Module 10: Engaged Buddhism · The Buddha’s Path
Compassionate Choices: Non-Harm, Vegetarianism and Veganism in Buddhism (David Oromith)
David Oromith · 53 minutes · recorded January 18, 2024
This talk opens with a brief pause to set an intention rather than an extended practice. David sets out how vegetarianism and veganism are treated across Buddhist traditions: the Theravada threefold purity, which permits meat offered without suspicion of killing, against Mahayana sutras such as the Lankavatara, where the Buddha rejects meat eating outright. He describes his own move from vegetarian to vegan, then turns to the scale of factory farming and asks what compassion demands of us now.
The principles of non-harm and compassion sit at the core of the Buddhist teachings. This session looks at what they ask of us now, and at the connection between those ancient positions and modern choices, particularly vegetarianism and veganism, which reaches well beyond diet. David draws on the classical sources from both the Theravada and the Mahayana alongside contemporary thinking, so that what emerges is a rounded view of making compassionate choices at the table and away from it, rather than a slogan.
The bodhisattva path Compassion (karuna)