Gautama Buddha on Food
563 BC–544 BC India
← All quotes by Gautama Buddha
9 quotes
For fear of causing terror to living beings, Mahāmati, let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating flesh.
One who eats meat kills the seed of great compassion.
If, Mahāmati, meat is not eaten by anybody for any reason, there will be no destroyer of life.
The food of the wise, Mahāmati, is what is eaten by the Rishis; it does not consist of meat and blood.
There is no meat to be regarded as pure in three ways: not premeditated, not asked for, and not impelled; therefore, refrain from eating meat.
From eating [meat] arrogance is born, from arrogance erroneous imaginations issue, and from imagination is born greed; and for this reason refrain from eating [meat].
I say that on three instances meat should not be partaken, when seen, heard or when there is a doubt.
I can affirm that a person who neither eats the flesh of other beings nor wears any part of the bodies of other beings, nor even thinks of eating or wearing these things, is a person who will gain liberation.
How then can it be compassionate to gorge on other beings' blood and flesh? Monks who will not wear silks from the East, whether coarse or fine; who will not wear shoes or boots of leather, nor furs, nor birds' down from our own country; and who will not consume milk, curds, or ghee, have truly freed themselves from the world.