This is a talk given by Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro on vegetarianism and compassion. The video of this can be found here, Link. By transcribing this talk I hope that it will make accessing the Dharma a minuscule bit easier. Anyone willing to edit this to make it more clearer are welcome to do so. Please drop me a mail regarding it. Below follows the transcription.

First of all I would like to say good evening to all the students and teachers of Colorado University who have come here tonight. I’m extremely happy to have this opportunity, coming here tonight, engaging in conversation with all of you. The topic of this evening’s talk is compassion and vegetarianism and of these two topics, what I would really like to focus on is compassion. The reason why I would like to talk about compassion tonight is, in the course of our everyday life we don’t always exercise much compassion. Rather than having much compassion in our minds, we often have various kinds is negative emotions, emotions opposite to compassion. So for our talk this evening, I would like to present my ideas for 1 hour 20 minutes and for the remaining 40 minutes we can engage in an exchange of ideas.

First of all I would like to talk about compassion. How do we define and understand compassion. In speaking of the connection between vegetarianism and compassion, in Buddhist scriptures vegetarianism is often really spoken about in the context of compassion. Many people think vegetarianism is not something that has great relevance in our everyday lives and they also think that compassion too is not something that is of absolutely necessity. But in actual fact this is not the case. In actual fact whether we experience happiness in our daily life or not actually hinges on whether we exercise compassion or not. So there is an extremely close connection between vegetarianism and compassion. In Buddhist scriptures, one reason for vegetarianism is that by practicing vegetarian lifestyle we will be able to readily generate compassion. By contrast, if we eat meat, we will generate negative emotions such as anger, hatred and therefore there is a big connection between our diet and mental state and this idea is something that has been around for 2500 years, since the time of historical Buddha.

Then in the 20th century, scientists did research into the same issue. The subject of their investigation is pigeons. Pigeons are the birds that under ordinary circumstances can eat meat or can eat vegetable diet. Now what their findings was, when they separate them into two groups, the first group was fed only meat diet for their entire life, from the time the pigeons was born to until the time they matured and the second group was fed only grain diet for the same length of time and after number of years, the two groups personality traits, their characters were compared. What they discovered was, the group of pigeons who were raised on meat diet were extremely savage in their personality. They demonstrated signs of aggression, fought with each other whereas the pigeons raised on grain diet were gentle and peaceful in nature and didn’t fight among each other. So these pigeons all are of same species. The only difference was the diet they were raised on. So this was the only determining factor for the difference in their personalities. Those with aggressive and violent behavior and those were gentle and peace loving. So the idea is that eating vegetarian diet produces positive result in terms of one’s personality and character and eating meat diet produces negative results is something the scientists of 20th century were able to prove through scientific means.

So whether or not the relationship between environment, people and animals is positive and good really depends on human mind. While we usually understand a person’s personality, whether they are gentle and calm and peaceful or whether they are turbulent and angry, usually we attribute these things to simple personality of a person but in actual fact these things also hinge upon the kinds of behavior the person characteristically engages in and the kind of diet they can choose and in fact whether our personalities or our minds do achieve a good state is also reliant on the external environment. For example in environments when excessive oxygen is in the air, then often our intellectual or mental capacity will dull and where as in situation where oxygen is somewhat slightly lesser then our mental faculties become sharper. So mountain climbers who go through much arduous effort to reach the top of a mountain, upon reaching, they experience a profound sense of peacefulness flooding through their minds. There are many people who really like this kind of mountaineering and the reason for this is, in high altitudes there is very little oxygen in air and on account of this they are able to experience great feeling of peacefulness and calmness. So in a similar way whether or not we have compassion or peaceful personality is also dependent on the environment and if one eats meat then it’s easy for one to become agitated and aggressive in one’s personality and not be gentle and peaceful in their state of mind and eating a vegetarian diet is extremely beneficial in enabling us to attain state of calmness and peacefulness in our minds which makes it much easier for us to arouse compassion.

