gone. The mind is clear of limitation. I seek no state of enlightenment. Neither do I remain where no enlightenment exists. As I linger in neither condition, eyes cannot see me. If hundreds of birds strew my path with flowers, such praise would be meaningless.

9. Reaching the Source

Too many steps have been taken returning to the root and the source.
Better to have been blind and deaf from the beginning!
Dwelling in one’s true abode, unconcerned with that
without -
The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red.

Comment: From the beginning, truth is clear. Poised in silence, I observe the forms of integration and disintegration. One who is not attached to ‘form’ need not be ‘reformed.’ The water is emerald, the mountain is indigo and I see that which is creating and that which is destroying.

10. In the World

Barefoot and naked of breast, I mingle with the people of the world.
My clothes are ragged and dust-laden and I am ever
blissful.
I use no magic to extend my life,
Now, before me, the dead trees come alive.

Comment: Inside my gate, a thousand sages do not know me. The beauty of my garden is invisible. Why should one search for the footprints of the patriarchs? I go to the market place with my wine bottle and return home with my staff. I visit the wine shop and the market and everyone I look upon becomes enlightened.

The last picture is the most important one -
it shows the unification of maya and brahman – god and world.
There is no distinction, so there is nothing to renounce and
nothing to hold.
Life becomes a huge celebration, a festival.

One has to catch the bull by the tail. Do not struggle with it, as in this passive activeness, one day the bull will be yours. Now you can let go off all struggle and be in nothingness, be in emptiness.

Once emptiness is experienced, there is no need to stay away, one lives in the world and yet one is aloof and distant. Kakuan’s contribution to the spiritual world is immense, we remain indebted to this great Zen master for all eternity.

A man’s wife was very sick. On her deathbed, she said to him, “I love you very much! I do not want to leave you and I do not want you to betray me. Promise me that you will not see any other women after I die, or I will come back to haunt you.”
For several months after her death, the husband avoided other women, but then he met someone and fell in love. On the night that he was engaged to be married, the ghost of his former wife appeared. She blamed him for not keeping his promise and every night thereafter she returned to haunt him. The wife’s ghost would remind him of everything that had transpired between him and his fiancee during the day, repeating word for word, their conversations. This upset him so badly that he could not sleep.
Desperate, he sought the advice of a Zen master who lived near the village. “This is a very clever ghost,” the master said on hearing the man’s story. “It is!” replied the man. “It remembers every detail of what I say and do. It knows everything!” The master smiled, “You should admire such a ghost, but I will tell you what to do the next time you see it.”
That night the ghost returned. The man responded just as the master had advised. “You are such a wise ghost,” the man said, “You know that I can hide nothing from you. If you can answer one question, I will break off the engagement and remain single for the rest of my life.” “Ask your question,” the ghost replied. The man scooped up a handful of beans from a large bag on the floor and said, “Tell me exactly how many beans there are in my hand.”
At that moment the ghost disappeared and never returned.
Story telling is as much of an art as understanding it is. Zen stories come with a huge baggage of emptiness. Sometimes people understand the words – the body of the story and not it’s essence – the emptiness of it.

READ ON TO KNOW PEOPLE’S RESPONSE TO THIS STORY:

“No one knows everything. Not even a spirit.
You can be wise in some ways, but not in every way.”

“The ghost kept coming back because the man
was always impressed by how it seemed to know
everything. It had power over him.
But when he finally stood up and challenged it,
the ghost disappeared forever.”

“The ghost is actually a part of the man.
So it could not know anything that the man
himself did not know.”

“The ghost comes from the man’s own mind.
He created it. It was his own guilt that came
back to haunt him.”

“The reason something haunts us is because
we focus our attention on it.
When we move on, it disappears.”

“To me, this story just shows that souls have
memories but no enlightenment.”

“I do not like the ending. I read the story
with high expectations,
but felt let down in the end.”

“Why did the ghost not know that
the man had seen a Zen master?”

Zen masters can be mightier and fiercer then your imaginative ghosts. The master is right there in front of you in flesh and blood. The master bangs right on your head to wake you up from your sleep. Ghosts are nothing but your fears and manias, which arise in your mind and torment you. The mind knows a million ways of creating suffering – it will grieve and complain too, as if someone else is responsible for your misery. If only you could understand that the cause of your fear, pain and frustration is none other then your mind, things would be quite different.
You blame others for your suffering and never think that it could be something else; it could be you and your expectations, you and your desires. It could be your dependence on others for appreciation, for praise, for attention, for approval. Who can hurt you if you are not ready to be hurt?
The ghosts which you have created have to be killed by you. Ghosts are nothing but your fears, your obsessions and possessiveness. Let go of these and you are left with positive emptiness. Emptiness is not to be attained; you cannot make it a goal. If you try to, then emptiness too will not remain emptiness. Emptiness is right there, you have to just to brush off and remove all that you held as precious. The strange thing is that these things are not physical but just illusory.