Love and Compassion for All: Selections of Tibetan Buddhism Texts by the Venerated Nyala Pema Dündul (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

“Overwhelmed by ignorance and the two obscurations, I have often spoken of how all infinite beings have been our parents, And while living off their flesh, lectured about cause and effect. I had no idea that the suffering involved was so great! […] For my part, I have no instruction more profound Than altruistic love and compassion, And the infallibility of cause and effect. To purify all the faults and obscurations of eating flesh Among all sentient beings, who extend throughout the whole of space, From this moment on, I completely renounce the eating of flesh. This is my unfailing commitment, which I shall never forsake. Even if all the animals upon this Earth were to be devoured, There would still be no satisfaction; hunger would only continue to increase. Deprived of food or drink for just a few days, We feel as if we have never tasted even so much as a single morsel or drop before. Now is the time to escape this demon, hunger. What, after all, is the cause of this flesh? It springs only from self-clinging and attachment. Merely to think of it makes me weary, nauseated. This utterly unappetizing mound of mess and filth, Bound up with the thirty-six impure substances, A body of habitual patterns and aggregates, is the basis for all suffering.

Each animal has its own negative actions, And whoever eats the flesh of such beings will find it hard to win liberation. Meat and alcohol are impure substances, And to offer them does not count as generosity, the Buddha said. Who, therefore, would eat this food of the afflictions? Pretas must live for many thousands of human years Without seeing food or drink, enduring only suffering. But we human beings gladly drink even ice-cold water, And have plenty to sustain us besides meat and alcohol. If we are still not satisfied by such delights, How could we repay past kindnesses so unfairly? Throughout the course of countless aeons past In every world within this universe so vast, There’s not a single being who has not been our mother. And the milk we drank from maternal breasts would fill a billion seas. I abandon all pretence; let the Three Jewels be my witness!

In the past, under the sway of ignorance and habit, I ate my parents’ flesh and did not remorsefully confess. Now with pure motivation and the four powers complete, As in the saying, ‘I was not, am not, and will not be attached,’ Henceforth, may the thought of eating meat never even cross my mind. Should I ever fail, let the Three Jewels send their punishment. May the protectors and guardians constantly keep watch. Were I now to eat the flesh of my past mothers, There would be no greater transgressor in all the three realms! The Buddha said that harming others even slightly impairs one’s vows. So what need is there to mention flesh eating which involves taking life? In the Parinirvāṇa Sūtra, Laṅkāvatāra and elsewhere, it is said That eating meat is tantamount to killing. It is forbidden in both the greater and lesser vehicles, But is particularly unacceptable for bodhisattvas. Our Teacher himself, when he appeared as a partridge’s young, And as a ferocious creature in the wild, would not eat meat. How then could we, his followers, ever do so? In accordance with the guidance of the Victorious One, There were many great masters in India and Tibet who gave up meat. As all this shows, the faults of meat eating are unimaginably vast. Not cultivating negativity is itself genuine Dharma. So may I always comply with the authentic teaching!

Having seen the boundless faults that come from eating meat, Even the thought of it is as nauseating as poison. And so, I, the great beggar with the name of Dündul, Composed these words of advice to encourage my own renunciation In the Sky Fortress hermitage of White Rock. As a result of this virtue, may all sentient beings Purify all the faults and obscurations that come from eating meat, So that they may see the thousand buddhas face to face!”