The Dalai Lama is not a vegetarian. Any thoughts?
The Buddha himself stressed the importance of ahimsa (non-violence towards all living entities):
"For fear of causing terror to other living beings, Mahamati, let the Boddhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating flesh.""All beings tremble before danger, all fear death. When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill. All beings fear before danger, life is dear to all. When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill. Whosoever tries to find happiness through hurting other beings, will not find happiness." Dhammapada 129-131
Yet the 14th Dalai Lama (the current one) is not only
not a vegetarian, but
loves veal, the most cruel of meats.
The fact that he is not a vegetarian is mentioned on his own official website.
The fact that he just loves the taste of tortured calves (yum, yum, yum!!!) is mentioned on the website of the newspaper, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 15, 2007 edition, when he visited that fair city.
He mentions in his autobiography,
Freedom in Exile, that he experimented with vegetarianism, and found it spiritually gratifying. Yet, at some point, he developed a disease (hepatitis) where a so-called "doctor" recommended that he eat meat (for the treatment of the disease).
Yet there is no disease where meat-eating is a treatment. In fact, in diseases of the liver (such as hepatitis), meat-eating is discouraged, to minimize stress on that organ.
And even if eating meat were required for the treatment of disease, why choose veal, the ultimate inhumane food?
The Dalai Lama is considered to be an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. I can understand if you are in Tibet, high in the Himalayas, one may need to resort to flesh-eating; but not elsewhere, where there are so many other options. But certainly not in Milwaukee.
Any thoughts, insights, revelations or reveries on this subject?