Lianchi Zhuhung |Yun-ch'i Chu-hung (1535-1615)
Master Chu-hung, the Eighth Pureland Patriarch, also known as Yün-ch'i, Lien-ch'ih or Yafu Dosen (along with Han-shan Te-ch'ing and Tzu-po Chenk-k'o), says:
On Stopping Killing
By
Lianchi Zhuhung | Yun-ch'i Chu-hung
(1535 - 1615)
Translation by Bhikshu Heng Sure in collaboration with The Buddhist Text Translation Society © 1991
People who eat meat often make the excuse that it is natural to do so, that people were meant to eat
meat. They promote this idea, and then freely indulge in taking the lives of their fellow creatures,
thereby creating extensive hatred and enmity-karma. Over time, as their killing and consuming
becomes a habit, meat eaters no longer feel their killing is unusual. They do their evil deeds
unknowingly, unaware of the consequences of slaughter and the resentment it evokes.
As somebody in the past said, "It is a cause for tears and sobbing, for wails and cries, for deep regrets,
and mournful cries." In order to recount our confusion and point out our attachments, I have
formulated seven categories, and will explain them below. Any other points to be discussed can be
investigated in similar fashion. To begin with, all creatures with awareness share just one identical
body. When we humans eat the flesh of our fellow creatures, we are doing a bizarre and abnormal act.
Yet we don't feel it is strange, because the whole family takes part, and for generation after generation,
killing and eating meat becomes a custom. Our neighbours in the local villages copy one another, and
repetition makes the practice seem normal. Over time we lose sensitivity to the wrongness of killing.
We think instead, that it is right to kill animals for the good flavour their bodies provide. Our desire for
taste dominates our sensibilities, and we no longer feel that eating dead flesh is strange or grossly
savage.
Consider, if you will, our response if someone were to kill and eat the body of a human! Surely
everyone would reckon it a monstrous act, frightening, and taboo. We would be anxious to execute the
culprit as a murderous criminal. Why? Only because eating human meat is very much not a part of our
conventional habits. But eating the flesh of animals' bodies has become a habit the world over, so that
we no longer feel that killing these creatures is wrong.
In fact, "it is a cause for tears and sobbing, for
wails and cries, for deep regrets, and mournful cries."http://www.shabkar.org/download/pdf/On_ ... huhung.pdf