Vegetarianism is beneficial to our human body and to our natural environment are things that everybody knows. So there is no great necessity for me to reiterate these reasons this evening. However on account of lack of compassion among human beings, there are lot of atrocities committed by us in the human history. Whether it’s in terms of women’s oppression or the oppression of people of color, there have been extremely regrettable actions and episodes in human history. However having recognized these situations to some degree and having implemented reforms in these areas, we can say that the situations are getting increasingly better in these areas. While the our attitude towards other human beings and reforming the way they are being treated has progressed significantly, there was one area in which our attitudes are extremely lacking and that is our approach towards animals. In terms of Western thought, there have been many areas of inequality. For example in the Western history there has been debate of whether or not women have souls. In the history of Western science too there have been people who have alleged at times that black people are somehow inferior. However if we were to engage in this kinds of conversation today, everyone would think that it is absolutely ridiculous. A very famous Western philosopher once said that animals don’t have souls. However if someone were to say today that our own dogs and cats don’t have souls, it would be something that we won’t be able to accept. So in the course of our intellectual history there have been many stages of erroneous thoughts. Many of these erroneous thoughts we have addressed and reformed. But one of the areas of inequality in terms of our understanding of things that still exists is our attitudes towards animals and this is something that we need to urgently reform.

However if in the future we are all able to really adopt attitudes of compassion and equality towards animals then we would automatically recognize their intrinsic rights and their right to survival. A Western writer penned a book called “Animal liberation” and I regard this book as the very beginning of a change in attitude towards animals in Western thought and it’s extremely necessary that we reform these attitudes and because we are unable to extend this attitude of equality and compassion towards animals, the ultimate result will be negative repercussions in terms of relations between humans beings ourselves. Those who exists above us in society, those who are in the higher realms are really not the people that we should think about that much. So in terms of cultivating equality, it’s really important to look at those beings who are lower than us and extend a view of equality towards them. If you are able to look at those beings who are lower than you, weaker than you and more humble than you and extend to them a view of equality, then only at this stage you are entitled or qualified indeed to regard yourself as equal with those above you. If you are not someone who are able to extend or support the freedom and equality to those lower you, then you are in no way entitled to demand those above you to respect your freedom and respect your equality. So whether or not a particular society in question has compassion, we can assess this essentially by looking at those who are the most weak in that society.

In the context of today’s world where we have massive population of 7 billion people, those who exists in the realm below are animals and it’s only by being able to extend the entitlement of freedom and equality to these animals that we as humans would really be able to embody freedom and equality among our own species because if we are really not able to legitimately recognize and legitimately appreciate the entitlement of equality of those below us then we got no right to demand among humans ourselves that we be given our entitlements of freedom and equality. So really genuine equality should begin at the level of animals. When we talk about equality between humans and animals we are not really meaning equality in absolute sense but from point of view of equal entitlement of survival.

This is really where vegetarianism really kicks in because by being vegetarian and refraining from eating meat that we really in substance give animals their entitlement towards survival. Whether or not all humans will become vegetarian is probably something that is highly unlikely. However it is something that we start at the level of oneself. So whether it’s in terms of women empowerment or the empowerment of black people, all of these movements have started at the level of the individual. So it’s at this level that we need to start with our attitude and respect towards equality of animals. However in the initial stages, it is inevitable that there will be many opposing voices, opposing ideas that we have to contend with. For example there are some people who respond to the assertion that animal right to survival should be respected by saying that humans have not yet essentially achieved that right so this being the case then how come we really speak about it in case of animals, the time is not ripe until this case has been achieved for humans. Unless we really take this kind of reasoning apart and scrutinize it very carefully, on the surface it seems like a reasonable kind of logic. However this kind of reasoning dissipates or falls apart rather quickly when we give careful attention to it. If we can draw a really strong distinction between animals and humans and take this as legitimate, by the same logic we can draw distinction between different types of humans, different in terms of our customs, cultural way of thinking and even in legal system and this kind of distinction is only superficial.

In terms of vegetarians, there are many levels of vegetarian way of lifestyle or practice. The strictest form of vegetarianism is the kind where no products from an animal is consumed at all and this is an extremely wonderful positive form of vegetarianism. The consumption of honey for example. Honey is something that is taken from bee, it’s a form of theft in actuality. Of course if this kind of theft happens among humans it is considered extremely negative. However if it is done against animals we don’t see anything particularly wrong with it. But in actuality, this kind of behavior is equally negative regardless whether it is done to humans or animals. So in the highest form of vegetarianism, we don’t use anything that comes from or belongs to animals. If we are not able to practice this highest form of vegetarianism, the next best form would be the kind where we don’t consume animals meat, blood or their fat. If we were not able to give up eating meat entirely, then what we need to do is refraining from eating small animals which are still alive, things like seafood which are caught live and they die the most appalling death. These kind of animals we should refrain from eating.

