Buddhism, from its inception, enjoined treating all animals with kindness and compassion as well as required the observance of a vegeterian diet cannot be denied. The first or basic precept of Buddhism, that of Ahimsa or Non-harming, decively prohitbits the killing and infliction of suffering on sentient beings, whether men or animals. Needless to say, this precept cannot be reconciled with the eating of animals flesh any more than it can with hunting, fishing, or the butchering of animals! From the Buddhist perspective, the killing and eating of animals not only violates Buddhism's basic ethical principle of Ahimsa, but also creates a negative psychic atmosphere and perpetuates karmic bondage.

Many Buddhist Sutras, sacred texts, hagiographies, and moral admonitions leave no doubt whatever concerning vegetarianism as an ethical requirement for all who follow the Buddhist spiritual path, very clearly condemning the eating of animals while commending and explicitly requiring a strictly vegetarian diet for all "practitioners of Dharma," both lay persons and monks. Indeed, it was only many centuries after the foundation of Buddhism that Buddhist practice in this respect came to differ from country to country and school to school.

The Lankavatara, (Kinh Lang Gia) a Sutra which   termed "the essence of the Teaching of all the Buddhas," is a primary source of ethical injunctions strictly prohibiting the consumption of animal flesh by all persons claiming to follow the Path of the Buddha. The reader is urged to see the D.T. Suzuki translation of this Sutra, Sutra Section 244-259, pages 211-222, published by Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1956.

In the Lankavatara, the "no meat" injunction is unconditional, and mendicant or begging monks are not cited as "exempt" out of ascetic disregard for what they consume as they sometimes are in other sources. Likewise, the idea, common among Theravadin Buddhists today, that meat is permitted to followers of the Buddha provided that they did not kill the animal themselves is explicitly condemned. The compassionate heart, states this Sutra, cannot be reconciled with the eating of tortured and murdered animals. Such are referred to by the Sutra as "unnatural food." All members of the Dharma are, in fact, advised to view all animal beings as no different than their own children, and hence to be treated with the same kindness, solicitude, and concern for their well-being.

"Nowhere in the Sutras," admonishes the Lankavatara, is meat permitted... nor is it referred to as proper among the foods prescribed for the Buddha's followers. Even in "exceptional cases" or as "skillfull means" (phuong tien thien sao) - such as eating meat in order "to be polite" or in order to gain a person's confidence for the purpose of leading them to eventual enlightenment - the consumption of meat is proscribed. Indeed, the Buddha is quoted as stating unequivocally: "Meat eating is forbidden by me everywhere and for all time for all who are abiding in compassion."

Interestingly enough, the reasons given for the prohitbition of meat eating in the Lankavatara include not only the basic ethical imperative of not harming sentient beings (that of the compassionate heart), but the simple fact of man's kinship with the rest of the animal world. Hence, the injunction to regard each animal as one's own child. Also noting that meat is "repulsive" and has "a nauseating odour," the Sutra observes the eating meat "stupifies the mind" as well as involves one in the "habit-energy of evil karma."

Vegetarianism, A History by Jon Gregerson. Published by Jain Publishing Company: Fremont, California 1994