From the Buddha's Alms Bowl to the Western Table

Buddhism's relation to meat-eating is more varied. The early tradition and the Theravada Buddhism of Southeast Asia do not mandate vegetarianism: monks who beg for their food accept what is given, and the rule forbids only meat from an animal known to have been killed specifically for them. Much of Mahayana Buddhism, especially in East Asia, moved toward vegetarianism as an expression of compassion for all sentient beings, and monastic vegetarianism became the norm in Chinese Buddhism. The traditions thus differ on whether abstaining from meat is required, recommended, or simply one worthy option.

Elsewhere the picture varies again. Some Christian monastic traditions restrict or forbid meat as a discipline of ascetic simplicity, and particular Christian groups have adopted vegetarianism on scriptural and health grounds. The Abrahamic religions in general permit meat while regulating it through laws of clean and unclean animals and rites of slaughter, so that the emphasis falls on how animals are killed and eaten rather than on abstaining altogether. In the modern period religious vegetarianism has increasingly converged with secular ethical and environmental arguments against eating animals, a convergence that has given the ancient religious practice new allies and new framings.