The most cruel and barbaric form of diet is that which arrives on our dinner table alive. People who consume small creatures that are still alive and still moving by immersing them in hot oil and put them in their mouth. There are some people who say, “I just can’t give up eating meat, it’s too difficult to be a vegetarian” and at one level we can definitely understand this feeling of some people not being able to give up eating meat but imagining people sitting at dinner table and consuming meat in such a barbaric way is something that defies our capacity to empathize with people. Live beings arriving at dinner table, this is something that anybody can perceive to be suffering, to be in great pain and just like how we would feel when put in such situation, they too would not want to be in the situation of torcher being inflicted on them. However the fact that despite we can perceive that these beings are in the state of great suffering, we don’t turn our mind towards it and it is extremely strange thing indeed. This is a very big problem and if we ask them why is it you can perceive their suffering and yet you continue to eat them in the most savage way, most people would answer that “I’m a human and it is just an animal“. What we need to ask ourselves is how is that we have that sense of entitlement to consume animals in this way just because we are humans. This is a question that we need to pose to ourselves. But actually there is no reason or logic to justify why we are entitled to eat other beings except for the fact that we have money and on account of having money, we have power to purchase them and extort it by eating them. However if we were to apply the same logic to a situation where aliens would arrive on earth and gobble us up then would we in fact say to them, “yes it would be OK, you can do whatever you want because you have power, you have entitlement to eat us”, would you say this? Of course we would say, this is terrible, this is inequality. We would complain loudly that these aliens were oppressing us, were invading our planet, we would protest vehemently.

If we would see aliens coming and eating us in this way as extremely grievous case of inequality, then we as humans eating animals is exactly the same and if we aren’t able to extend this view to animals, human equality will not be achieved. Quite often we regard equality as being when everything is going in accordance to our desires and when our own wants are being satisfied and when that is not happening, we start to claim that things are unequal. So genuine equality should really begin from vegetarianism and genuine vegetarianism should really begin from compassion. So for this reason compassion and vegetarianism has a great connection. Usually everything we say, everything that we do, everything that we think about is done from our personal perspective and it’s really by viewing the world in this way from our individual perspective that we then start to have all kinds of divisions and distinctions emerge between different people, races, ethnicities, people from West, East. When everyone is speaking from their own vantage point, be it vantage point of human, vantage point of man, vantage point of person of color or somebody else then we can’t see a situation where general equality will prevail in the world.

Generally when we show empathy towards people who are less fortunate than ourselves people endorse this and regard it as extremely good but many people would not see the need of same in case of animals, they wouldn’t see that animals as also in the equal necessity of empathy. So the fact that we don’t have a view of equality towards animals is manifested and related to the inequality we have in terms of gender, race and such and it is this kind of attitude or view of intrinsic inequality that we need to eliminate. So if we want to get rid of this view that divides people and asserts inequality between them, the best approach we can apply is compassion. So I’ve spoken about the importance of vegetarianism, now I would like to talk about importance of compassion.

Compassion is something the Buddhists speak of all the time. In fact compassion is the soul and foundation of Mahayana tradition. So in terms of understanding what compassion actually means or represents, we need to grasp essentially two things about it. The first part of compassion is generating an understanding of suffering of other beings not just suffering of human beings but also suffering of animals also. This kind of understanding of suffering of other beings is very rare among humans. For example the rich people won’t have an understanding of suffering of the poor, people with power in society won’t have understanding of suffering of people who are powerless. People who are healthy won’t understand the suffering of sick. In general, humans have little understanding of suffering of animals and the reason is, we frequently neglect the suffering of others. So on account of this neglect we pay to the suffering of others, their suffering will not come to our view, it’s not something that we generally or regularly pay attention to. However one thing we do pay extraordinary attention to is in fact to our own suffering and in respect to our own suffering, if even slightest, trivial kind of suffering arrives on us, then we wish it goes away, we wish that it won’t be happening. We do place great priority on our own sense of happiness. Everyone wishes for great happiness and great joy but even small forms of happiness and pleasure is something we would want. In fact it’s not only us who thinks this way, every other human being thinks this way. However we don’t pay any attention and think that others too would like to be happy.

