Ahimsa: From the Teachings of The Venerable U Lokanatha (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

“We should practice Ahimsa and we should not eat animal flesh. And why not? Because it is written in the ‘Dhammapada:’ ‘At the rod do all things tremble. All creatures fear death.’ Putting yourselves in their place, kill not nor cause slaughter. That is the golden rule. Do as you would be done by. How would you feel if others would eat your flesh? You would not feel happy. Therefore, putting yourselves in the place of the animals, we should not eat their flesh. Because, if you practice Ahimsa, if you overflow with infinite love, your life would be prolonged; because by prolonging the lives of others, you automatically prolong your own life. This is the law of cause and effect. […]

Therefore, if you wish to live long, refrain from slaughter. Refrain from causing slaughter. Then you will live long. There are people who hope to live long, who hope to rejuvenate by a monkey gland operation and other operations, but those methods are useless. You will live long if you only allow the creatures to live long, by never molesting them, by never shortening their lives through eating their flesh. […]

If a man wants flesh, let him eat his own flesh, because we are the owner of our own flesh. We will not be guilty of ‘Adinnadana’ [stealing] if we slice and take a piece of flesh from our arm or thigh, because it is our own property and we can eat our own flesh without being guilty of ‘Adinnadana’ (stealing). This is a good way to become a vegetarian. Whenever we like to eat flesh, let us quickly take a knife and cut our own flesh and eat it, and then you will see how quickly we become vegetarians! […]

When an animal dies a natural death, it is promptly buried underground, but when an animal dies an unnatural death through the knife of the butcher, that animal is promptly buried in our stomachs. So our stomachs are graveyards and human beings are walking cemeteries. Lo and behold, though the stomach is so small in size, still it is capable of burying in a span of 60 years, not less than two lakhs of creatures; that is to say, 200,000 creatures are buried in one little stomach in 60 years! […]

So if one has self-respect, if one has the slightest feeling of compassion, he should renounce the desire for flesh food, in order to save the lives of two lakhs of [or 200,000] creatures. […]”