The connection between reincarnation and vegetarianism is deeply rooted in the principle of minimizing harm to all living beings, a concept that resonates across various spiritual and philosophical traditions. This article explores the historical and philosophical underpinnings of this connection, examining how beliefs in reincarnation have influenced dietary practices, particularly vegetarianism, in different cultures and religions.
Historical Roots of Vegetarianism and Reincarnation
Vegetarianism is an ancient practice with uncertain origins. Pythagoras (c. 570-c.495 BC), the Greek mathematician and philosopher, is often cited as an early advocate. His advocacy stemmed from his belief in reincarnation; he required his pupils to abstain from eating meat. Pythagoras reasoned that if humans could be reborn as animals, consuming them would be a form of cannibalism. Before the modern notion of vegetarianism took hold in the 1840s, those who abstained from meat were often referred to as "Pythagoreans."
Jainism: A Rigorous Approach to Vegetarianism and Non-Violence
Jain vegetarianism, practiced by followers of Jain culture and philosophy, exemplifies a spiritually motivated diet. It is one of the most rigorous forms of vegetarianism, emphasizing non-violence (ahimsa). The Jain cuisine is completely lacto-vegetarian, excluding root and underground vegetables like potatoes, garlic, and onions to prevent injuring small insects and microorganisms. Vegetables with a higher chance of containing small organisms, such as cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms, and broccoli, are also avoided. The diet minimizes harm to plants, such as avoiding the uprooting of entire plants during harvest.
Jains believe that every act that directly or indirectly supports killing or injury is an act of violence (himsa), creating harmful karma. The aim of ahimsa is to prevent the accumulation of such karma. Jains consider nonviolence the most essential religious duty for everyone (ahinsā paramo dharmaḥ), an indispensable condition for liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. Vegetarianism is mandatory for Jains. In 2021, 92% of self-identified Jains in India adhered to some type of vegetarian diet, and another 5% seemed to try to follow a mostly vegetarian diet by abstaining from eating certain kinds of meat and/or abstaining from eating meat on specific days. Vegetarianism in Jainism historically stems from minimizing violence to all beings. Even the smallest particles of the bodies of dead animals or eggs are unacceptable. Some Jain scholars and activists support veganism, believing that the modern commercialized production of dairy products involves violence against farm animals.
Jain texts state that a śrāvaka (householder) should not consume the four maha-vigai (the four perversions) - wine, flesh, butter, and honey - and the five udumbara fruits (gular, anjeera, banyan, peepal, and pakar, all belonging to the fig genus). Jains should not consume any foods or drinks that have animal products or animal flesh. Traditionally, Jains have been prohibited from drinking unfiltered water and avoid eating root vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, roots, and tubers, as they are considered ananthkay (one body, but containing infinite lives). Green vegetables and fruits contain uncountable lives, while dry beans, lentils, cereals, nuts, and seeds contain a countable number of lives, resulting in the least destruction of life. Strict Jains do not consume food that has been stored overnight or fermented foods. Along with practicing total abstinence from consuming certain types of food and limiting foods that harbor the lives of many microorganisms, fasting is also an important component of Jain dietary practices, Jain identity, and Jain culture.
Read also: Is a Vegetarian Elimination Diet Right for You?
Hinduism: Karma, Reincarnation, and Vegetarianism
Reincarnation, or Punarjanman, is a foundational aspect of Hinduism. It posits that the soul transmigrates into a new body after biological life ceases. The concept of moksha, release and enlightenment to higher consciousness, allows beings to ascend beyond the physical. Karma guides moksha and is vital to the concept of samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. This cycle can only be transcended when moksha is attained, and the atman (self) is reunited with Brahman (the ultimate reality). Vegetarianism and veganism play a significant role in karma and reincarnation. By treating animals well and abstaining from their flesh, individuals improve their karma and path to reincarnation. This is why cows are considered sacred in Hinduism, and beef is not consumed by many practitioners.
Reincarnation has a long history in Indian traditions, originating in the Upanishads within the Vedas. The atman aims to attain pure consciousness through self-knowledge, leading to moksha. Brahman represents the ultimate reality and the interconnectedness of everything in the universe. Achieving oneness with Brahman is the highest form of reincarnation, freeing one from samsara and the karmic cycle. Traditional Indian beliefs hold that each soul experiences various lives, starting as a mineral and evolving through plants, animals, and humans. Higher karma leads to an elevated form of reincarnation.
