Hi Mel, As to the vegetarian-thing. I understand the teaching as a practice of non-harming all living beings. But I heard Andrew Weil say a few years ago, that to survive, we have to end the life of something, beit a carrot or a cow. He's a botanist, you know;) Wrapping up my Japanese holiday, and heading back via Hawaii. (Need to warm up). Plus, my golf-obsessed 4 yo nephew has put in his birthday request -- a sand wedge --his size. Good weekend to all... Thanks to Mel, Steve and Chris, for the interesting thread on the Gospel of Thomas. I assume that is part of the Gnostics? Kristy
--- On Sat, 1/15/11, Mel <[email protected]> wrote: From: Mel <[email protected]> Subject: [Zen] the death of the prince, vegetarianism?(to Chris/Kristy/list) To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 6:12 AM --- On Sat, 15/1/11, ChrisAustinLane <[email protected]> wrote: On Jan 14, 2011, at 7:01, Kristy McClain <[email protected]> wrote: > Mel pondered if my suggestion that Buddha's enlightment was impermanent, when > I offered that even Buddha likely had "bad hair days". I missed that thread, but it is an interesting question. What if Buddha had gotten alzheimer's? being awake is a dynamic process not a static thing. -------------------------------------------------------------------- MEL: Hi Kristy and Chris. Kristy your reply was quite inspiring. You've put it better than I did(I have an excuse...you're the one with the education..*sighs/laughter*) Chris, I don't know about azheimer's but I assume that health conditions in those days might have been pretty bad. However, I did get from the late Deshimaru-sensei's writings that the Buddha apparently died from eating some pork-meat. Wild boar perhaps?...which leads to this (conservative/mainstream) so-called Buddhist belief(looks more like an issue to me) about the need to abstain from meat. According to Deshimaru-sensei, the Buddha preached none of this(How about fish?) Don't get me wrong, because I personally love my vegies, fruit, tofu, beans and so on...but I'm not quite clear on this 'vegetarian' thingy Be well Mel
