"The moral progress of a nation can be
judged by the way it treats its animals" - Gandhi

Dear Friends,
Only history will prove how true and visionary Gandhi was when he said those words when India was fighting against the British occupation.During the struggle that nation was also fighting its own social ills.In fact British played the role of catalyst in indian fight against "Sati" system which they thought was nonsense.Just an example.
As we all know the great festival of "Dashain" is nearing.It is the greatest festival because it represents the triumph of "good" over "evil".I have no idea what "good" and "evil" we are talking about here.And,I don't think I will ever be clear on that over my life time.
There are only good memories of Dashain for us as Nepalis.Once again we are ready to celebrate Dashain like any previous year.And,of course we are going to sacrifice thousands of animals and flood our holy temples with blood.Lord Durga will be happy that we are going to do so.There will be blood everywhere.Good humans who are good and strong by nature are going to kill evil animals who are weak by nature.We will cherish on such occasion.
Nonetheless,there is an exception cow is an exception.We recieve milk from cow(and thats why its holy) but not from goat or buffalo.Wait a minute.I have drank more milk from buffalo than cow.But aren't all the mo-mos sold in kathmandu comes from the same buffalo that we recieve milk as well.Just a thought.
Why does the greatest festival of Nepal have to be the great violent celebration too?We are strong and animals aren't.We have to sacrifice the weaker ones so that we human can grow stronger.Does that represent our deepest philosophy of how we should continue to exist?Millions of sacrifices in the past and did it make any difference?Or now we have become so deeply religious that we have started to target our own fellow beings instead of animals and instead of Dashain its all year around.And that's why we have ceasefire during the time of dashain.Is Durga happy?
iZen

दशैको शुभकामना

Pisces Ji,
That is a good question. Why Mongolians eat beef besides being Buddhist if Buddha discouraged to eat it?

There is no doubt that the Buddha discouraged to eat beef. I have read in different places in त्रिपिठक where Buddha was discouraging his lay disciples not to kill cows and Bulls.

In one सुत्र, he was saying something like this:

"Don't kill cow, she milks us, regard her as mother."
"Don't kill Bull, he plough and feed us, regard him as father."

This tells us that the people at the time of Buddha in Indian subcontinent used to kill cow for meat.

In one place, we can found him saying how the cow killing religious ceremonies (गौघातक यज्ञ) were started. He was saying,

"Ancient people used to regard cow as their mother. Some greedy corrupted Yogis, when tested cow's milk product, found so delicious and thought its meat should be more delicious. So, they went to the king and said him that if he (the King) sacrificed cow in यज्ञ, he will get a lot of merit. King had immense respect to Yogis, so he did it."

This fact tells us that there used to be cow killing religious ceremonies during Buddha era.

In different occasion, Buddha went to different people, who were performing multi-animal killing ceremony. He explained to them that killing doesn't bear any merit, real merit comes from non violence and purifying one's own mind. They got convinced and said:

"गोतम, These hundred cows are free now. May they graze green-green grasses! May they enjoy their life and have a natural death!?

This means there used to be cow killing religious ceremony for merit, which seems pretty much similar to modern day दशैं, but much worse.

I have given one more example from महासतिपठ्ठान सुत्त in my earlier posting, where he is giving example of a cow butcher while teaching धातुमनसिकार पर्व of कायानुपस्सना. He was saying:

"Like a skillful cow-butcher or his assistant, having killed a cow in a cross-road-square, divides different parts of its body, similarly, a mediator should be skillful to divide and dissect the reality pertaining to one."

This also supports the fact that people used to eat cow at the time of Buddha.

Contd...

Pisces Jee, that was just a background, here is the real answer of your question:

When Buddha started to teach Dhamma, it was not a religion. It was a pure science of mind; a pragmatic technique to eradicate the suffering of life. Of course, there were/are different types of sufferings in the world; however, all the sufferings are rooted to mind. Once you cut the roots, the whole body of suffering will die out.

We can compare his teaching with science. No matter who discovers the scientific laws the entire human race applies them. Most of the scientific discoverers are westerners; it doesn't mean that you have to get westernized to apply the science. Arabians, Asians, American, Europeans, African anyone can apply these discoveries and take advantage of it. For that you don't have to change your culture, tradition, living style, language etc.

This happened with Buddha's teaching too. It went to all over the Asia; people embraced it because it was result giving scientific technique to eradicated the misery of life. Those, who took the teaching from Indian subcontinent, most of them were monks. Monks doesn't have any culture except meditating day and night. Buddha's teaching is not a culture, it is a science; science of mental purification. People of different countries of Asia accepted it as a science not as a religion.

Religion goes with culture but science doesn't. This is the reason why different Buddhist countries have their own traditions and cultures. There is almost nothing common between Chinese Buddhist and Srilankan Buddhist. Buddha's teaching didn't interfere the existing cultures and traditions. Mongolians were cow eaters; they embraced Buddha's teaching keeping their cow eating tradition alive.

Buddha didn't interfere the existing culture himself. He taught his monks not to harm any living being. That's why Monks are not supposed to kill even plants. However, Buddha himself used to eat anything dead given to him, even meat.

Once Monk Devadatta proposed Buddha some proposals; one of them were the monks wouldn't eat meat. Buddha discarded his proposal because he didn't want to interfere the existing culture. Not to kill is the first of the five moral precepts of his teaching. However, he didn't stop people to kill

This is the beauty of his teaching.

अत्ताही अत्तनो नाथो को हि नाथो परो सिया?
You are the master of your own, who else can be your master.

अत्ताहि अत्तनो गति।
Since one is responsible for what he does, one is responsible for what he get.

तुमेहि कित्चँगा तप्पम्, आख्खातारो तथागत।

You are the one who has to follow the teaching; my job is just to let you know the teaching.

He wanted people to be self judgmental.

He asked people not to kill anything if they want their welfare, however, he didn't insist them to follow it. He left for the people to judge and act accordingly. That is why his teaching is beautiful. He wanted people to follow his teaching with wisdom not out of blind faith.

His teaching is alive in the world and it is spreading like fire in the dry jungle. We can here the purity of his immortal words from the mouth of a modern monk. Ledi Sayado, a 19th century enlighten monk of Burma, repeated his words for the Burmese people, who has cow eaing tradition.

Oh people, don't kill cow, she milks us, she is like our mother.
Oh people, don't kill Bull, he ploughs our fields and feed us, he is like our father.

Many herd Monk Ledi, some followed some didn't. Whoever followed got something good out of it.

Many people followed Buddha, during him, after him, even 2500 years after him. This revered monk is an example. Many people people didn't follow him during his lifetime, after him, even now. However, the teaching will persist............This is how the world is.

It is something like this: Doctors suggests not to smoke, it's up to us whether to listen to the Doctors or not.

Vishowntar