Gandhi emphasized karma in Indian society by living an ascetic life. He believed in the Vedas as sources of wisdom and knowledge. The cycle of samsara influences how many Indians view death as a transition from one life to the next. Cows hold special significance in Indian culture for their altruistic qualities and are revered as representations of Mother Earth. Krishna, the Hindu God of protection, was a cow herder who emphasized their protection. Treating cows well improves karma, making a higher form of reincarnation more likely.
Buddhism: Compassion, Vegetarianism, and the Path to Enlightenment
Buddhism emphasizes compassion and equality. To embody this spirit, one must not kill, save and protect lives, and practice vegetarianism. Practicing vegetarianism is a first expedient. The spirit of Buddhism is compassion and equality. To embody this spirit, first, we should not kill; second, we should save and protect lives; third, we should practice vegetarianism. If we accomplish all these, our compassionate mind will manifest, and a compassionate mind is the Buddha’s mind.
However, some scholars have publicized misleading views which have influenced some vegetarians to start eating meat. For example, they say that the Buddha did not teach vegetarianism and that being a vegetarian does not help eradicate one’s bad karma or help one attain the Way or liberation. They also give many misguiding examples, saying that animals such as cows, horses, and elephants eat grass but are still butchered and suffer in the three wretched realms; therefore, they claim that being a vegetarian is irrelevant to our spiritual cultivation.
Read also: Healthy Vegetarian Eating
In Buddhist practice, the true aim of vegetarianism is to cultivate a mind of compassion and equality. This is in contrast to animals who eat grass out of necessity, or people who become vegetarians for self-interest. To be "in accord with the Buddhist aim" means to have a mind of compassion and equality, which is to be like a buddha or bodhisattva. Compassionate mind is like what the Confucian sage Mencius said in reference to animals, “Having seen them alive, we cannot bear to see them die; having heard their dying cries, we cannot bear to eat their flesh.”
Buddhism teaches that animals also have buddha nature, which means they have awareness and feelings. Everyone is subject to the causality of the three periods of time-past, present, and future. If we now eat the flesh of animals, the pain and suffering we inflict upon them will similarly be inflicted upon us in the future. All sentient beings were and are our relatives. We should save and protect all lives the way we treasure the members of our own family, and we should also be grateful and repay their kindnesses, which means having the compassion not to eat the meat of sentient beings.
The suffering of Samsara (Cyclical Rebirth) in the Six Realms is a key concept. The six realms are the heavenly realm, the realm of the asuras, the realm of human beings, the realm of animals, the realm of hungry ghosts, and hell. If we do not practice diligently, we will continue to take rebirth within the six realms and endure the endless suffering of birth, aging, illness, and death.
Both Mahayana and Theravada sutras advocate compassion and the protection of life. The Mahayana bodhisattva precepts clearly state that we must not eat the flesh of sentient beings, and that we should observe the “six fasting days” each month. In the Theravada scriptures, the Buddha speaks of eating the “three pure meat” and “five pure meat.” Eating the “three pure meat” is an expedient means taught by the Buddha to help new practitioners ease into vegetarianism. The “three pure meat” is “pure” because it requires us not to be even slightly involved in the transgression of killing. Specifically, we should not eat the meat of animals that we have witnessed being killed, heard being killed, and that have been killed for us.
Another expedient means for practicing vegetarianism according to the Buddhist scripture is to observe the “six fasting days” each month. In those six days we completely abstain from eating meat, and practice to maintain the purity of body, speech, and mind.
Read also: Is a Chicken-Inclusive Vegetarian Diet Right for You?
The Esoteric Side of Diet: Purification and Consciousness
Diet is a crucial aspect of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development. The spiritual traditions of all ages state that the basic requisite of the path to enlightenment is purification. According to the Beatitudes it is purification which results in the Divine Vision: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). The first of “the first works” (Revelation 2:5) requisite for the successful cultivation of consciousness is that of purifying oneself on all levels, beginning with the purification of the body through diet.
