..续本文上一页assionate and kind to all creatures” (Burtt 104).

　　Buddhist teachings state that the moral ideal is to reduce suffering—flesh eating (as well as drinking the nursing milk of factory-farmed animals) fosters massive amounts of misery among millions of animals. Factory farmed animals are deprived of freedom, their young, their nursing milk, their eggs, and ultimately their lives. To support industries that cause such suffering is to live a life that is spiritually impoverished.

　　For the Buddhist, good conduct requires “putting away the killing of living things” and holding “aloof from the destruction of life” (Burtt 104).

　　All beings tremble before danger, all fear death. When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.

　　All beings fear before danger, life is dear to all. When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.

　　He who for the sake of happiness hurts others who also want happiness, shall not hereafter find happiness.

　　He who for the sake of happiness does not hurt others who also want happiness, shall hereafter find happiness (Dhammapada 54).

　　An enlightened human is one who, “whether feeble or strong, does not kill nor cause slaughter” (Burtt 71). It matters little who kills the turkey; the one who buys a dead bird causes another to be raised and killed, and has thereby caused unnecessary suffering. Buddhist philosophy teaches that a flesh-eater can no more avoid negative karma from eating flesh, than one can escape the effects of dust thrown into the wind. Those who seek happiness in this life but cause misery to others “will not find happiness after death” (Burtt 59).

　　The first, and most fundamental Buddhist precept requires followers to refrain from killing—not just human beings, but all living beings. This prescription against killing “is central to the Buddhist tradition. Indeed, it is in fact one of the few common features across the vast Buddhist tradition and its many sects, strands, and branches” (Waldau 143).

　　In the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition, spiritual adepts called “bodhisattvas” commit themselves to the task of saving all creatures from suffering. Bodhisattvas vow to return to the earth again and again through reincarnation, rather than disappear into nirvāṇa. They come back to suffer the trials and tribulations of life in order to help every inpidual of every species to escape from ongoing suffering and rebirth.

　　Compassion is given an especially prominent place in the Mahāyāna branch of the Buddhist tradition by virtue of its association with the central ideal of the Bodhisattva, although concern for living things is conceptually no less central in the Theravādin branch. The Bodhisattva is known, and even defined, by his or her commitment to the salvation of other beings. (Waldau 138)

　　A Bodhisattva thinks: “As many beings as there are in the universe of beings,” with or without form, with or without perception, “all these I must lead to Nirvāṇa” (Conze 164). Buddhist sūtras explain a Bodhisattva”s commitment:

　　A Bodhisattva resolves: I take upon myself the burden of all suffering, I am resolved to do so, I will endure it. I do not turn or run away, do not tremble, am not terrified, nor afraid, do not turn back or despond. And why

　　 At all costs I must bear the burdens of all beings. In that I do not follow my own inclinations. I have made the vow to save all beings. All beings I must set free. The whole world of living beings I must rescue, from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness, of death and rebirth, of all kinds of moral offence, of all states of woe, of the whole cycle of birth-and-death… from all these terrors I must rescue all beings… I must rescue all these beings from the stream of Saṃsāra, which is so difficult t…

《Buddhist Ethics: Compassion for All》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…