mouse (lowercase) spake thusly:
ok, now you're scaring me....
It's alright, Buddha knew he was being poisoned. He just didn't care.
Life's kinda like that, when you are enlightened. Trust me, I know. In fact, I'm planning my own assassination in a week or two...
the Tibetan Buddists are actually descendant from Warrior Priests.
well, i knew they ate meat and stuff (as opposed to the vegetarianism the buddists hereabouts seem to espouse)
As a studier of Buddhist philosophy, and a Vegetarian for over 6 years, I have to comment on this line of thinking...
Nowhere in any of the Buddha's teachings (or the "accepted" teachings of Jesus of Nazareth) is there anything promoting Vegetarianism.
In fact, it is a popular misconception that Buddha was a Vegetarian. He was not - in fact, he quite enjoyed his meat, though being of Hindu descent, he didn't touch Beef.
I chose to be Vegetarian because
1) I did not want to be involved in any creature's death (I go out of my way to avoid killing - this may or may not extend to include Kilo, as he is obviously a single-celled creature that fits under the category of "anti-intelligent life form,") and
2) Because I did not want to "consume a creature's death."
#2 is a strange one (and I am a strange person. 'nuff said.) I'll try not to be complicated: (Kilo's eyes would have glazed over at the sight of a multi-syllabic word anyway, and he is not part of the target audience due to #1).
Given that E=MC^2, we know that Energy(E) is Matter(M) vibrating at the Speed of Light(C) Squared.
As such, it is also proven that Matter = Energy / Speed of Light^2.
For the sake of this example, let's round that down to saying that "All Matter is just Energy vibrating at a specific frequency." or for further oversimplification, "All Matter is Energy."
(This theory lends credence to those that believe in "Auras," as all energy has radiation. It also lends credence to any philosophies that believe in the manipulation or use of energy. In my case, I refer to "Ki" (or Chi if you are so inclined - scientific term is "Orgone.") With Ki, or "Rei-Ki" (the Universal Life Force Energy), energies can be "manipulated" to promote healing of one's self. (All healing is done by the person, not by the "Rei-Ki practioner," who is but a "recharging depot.") As such, the only limits of the healing is what is placed upon it by the recipient; What you believe, Is. I'm proof of this, after walking out of hospital 3 days after being told I would never walk again, when I broke my back 6 or 7 years ago. Nothing is impossible. There is no spoon.)
Now, we know that energy (and matter, for that matter) can (and does) retain a "memory." As such, IMHO, a creature upon the time of its' death, each of its cells will record their last memory of life, being their death.
Given that "You are what you eat," I find it an unattractive proposition to be consuming the memory of another creature's death, and having that be "Part of me."
On top of this, given that the intestinal tract for a carnivore is rather short (a lion's intestinal tract is 3m for example) to allow the nutrients from meat to be absorbed before decomposition gets well underway (it begins at the instant of death), I don't like the idea of eating that dead, decomposing flesh and having it sit, rotting, in my intestinal tract for metres upon metres. Ick!
Now that I have had my time on the soap box, I'll re-iterate:
Buddhism & Christianity contain no teachings that propose vegetarianism (directly). Anyone who becomes vegetarian citing these philosophies as their reason, is sadly misinformed. Spiritual reasons, yes. Political reasons, maybe. Religious (citing above two examples), nope. (That is not to say that Buddhists & Christians cannot
be vegetarian, only that it is by their own choice, not because of anything found in their belief structure.)
I realise that there are some oversimplications and generalisations made above, but hey, this is a comic-strip forum. You want more in-depth philosophy? Give me the back of a match box!
Cheers,
Antarius of Ick
Resistance is dead, decomposing flesh...