Theos-Talk Archives (November 2003 Message tt00047)

The spiritual basis for vegetarianism in Buddhism is that it observes 
one of the Five Grave Precepts, which forbids us to kill. The same 
precept was made part of Judaism, but they interpreted it rather 
loosely as applying only to human beings of their own tribe. The 
original precept does not say "thou shalt not kill Jews, but everyone 
and everything else is fair game" but if it were interpreted strictly 
it would be impossible to reconcile with the practices of earlier 
centuries in which Abraham (and, scholars believe, plenty of others) 
was wont to sacrifice his own children. Since Judaism is thousands 
of years older than Buddhism, and has evolved from a much more 
primitive time in history. they are compelled to interpret "thou 
shalt not kill" loosely or face some embarrassing problems. One of 
the so-called Nochaide Laws states that it is fine to eat animals, 
but that dismembering them while they are still alive is a no no. 
That anyone would have to put such a thing in writing tells us 
something about where our ancestors were and how far we have come, 
despite the surface appearance of not having come far at all. Raja 
Yogis practice vegetarianism in observance of the principle of 
harmlessness (ahimsa).

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
> krishtar_a wrote:
> > May anybody help with some vegetarianism references on 
theosophical teachings?
> > Leadbeater and Annie wrote some articles and books on it.
> 
> Well, in the instructions for the Esoteric Section (the last 
volume of 
> the Collected Writings, before the index), Judge (who wrote the 
> instructions) requires lacto-ovo-ictho vegetarianism (one step away 
from 
> OLIVE PIT (an acronym for Ovo Lacto Ictho Vegetarian Even Poultry 
Is 
> Tolerable).
> 
> Bart