by Will Tuttle
Q: It that why vegetarian food is served at a course?
A: Yes, because it is best for Vipassana meditation.
Q: Do you recommend vegetarianism in daily life?
A: That is also helpful.1
I have the utmost respect and gratitude for Goenka’s selfless dedication to spreading this valuable technique for eradicating suffering, and I also have no doubt he was intelligent. Assuming he was aware of the animal cruelty inflicted in dairy production, wouldn’t he have felt that abstaining from dairy products would develop stronger sila?
Having written about my Vipassana experiences on my blog, I have received many comments from fellow vegan students and prospective students who feel conflicted about being part of a practice that does not demonstrate compassion for all animals, thereby somehow diminishing their vegan sila or morality. While acknowledging the disconnect, I have defended the organization’s position and praised the technique, which has helped thousands, and have encouraged others to concentrate on their practice and look on the bright side. Most people attending the courses are being exposed to a vegetarian diet for the first time, which is a step in the right direction. Nonetheless, I have felt that we should continue to communicate our concerns to the leadership.
Hope and Dialog
With Goenka’s passing in 2013, hundreds of his assistant teachers became teachers in their own right, and I hoped they might be able to reform food policy, even if only by veganizing one region or center at a time. However, a teacher informed me that the decisions are still made in India, and that it’s unlikely people in India would ever agree to abstain from dairy products.
Never one to give up, I had been e-mailing my inquiry to the Dhamma organization headquarters in India for months before recently receiving the below reply:
Perhaps you are aware that half a century ago S.N. Goenka began teaching Vipassana in India, and the meditation spread from there around the world. To this day, however, by far the most Vipassana centers and meditators are located in India. All the centers follow a common set of rules. One of these is to serve simple, vegetarian food. In India that is defined as serving no food containing meat, fish, fowl or eggs. Milk and milk products are not excluded, however. And in fact, in India — which has tens or hundreds of millions of lifelong vegetarians — milk has always been regarded as a perfect food and cows are traditionally treated with reverence. The diet served at centers there is the diet that all Indians of any background can accept. When centers were founded in other countries, they adopted the same rules that S.N. Goenka had put in place for centers in India. Over the years, especially in Western countries, centers have reduced their reliance on milk and milk products, reflecting a gradual change in eating habits; for example, centers usually do not use milk or cheese when cooking, or else they offer a non-dairy alternative. But they still have milk and milk products available for those who wish to add them, for example, to a hot drink or to a bowl of cereal. It is each individual student’s choice whether to consume dairy or only vegan food. It is not our mission to promote any particular diet. What we do provide is strictly in line with the Five Precepts for moral conduct set out by the Buddha. It is what places for Vipassana meditation have done for many centuries. If at some time the overwhelming majority of people in a country become vegan, centers would probably choose to provide a strictly vegan diet for all. But we are far away from that situation today. Until then, centers will continue providing vegetarian food that is acceptable to the general population.
With best wishes, M.M. Khandhar, Teacher.
While I was disappointed with the content of the reply, I was grateful to finally be acknowledged and to have begun a dialog. As I began to consider drafting my response, another email message arrived. This message was from William Hart himself. It said: “It is quite likely that the person will seek to start an ongoing debate. If he replies to this message, I recommend not answering. Metta, Bill”
I felt deeply discouraged by this second message, which was obviously not intended for me. I started to lose my equanimity, and wondered how I could continue to follow this path when the leaders clung to their traditions without considering their consequences. As long as they are not vegans themselves, why would they even consider changing the policy?
At this point, I recalled the meditation we practice for a few minutes at the end of each session, called Metta Bhavana or Loving Kindness: “May all beings be peaceful, be happy, be liberated. May all beings share my peace, my harmony, my merits.”
With Will Tuttle’s permission, and with much Metta, I would like to publish my open response to M. Khandhar here:
Thank you for your response. I understand you want to maintain the traditions of the past. After all, the meditation technique and the course materials have stood the test of time and benefitted countless people, myself included. However, much has changed in animal agriculture since the days of the Buddha and dramatically so in the past fifty years. A recent documentary explained that because cows cannot be slaughtered in some states in India, they are being abusively transported to other states for slaughter once they have outlived their profitability to their owners. Would you not agree that a vegan diet greatly reduces animal suffering and killing? Shouldn’t we be striving for the highest morality before we attempt to purify ourselves through meditation? Rather than waiting for the habits of the general population to change, couldn’t you endorse abstaining from dairy products, at least during the course? Can we try adopting a fully vegan menu somewhere in the United States? I would be honored if there is any way I can help with this initiative that will begin to bring about a great healing in the world. At least, I would appreciate the opportunity for a continued dialog with you on this important matter.
References:
1. William Hart, The Art of Living. Harper One, 1987, page 66.
What is Negativity?
JOHN BUSSINEAU
My late teacher of twenty years, Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche, described the essence of negativity in simple terms, “Negativity is the harming of sentient beings, including yourself.”1 If harming others is negative, what is positive? Helping others, according to Rimpoche.
