Paul McCartney and the Dalai Lama

My non-vegetarianism is an issue I've been considering quite carefully for a while. I met a very persuasive vegetarian last year. She didn't try to impose her vegetarianism on me, but she did point out how hypocritical a lot of carnivores, myself included, can be.

I eat meat, but until last year I had never intentionally killed a living thing. This was most probably because of my Tibetan Buddhist upbringing. Tibetan people don't kill mosquitoes yet they are probably the most carnivorous people I've encountered. A traditional meal from eastern Tibet might consist of a huge hunk of meat (usually yak in Tibet; in exile we substitute mutton or lamb) boiled with only salt. This is served with soya sauce and placed on the centre of the table. All the diners get a knife and they cut off hunks of meat and devour it because it tastes so good. To me, this is very strange behaviour. Many people (and I speak not only of Tibetans here) get very squeamish when it comes to slaughtering animals but they still eat meat with no qualms at all.

Of course, one must consider that often people have few choices about the food they eat, usually because of tradition. Because it's what's always been done. If you have eaten meat since your childhood, it becomes very hard to stop as you get older. I know a story about this: a few years ago, the Dalai Lama got a letter from Paul McCartney, asking why he eats meat if he is a Buddhist monk who theoretically values animal life as important as human life. The Dalai Lama's reply was that he tried becoming vegetarian once and he fell very sick, so his Tibetan doctors advised him to eat meat regularly. I don't know if this is true, but it is funny. Another reason why people might have to eat meat is because there is no other food available (this was the case in Tibet before the Chinese introduced modern agricultural practices).

There is a third reason you might eat meat: because it tastes so good. This is why I eat meat. I have realised that Buddhism, at least in this case, takes a ridiculous stand. I even kill mosquitoes now. All that remains for me to do is to kill an animal and eat it to prove my non-vegetarianism to myself.