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Vegetarian Life

Buddhism teaches respect for the lives of all sentient beings. Many Buddhists believe this means abstaining from eating meat. Is vegetarianism necessary or important? Has it been a part of our spiritual path?

(21 previous messages)

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henja_mieni - 01:12pm Mar 15, 2009 EST (# 22 of 22)

being a vegetarian is a personal choice

I believe being a vegetarian is completely a personal choice. I seriously don't believe that eating a hamburger is any worse than eating cabbage or a carrot seeing as you kill those plants to eat them. Actually there are a lot of plants that die to feed us. I believe all living things are equal. Plants are not lower than animals. Plus, the first noble truth says life is suffering. I'm not saying do whatever you want because that's life. I'm just saying, for there to be life there has to be suffering. There is no way around it. I believe the buddha meant no murdering, which is different than killing.