Who are other sentient beings? Buddhism has a universal outlook that includes humans, animals and insects. As such, the Buddha spoke of sabbe sattva, or all beings, in the Pali Canon, from the first teachings. Other beings deserve our active compassion because they are not different from humans other than in form. We understand that life is dear to all beings, and in this way, we are the same. For this reason, it is a Buddhist’s responsibility to help rather than harm others.
How we learn to help ourselves and other beings, by doing less harm, is central to Buddhist practice and is a foundational consideration in every teaching tradition. Meditation is emphasized, as well as cultivating an ongoing practice of analysis of our personal involvements, including our most basic actions, behaviors, and customs. This is the ethical foundation for our spiritual path. It is where we mindfully examine our behavior and attitudes, and is embodied in the first precept: do not kill; do not be an accessory to killing; do not destroy life; practice non-violence; respect life. This precept seems to be central to virtually all spiritual paths. It can be enormously challenging, however, because when we investigate our actions we often find harm toward others or ourselves.
In Buddhism there are no strict rules on ethics because the Buddha pointed toward ethical behavior with teachings on meditation, learning, and most importantly by analyzing causes and conditions. The first precept, and other Buddhist teachings, point toward the moon but are not the moon. As each situation has different causes and conditions, each must be analyzed using our hearts (empathetic and compassionate introspection) along with personal and scientific data. The Buddha wanted us not to follow blindly but to think, analyze, test, and consider the consequences of our actions so that we can learn to reduce the harm we cause. This introspection forms the basis for analytical meditation, a step-by-step cognitive form of samad
hi (meditation) that leads to greater understanding of our connectedness to all life.
In analyzing my own actions, I found I was breaking preliminary ethical considerations in many areas of my life. We are all works in progress because ego, anger, and negative emotions are challenging to eradicate. It is also difficult to let go of our attachment to material goods and services and the basic structural violence they engender in today’s world. The practices of mindfulness and meditation, over twenty years, helped knock some of my shallow egocentric ways down. However, one area was embarrassingly hidden for a long time: my consumption of meat, dairy, and eggs. In 2010, I found myself at a divide in the road, where I needed to make a decision for my health, the environment, and other sentient beings. I came to the realization that I was compromising my ethical values without knowing it and had been doing so for most of my life, including those times when was a vegetarian. My carnivorous habits were creating enormous harm, and I resisted contemplating the first precept for fear of uncovering the uncomfortable truth. Nevertheless, I did probe, and realized that cows, pigs, chickens, fishes, and all the animals we consider food are sentient beings who yearn to live, who suffer at our hands, and who will cling to their lives with the last bit of their strength. My diet was creating negativity for myself and other beings but I didn’t want to face this. I was attached to eating animals, and I was not respecting life.
Harming Ourselves
In early 2010, at age 55, I was on a statin drug to lower cholesterol and triglycerides, as are many Americans are who eat a standard American diet. My total cholesterol hovered around 230 while on medication. My triglycerides were mostly off the charts. I had high blood pressure at every annual physical; however, because it was at the “low end of high” I refused blood pressure medications. My sugar levels were also high each time, being at the top of the normal range year after year which made me pre-diabetic. My BMI, a measure of weight, put me just into the category of obese. I was heading for a heart attack, stroke, diabetes and a bag full of daily medications to counteract my diet. I was harming myself and creating negativity.
When I stopped eating animals something miraculous happened. My cholesterol dropped to 155 and my triglycerides normalized, as did my blood pressure, sugar levels and weight. This change was predicted by most contemporary medical research. We now know, with certainty, that a whole-foods plant-based diet promotes health, and that animal protein in any form tends to promote disease. We have been losing the war on the eradication of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer for years due to our food choices. People love to hear that bacon and eggs are healthy for breakfast, that chicken is better than red meat (even though it is higher in cholesterol), and that fish is good for our omega fatty acid levels. People still flock to dairy products and yogurt to improve health, often craving casein, the main protein in milk and cheese, even though it is has been shown repeatedly to be toxic to humans.2
Continuing to eat animals is a result of the ego talking to us. It is our own biases, tastes, and habits telling us it’s okay to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We are attached to doing harm to ourselves and ignoring the harm we cause others. Reality and the data available tell us a sobering story. Obesity is on the rise with one third of all adults categorized as such. In the U.S., heart disease is still the number one killer, with 600,000 deaths per year.3 Cancer rates are growing and diabetes has become epidemic, all due to eating animal foods.4
My lifestyle was certainly creating negativity and was harming me. But was it really hurting other beings too? I didn’t kill animals purposely. I didn’t tell slaughterhouses to kill cows, chickens, pigs and fishes for me. They were already dead when I purchased them. I didn’t tell dairy farms to take newborn calves from their mothers so their milk could be collected. I was following the Buddhist three rules of purity: it wasn’t killed for me; I had not seen it killed nor had I heard it killed. These of course are all outdated ideas from 2,500 years ago when monks begged for food on daily alms walks in local villages.
