Paul McCartney tells Dalai Lama he’s wrong to eat meat
Paul McCartney has written a personal letter to His Holiness The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhism, urging him not to eat meat. Buddhists believe in reincarnation and in compassion for all living beings. One of the five precepts of Buddhism is “do not kill,” which is explained “One must not deliberately kill any living creatures, either by committing the act oneself, instructing others to kill, or approving of or participating in act of killing.” Buddhism does allow for personal choice and exceptions when it comes to the precepts, and they are not set in stone, but many Buddhists interpret that precept as a call to vegetarianism.
The Dalai Lama, however, continues to eat meat at the insistence of his doctors. Paul McCartney told him that they’re wrong and he doesn’t need meat, which inevitably causes suffering:
SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY tried to turn the DALAI LAMA vegetarian, insisting the famed Buddhist was “wrong” to eat meat.
The Beatles legend wrote to the spiritual leader to point out that meat-eaters contribute to the suffering of animals, contradicting his statement that Buddhists “believe in not causing suffering to any sentient beings”.
And the Hey Jude hitmaker even disagreed when the Dalai Lama insisted he ate meat for health reasons.
In an interview with Prospect magazine, MCCartney says, “I found out he was not a vegetarian, so I wrote to him saying ‘Forgive me for pointing this out, but if you eat animals then there is some suffering somewhere along the line’.
“He replied saying that his doctors had told him he needed it, so I wrote back saying they were wrong.”
[From Contact Music, thanks to vdantev for the tip]
I’m a meat-eater, but my dad and brother are vegetarians and I understand the choice. It’s something that people chose to do for personal reasons, and many site the intense environmental cost of meat production. You can get the same protein and nutritional benefits from a non-meat diet, but it’s not as easy and requires planning. It’s surprising to me that the Dalai Lama would eat meat given his personal philosophy, but he also seems like the type who follows his own path and isn’t one to let rock stars tell him how to live his life. Rock stars that have their own vegetarian food line I might add, not that it makes McCartney’s commitment to animal rights any less genui
Replies
Hare Krishna!
Many arguments are made in this respect, that as long as we don't cut the animal we do not incur sin.
In the Mahabharata, there is a verse which states that one who sells the animal, one who buys the animal, one cuts the animal,one who cooks the animal, one who serves the animal and one who eats the animal, all are bound equally by the chain of Karma.
But leaving the spiritual aspect of it, anatomically, the human body is not structured to eat animal flesh. Studies have shown the length of the intestine of a tiger is 4 times the length of it's torso so when it eats flesh the toxins in the flesh are not kept for long in the intestine and are expelled at the earliest. Also the concentration of acid secreted in the stomach is so strong that it burns the bacteria in the flesh. While in the cow, the length of the intestine is 12 times it's torso and so the food takes longer time to be expelled from the body. We have seen that the incidence of the Mad Cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) which occurred in the UK when the started feeding the cows, animal fat minced with fodder. The human intestine's length is 8 times the length of the torso and at best the acid secreted in the stomach by sear the flesh slightly and toxins remain in the intestine for a longer period causing a host of diseases due to surviving harmful bacteria in the stomach.
And lastly the saying 'You are what you eat' and 'What you eat today, you wear for dinner tomorrow' are absolutely true.
When an animal is about to be slaughtered, it instinctively knows and the emotions of fear of flight or fight are secreted in the body. And these same subtle emotions enter our our subtle body and make up our mind.
Even in the Chandogya Upanishad, it is said that the gross part of food that we eat forms our stool and is excreted from our body, the middle or core part of the food forms our flesh and the subtle part of the food forms our mind.
The violence in cutting and animal is far more than the violence in cutting the ripe vegetables or fruits is which are anyways going to fall of or decay.
But when we offer sattvic vegetarian food to the Supreme Lord before partaking of it, the Lord takes away the sin from the cutting of the vegetables and grains and fruits which are offered and gives it back to us as His Mercy (Prasad) for us to consume for our growth of body, mind and spirit.
Even Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita that If you offer Him with love, a Leaf, a Fruit, a Flower or even a little bit of water, He accepts it, partakes of it and gives it back as His Mercy, Prasad, for us to consume.
Hare Krishna!