On Eating Meat

On Eating Meat

Date Posted:
November 2005

A nun asked Rinpoche whether she should stop eating meat, and become a vegetarian.

I’ve been meaning to mention to you that it’s best to avoid eating meat. Of course, sometimes people have no choice and have to eat meat. But, in your case, it’s best to avoid eating meat out of compassion. Before eating the meat, think of where it came from, through cutting an animal’s neck, against its will, and how much suffering the animal experienced. After thinking about that, you can’t eat the meat! Meat may be nice for the person eating it, but not for the animal who suffered so much and didn’t die naturally.

You can say prayers for the animal that was killed, but if you eat the meat you are still playing a small part in the death of the animal. If everyone stopped eating meat then no more animals would be killed for that purpose.