Since the human being is composed of many aspects or levels in his fundamental makeup, it is necessary that the process of purification be instituted and maintained on all those levels. And since it is the physical level which dominates the horizons of our consciousness, obviously the process should begin there-in fact, the purification of all our subtler levels depends upon the purification of our physical entity. This makes sense when we realize that all that goes to constitute a human being is formed of energies of various types, and the only source of energy is that which is brought into the body through sunlight, air and food.
When we realize that any physical object has all the levels which we do, namely, the physical, biomagnetic, sensory, intellectual and will bodies, we can understand the importance of the kind and quality of food we eat. For not only does the physical substance of the food become assimilated into our physical body, so also do the subtler energies become united to our inner levels. “From food has arisen strength [virya], austerity [tapasya], mantra, action, and the world itself” (Prashna Upanishad 6.4). Ascetic discipline (tapasya) and prayer (mantra) are essential to religion, and here we see that the food we eat is their basis. And obviously the kind of food we eat will determine the quality of our discipline and prayer. “By food, indeed, do all the breaths [pranas, life forces] become great” (Taittiriya Upanishad 1.5.4). “Man, verily consists of the essence of food” (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1.1). So we are what we eat. The spiritual, astral body is drawn exclusively from food, so diet is crucial in spiritual development. “Now is described the discipline for inner purification by which self-knowledge is attained: When the food is pure, the mind becomes pure. When the mind is pure the memory [smriti-memory of our eternal spirit-Self] becomes firm. When the memory is firm all ties are loosened” (Chandogya Upanishad 7.26.2).
The Detrimental Effects of Meat Consumption
The effect of ingested meat, fish, and eggs on the mental and psychic states of those who eat them is detrimental to any attempts at attaining higher consciousness. It is even destructive of normal, balanced mental states for, as said above, our minds are fields of energy which absorb the subtle energies of whatever we eat and are affected thereby. To eat meat is to absorb the mental state of the animal. It is virtually the same as grafting an animal’s living brain into our brain-a horrible thought. If that seems a bit too esoteric, just consider that anything dead is toxic, since it is decaying, and therefore unfit for food. Even more, the animals are slaughtered in an atmosphere of intense fear, and as a consequence their flesh is filled with an abnormal amount of various hormones such as adrenaline-which are transferred to us when we eat it. Even worse, today’s animals are raised on chemicals that produce abnormal growth and weight. So we are both eating an abnormal substance and taking in large amounts of artificial growth hormones and various “wonder drug” compounds.
Vegetarianism in Judaism and Christianity
Jesus of Nazareth was an Essene. The twelve Apostles were Essenes, most of them being cousins of Jesus. The Master of the Essenes was Saint John the Baptist, also a cousin of Jesus. Thus the first Christians were not ordinary Jews-they were Essene Jews. Pacifism was a fundamental principle of the Essenes. The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” was interpreted in the broadest sense to include all destruction of life. Therefore Essenes were strict vegetarians. They would not wear leather since it involved animal slaughter. Nor would they wear wool since it was common to kill the sheep just after it was sheared, and they considered shearing cruel, even if the sheep was allowed to live.
The aspect of the Essene position on non-killing that most offended other Jews was the refusal of the Essenes to offer animal sacrifice in the Temple. Such a refusal was considered an implied criticism-if not a rejection-of the Law. The Essenes, however, like Appollonius of Tyana among the Greeks and Romans (who killed him because of his efforts to abolish animal sacrifice), insisted that the prescription of animal sacrifice was meant to be fulfilled spiritually, the animals being symbols of human negativity. So adamant were the Essenes on this point that they established for themselves a Tabernacle on Mount Carmel where they usually worshipped. They mostly made monetary offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem, but whenever they offered animals it was understood that those animals were not to be killed, but would be allowed to live in the Temple gardens until they died naturally.
The Essenes considered that God had prohibited the killing of both animals and human beings because of the transmigration of souls-that is, that the individual soul starts at the lowest rung of evolution and passes through all lower forms of life, eventually coming to the human form and evolving beyond that, as well. Since all souls are evolving upward at the will of God, to interrupt their evolution by killing them is a defiance of the Divine purpose. Saint Paul had this in mind when he wrote: “For meat destroy not the work of God” (Romans 14:20).
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