Expert: Justin Choo - 4/18/2008

Question
I tried following the path of buddha but i've strayed because i think that i'm not cut out for the regulations it follows, i'm am currently in high school and really want to return to the path of enlightenment. Any tips? Also is it possible to be buddist while still eating meat? I live waayyy up north and meat is really all i eat for nutrition. Thank you for taking time to read through this ^_^

Answer
Hi Rijen,

Thank you for asking me.

Welcome to the path of inner peace and happiness. To become a Buddhist means to practise the teachings of the Buddha. If you practise the teachings of the Buddha, then you are a Buddhist. Just that simple.

So the first step is to study the teachings of the Buddha. The best place is to start with the Buddhist sites in the internet. Please take your time to surf through the site below. The "mother" of all Buddhist sites is http://www.buddhanet.net/ which gives you all the worldwide links on different traditions and the locations.
The journey will be a long but rewarding one. As we travel along the path, we learn to experience happiness and inner peace through the three processes of learning, practising, and experiencing the positive results. With this experiencing, it further encourages us to put more effort to continue learning and practising. Have a pleasant journey.

If you have time, brouse through the following:
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv

http://www.bswa.org
This site is in Western Australia where Ajahn Brahmawamso resides. He is an English monk and is a very popular speaker. You can listen to his talk through this site.

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/whatbe..
"What Buddhist Believe" by Ven. K Sri Dhammananda. This book explains the Buddhist perspective on life's general questions. Venerable was my teacher.  He passed away in 2006.

As for meat eating, consider this:

I shall come straight to the point. It is OK to eat meat. It is not wholesome to kill life intentionally.

The dietician will tell you that you are what you eat. The fashion designer will tell you that you are what you wear. The Buddha told us that we are what we think, speak, and act. You see the difference?

The world is surrounded by good and bad things. It is the very nature of this world to be such. That was why the Buddha led us to SEE the real nature of this world. Once we realize this truth, we will gradually come to terms with this contradiction, the dichotomy of good and bad. The Buddha referred this as "Dukkha". It is always this Dukkha that we have to live and contend with. If you watch the National Geographic programme, you will see this Dukkha overpowering our lives. Every moment, when a life lives, another life has to be sacrificed. This is great Dukkha. But we are blind to this fact. We ignorantly think that we can live without others dying for us. I shall not go further giving examples to convince you of this truth. The real exercise to realize this truth is to free our mind of all our preconceived ideas, and to open our minds, and then to think and observe rationally whether we can really survive without any being dying for us.  

Coming back to a more down to earth explanation. The idea of not eating meat is to avoid KILLING. When we eat meat we are eating DEAD meat. Of course there is some justification to say that we are encouraging others to kill when we eat meat. If anyone feels that way, then there is no commandment from the Buddha that you must eat meat. By all means eat only vegetables. One thing for sure, you will be very healthy.
Vegetarianism and killing are two very different concepts.  Killing means the taking of life. Vegetarianism is to refrain from eating meat.  A lot of people misconstrue vegetarianism with "not killing". Likewise, they also accuse those who eat meat as encouraging killing, if not committing killing itself. Eating meat means eating "dead flesh". The animal is dead. If the person who eats the meat does not kill the animal, how can we accuse him of killing? The main issue here is the interpretation of what constitutes "killing".
Now we come to the analysis of what constitute "Killing". A person will be fully responsible for the killing if the following 5 conditions are fulfilled:

1. The victim of the killing must be a living being.
2. The killer must know the victim is a being.
3. The killer must have the volition to kill the victim.
4. The action of killing must be performed by the killer.
5. The victim dies as a result of this act.

So you see, eating dead meat is not killing!

If you need more info, please come back.

Smile from justinchoo :-)