Harming Other Beings
I realized that the three purity rules are something behind which Buddhists who choose to eat animal foods can hide. Buddhist practitioners can use these rationalizations, even though they do not beg for food or live in the Buddha’s time. I needed to understand this and to realize that we live in a time of precise marketing strategies and communication tactics designed to manipulate thoughts, perspectives, and buying patterns. Most purchases in our global economy are analyzed after going into databases, and everything is accounted for. Thus, when I purchased a one-pound package of ground beef to make the family pasta sauce recipe, I was putting in an order for another package of ground beef. I was the cause and condition for another animal to be forcibly impregnated and killed on my behalf. I didn’t know the animal, had not seen or heard the animal killed, and knew the animal was not specifically killed for me, but this ancient set of rules is irrelevant in today’s world. If we don’t purchase animal foods, there will be no jobs for people to kill and dismember animals at slaughterhouses. Without demand there is no supply. Without buyers and consumers of animal foods, there is no killing of animals. We become killers of life when we purchase animal-sourced products through the market system.
I was sitting on my Mahayana cushion of meditation, wishing to free sentient beings from suffering and the causes of suffering, and then ordering them on my plate every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My daily meditation practice utilized core Buddhist intentional phrases, mantra recitation, visualizations, and of course watching the breath and the elusive and jumping mind. Some of the phrases I used were related to generation of loving-kindness:
“In my heart I turn to the Three Jewels of refuge.
May I free suffering beings and place them in bliss.
May the compassionate spirit of love grow within me.
That I may complete the enlightening path.”
“By practicing generosity and the other perfections may I be able to obtain enlightenment, for the benefit of all sentient beings.”
“May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the cause of happiness. How wonderful it would be. May this be accomplished. I will bring them happiness and the causes of happiness. Bless me to accomplish this.”
“May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering. How wonderful it would be. May this be accomplished. I will free them from suffering and the cause of suffering. Bless me to accomplish this.”
The intention of my Buddhist practice was to bring happiness to other beings and alleviate their suffering, but when I looked at the breast of the barbequed chicken on my plate, I didn’t see a once-living, breathing creature. I was blind, my feelings were turned off, and I was disconnected from those intentional phrases of my practice.
It was not until I stopped eating animal foods and took the vegan pledge for 30 days that I began to see the truth of what was on my plate – the remains of a life of misery, enslavement, and abuse. Here was a chicken, a once sentient creature who had been raised on a factory farm in horrendous conditions. She had had vital interests, and she had suffered. She had yearned for freedom but had never received it. She would have naturally enjoyed basking in the sunlight and taking dust baths but never had the opportunity. Her natural capacity to converse and be a part of her community of hens and roosters had been frustrated, as were all her natural tendencies. She had endured an unmerciful slaughter, fighting to free herself from the arms grabbing and shoving her into a cage. She had been put on a slaughter shipment truck and ruthlessly pulled from the cage upon arrival, where she struggled as she hung upside down on the slaughter line, wriggling and moving continuously, fighting to avoid the razor sharp blade that cut her precious throat.
Whether it is a glass of milk, an egg, or any animal bodypart, when we analyze what is on our plates, we find harm to another being and the creation of negativity. We find disrespect for life. We do not find generosity but its opposite, selfishness, deceit, and fear. This i
s a form of analytical meditation I should have been doing all the while but was not. I was a miserable dharma practitioner when I was eating meat, fish, dairy, and eggs. I was not living my intentions but ignoring them due to my attachment to my habits and taste buds. Then I learned that on top of causing untold harm to sentient beings, I was causing tremendous negativity to planet Earth as well.
Harming the Planet
When we analyze animal agriculture operations, particularly Confined Area Feeding Operations (CAFOs) we find one of the most destructive and wasteful industries on the planet. Over ninety-five percent of all land animals we eat today are raised in these hellish environments. Animals, grain, water, and energy, all the inputs of production, are controlled as commodities requiring the massive growing of crops, the birthing and feeding of billions of animals, their slaughter and dismemberment, refrigeration and shipping, and sales and marketing. Beings are reduced to things with cold and ironic efficiency in this most wasteful of industries. The goal of the CAFOs that produce our meat, dairy, and eggs is to maximize speed, and fatten and exploit the animals as cheaply as possible. Every burger we buy and every piece of cheese we eat is a vote for this system of destruction.
Eating animals is responsible for creating dead zones in the world’s oceans due to massive farm fertilizer runoff that is generated by the feed crops for the seventy billion land animals we slaughter annually. In fact, almost half of the earth’s land mass is devoted to growing livestock feed and grazing animals. In 2006, in an attempt to formulate climate change culpability, the United Nations released a report that stated that animal agriculture is accountable for eighteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all transportation combined.5 The eighteen percent figure we now know is an underestimate, with the 2009 WorldWatch study putting the figure at fifty-one percent of our human greenhouse gas footprint.6