SilenceMonkey wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:03 am
coldbeer wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 12:20 am
I think if I adopted a vegetarian lifestyle all it would do is delude me into thinking "I am such a nice and compassionate person now" and make my ego stronger. Barf.
I think there's a danger in the west for people coming to buddhism, and once they hear teachings on the ultimate nature of things they tend to throw away relative compassion, thinking it is based in duality and is therefore inferior. But as so many great masters keep warning us, this is a big mistake. Until we realize shunyata experientially, how could we throw away situations that can help us foster real compassion? We can use conventional situations to foster real compassion and bodhicitta. We don't have to think, "This is all emptiness... Believing in the reality of this and that would only bolster my ego, so I won't involve myself in such things." How else are we going to foster compassion if not seeing and contemplating the suffering of others?
Relative compassion is MUCH better than no compassion at all. And nondualistic compassion is quite a high view... can we really get there without having any compassion in the first place?
Many great masters of the Mahayana tell us that until we reach the realization of ultimate bodhicitta, we should rely on relative bodhicitta. And if we're doing it properly, the ultimate bodhicitta will be mixed in with the relative. (From Dilgo Khyentse's commentary on the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, at the beginning of the section on Bodhicitta)
Vegetarianism shouldn't be about social posturing. It's not about identity of "I'm a vegetarian." Not at all... It's about the animals.
Conventional is not low or so.
As well like Padma and.. said. Because how Bodhicitta could be possible when the outside world is/remains separate of "us", and therefore not "our" business? How can there "be out", of what?
Since practice of conventional compassion opens the door of careless selfishness, in order to realize nongrasping nondual nature-Bodhicitta. The conventional and the Absolute are actually not two.
I can agree somehow with what Malcolm said, about completely avoiding meat, if eating the meat, by the genuine care for the animal, ( Tsok) a glymps of nondual openess...sorry I cannot form my sentence correct.
Of course this is not the same as keeping the meat production going on what causes so many animals to have an awful life, being treaten as meat only.
I heard this: life is a dream, but be kind for all in it, in order to awaken. That is 'high' enough.
Respecting Karmapa.