Even though we see or hear about people dying in earthquakes or accidents, we don’t pay much attention to their sufferings. We easily say it as a passing remark that this has happened but we really don’t take it heart or mind. The reason is, we don’t pay attention to others, and we don’t prioritize them. In fact states like sickness, poverty, powerlessness are things that we really understand only when they finally happen to us. This is not a short coming faced by one person or one ethnicity or one nationality, it is a shortcoming that all humans possess. While we may say that it is human nature but if we ask ourselves if it can be changed, yes it’s absolutely something that which we can change. However this process of transformation will be a big undertaking, big project. If we apply this to ourselves with great diligence then we will be able to achieve it. The way we really need to go about this transformation is by engaging in contemplation, really perceiving, seeing with our eyes, the sight of beings suffering in front of us, this is really something that we need to face square on. Even though it’s quite common to see suffering of people around us, be it our friends, colleagues or whoever, what we need to do when we see their suffering, we need to think about it and contemplate it very deeply. Thinking about other people suffering, contemplating and working to alleviate their suffering, all these things are the things that we really learn to do. In terms of this process of learning, there are great many methods and approaches in the Buddhist tradition that can be taken to generate this compassion. You don’t have to be of Buddhist faith or follower and yet you should be able to bring yourself to learn these methods and techniques because they will bring you great benefit. So when you encounter a being who is suffering internally such as an animal which is delivered to a slaughter house, this is something that we should look at squarely with our own two eyes and it’s by doing this we can understand the suffering they are going through and it’s after really coming to see the suffering of this being that we will then be able to put ourselves in its position and think “what is the animal suffering were me, what would I do in that situation, what would it be like” or instead of putting ourselves in that position, we might think “what if it’s my mother or father or one of my children in that position“. By really thinking or training ourselves this way we should feel an intense terror as a result of it. By doing this, we will arouse a new kind of feeling and by being able to do this we will really be able to arouse empathy for others in this lifetime. This is the first stage of practice of compassion and from here we proceed to the second stage.

In the second stage, we recognize that the animal suffering here isn’t ourselves or it’s not our mother or father or our children. However the animal is exactly the same as our self in respect of not desiring suffering and wishing happiness to itself. So we really need to constantly reflect on the fact that the animal in that situation is in no way desiring suffering and yet being placed in situation of powerlessness where all kinds of suffering and torcher are being inflicted upon and it’s being able to extend this profound equality between ourselves and the animals, we are able to generate profound desire that the animal not be in suffering and so through generating this desire that we understand that our prayers and wishes for their wellbeing and freedom is in itself not sufficient. So on this basis we undertake, we generate aspiration to engage in concrete action to help this animal be free from suffering and if we contemplate on this many times, over the time our strength of aspiration also increases and it is at this point we can consider ourselves as being altruistic persons, people dedicated to benefit others and from this point onwards, we really work for the benefit of others and we do this not only by speech but through concrete actions we undertake. It is at this point we start to find our happiness in benefitting others. So working with the goal of benefitting oneself will lead to great displeasure and unhappiness and if we on the other hand dedicate ourselves in our daily work to benefit others and bring happiness to them, when we retire to our home at the end of the day, we would only experience happiness. So the idea that happiness comes by diligently working to benefit ourselves is erroneous and the idea of working for the benefit of others so that it will bring happiness for ourselves is also erroneous, since eventually you are working with the goal of achieving happiness for yourself. So it’s extremely important to work for the benefit of others.

So these two stages I’ve introduced tonight are very simple and abbreviated forms and one can easily be able to practice compassion and if you would like to learn more deeply about compassion practice, you can certainly turn towards teachings in Mahayana tradition which are very rich in this area. The Mahayana tradition talks about needing to give others happiness and take their suffering. There are many people who think that it’s not something they are able to do. If they give others their happiness and take their suffering, they will be left with no happiness and will make themselves very unhappy. But this is not at all true. Giving others ones happiness and taking their suffering will only increase ones happiness.

In universities and colleges, a great deal of knowledge and skills are taught in areas of science, technology, business and economics on account that these fields impacted the world in very significant way. We put a lot of emphasis on them where as other areas like compassion, benefitting others are put less emphasis and this kind of education is very dangerous. So in universities and institutions of higher education, studying for the sake of one’s own desires is very high today, regardless of what field it is. But without the aspiration to use one’s study and attainments to benefit others, we will arrive in a very dangerous place and the result of this is in the future the world’s resources will be scarcer and scarcer. If in this time, humans insist on monopolizing nature’s resources for themselves, for their own selfish interest and refuse to share these resources fairly among others, great conflicts and struggles over the distribution of resources will ensue and all kinds of wars and conflicts will break out in the world. So in addition to studying knowledge and skills in our education systems today, it is equally important that we learn about compassion, equality and benefitting others and apply these in tandem. If one is able to practice compassionate contemplation in ones live, not only will it bring great happiness at the individual level, it will also bring great meaning to one’s life in general. This brings the conclusion to my talk tonight, thank you everyone for listening.

For the rest of the time we have left, it would be great if people would rise any questions they might have and we can have a discussion.

Question 1: (Question inaudible, it’s something about meat consumption with respect to the sutras)

Answer 1: Many people have this question, it’s a good question. In Vajrayana tradition, there are in fact many teachings that advocate one should not consume meat and when it does say in the Vajrayana tradition that meat should be eaten, it is not for the sake of eating, it’s for the purpose of training or practicing from the spiritual point of view. And the reason for this kind of spiritual training is to get rid of dualistic views that we have in our life like for example, ideas of purity and contamination. The idea that vegetarian is pure and eating meat is impure. However this kind of training that requires consumption of meat to overcome these dualisms is a very high form of practice in tantric tradition. In general whether it be a sutric tradition or a tantric tradition, not eating meat is considered more beneficial and positive.

Question 2: (Question inaudible, it’s something about pets)

Answer 2: When we talk about extending equality towards all animals we need to draw a distinction between this and the general affection that people have for their pets such as cats and dogs. We can only say of people who have great affection to their own pet, we can’t say they have affection for all animals in general. It’s the same thing as people who love and cherish their own children but don’t like other people’s children. Some people say that animals are our friends and they walk with their dog on the streets without a leash. We see this in the cities whereas in the villages, people walk with their cows and pigs and say that they are their friends. But these statements that animals are our friends are relatively empty in nature. All over the cityscapes, we see animals abandoned and neglected and in the countryside too, these so called beloved animals too often find their way to the slaughter house. The author of the book “Animal liberation” also endorse this view. By the way who knows the name of the author of this book, rise your hands. Still there are many people who don’t know, it’s an essential reading.

Question 3: How to deal with the guilt of not being able to stick to vegetarian diet due to sickness or I’ll health?

Answer 3: Quite often people who don’t eat meat encounter many difficulties and challenges. However those who say that we must eat meat for the sake of our bodies, in many cases people hear to an outdated idea of nutrition. Probably who embrace contemporary ideas of nutrition would not make this argument. However if one is really in a situation that you absolutely have to eat meat otherwise your bodies become sick then there is no need at all to feel guilty about this you should eat meat, restore yourself to health and then once you have really been able to do this you can consider not eating meat again.

Question 4: Very few Buddhist teachers have offered us suggestions on vegetarianism. I was wondering if some thing or an event happened that inspired you take this cause to heart.

Answer 4: in general we have a distinction between the Buddhist the Hinayanan tradition and Mahayana tradition and Hinayanan tradition doesn’t forbid the consumption of meat. The Mahayana tradition on the other hand does forbid the consumption of eating meat. In buddhism of China and the buddhism of Tibet are both from Mahayana tradition and there is no distinction in this regard. In the history of Chinese buddhism, vegetarianism is something that is practiced and implemented very well. However the Tibetan tradition did not put vegetarianism into practice well and that is really due to the lack of conditions to permit this to be the case, lack of fruits, lack of vegetables etc. So what we are doing now is engaging in a reform of this tradition. And in terms of my own emphasis of commitment to vegetarianism probably began in about 1993. This was a time when the Tibetan areas have started to become extremely widespread with the transportation of large number of animals like sheep and cattle in large trucks to the slaughter houses to be killed. This is something we see every day on the roads, roads with full of trucks carrying animals. In order to find out what will happen to these animals once they arrive to the slaughter house, I went to one to see for myself. In fact I went two three slaughter houses and what I saw was animals experiencing extreme torcher and extreme suffering. Aside from the suffering they experience at the very moment of their death, quite a long time leading to their death they also underwent great great suffering, be it while they were being transported or be it the time after they arrived to the slaughter house. So having seeing these things and really realizing that in no way they are acceptable, we started to promote vegetarianism from that point. If you are interested in reading what I wrote on this, if you can understand Tibetan then you can read.

Question 5: From a psychological perspective, why do we find an emotional relationship to diet and being challenged about our diet?

Answer 5: From consuming food, many of the nutrients we derive, they go to our blood and brain and so many of the changes in responses that we experience are derived from the food that we consume. Even though in the Buddhist tradition we don’t classify the consciousness and the mind being the same nevertheless they have a very close connection. So for this reason when there are changes that take place in the blood, there are changes that takes place in our brain then there also corresponding changes that take place in our mind.

The end.