Buddhist Buddhism And Food Of Buddhism

Can a person be a Christian and follow Buddhist traditions? In comparison to ancient times, today it is not unusual for a person to identify as both a Christian and a Buddhist. Though Christians and Buddhists have been interacting since ancient times, it is now that the topic of dual belonging has become more common. How can a person be both a Christian and Buddhist when both are significantly different from the other in practice and in belief? Dual belonging is becoming a common practice in the Western world. This paper will compare Christianity and Buddhism and explain the concept and practice of dual belonging.

Different religions have beliefs that certain foods are sacred and then some are considered “tainted”. People that are Hindu believe that the cow is considered to be sacred. The reason being, they consider the cow to be a symbol of life; so cows may not be killed in the Hindu religion. They also believe in the harmony of living peacefully with nature, so they only eat food they believe help or hurt their physical or spiritual development. Closely related to Hindu’s is the religion of Buddhism. Many Buddhist don’t eat meat and don’t partake in the drinking of alcoholic beverages. Like the Hindus, Buddhist believe that a person returns as something or someone else, so a person could come back and live again as an animal. That is why the Buddhist don’t kill animals because they believe that it could have been someone they have known reincarnated. Interestingly enough, they also ask themselves questions before eating their meal. The questions they ask are: what food is this, where did it come from, why I am eating this food, when am I going to benefit from this food, and how

Buddhism as a universalizing religion in the first millennium was influenced by many different factors during the time it spread across Asia. Buddhism both adapted and resisted some of these factors. As a result of these factors Buddhism transformed, created new forms of art and literature, and also universalized Asia. Buddhism was also able to surpass several features such as distance and differing cultures but was resisted by other influences

In Rachel Laudan’s “Chapter 3: Buddhism Transforms the Cuisines of South and East Asia, 260 B.C.E – 800 C.E.” of her Book, Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History, she shares her perspective on the role Buddhism played in transforming the cuisines of Asia. Buddhism is a universal religion with various branches that became prominent in the third century B.C.E. when people began to question separate state sacrificial religion and transition to a universal religion (Laudan pg. 128). Along with this religious transition came a transition in cuisine as well. The earliest Buddhist cuisine contained steamed or boiled rice, sugar and ghee, shunned meat, and

There are many religions and sacred texts that have shaped complete civilizations and cultures. They have varied in their theories of creation and how man should live and act towards each other and nature. The more I study religions and sacred text the more I see that for the most part they are alike. Most of them share a view of love and peace towards all things living. What varies between them are simply deities. It is these minor differences that cause their followers to completely abstract their sacred text to the point where they have completely deviated from their text and do the opposite of what their text commands. For example

For some, the choice of Vegetarianism is decided based on religious beliefs or practices. Vegetarianism is compatible with the major world religions—the Eastern Religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism) and the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Bahá'í Faith). Among these, it is most commonly practiced by those of the Buddhist, Christian and Islamic faith. Vegetarianism within the Buddhist culture is taught along with the “Four Noble Truths,” which focus on the acts of suffering. Since the Buddhist faith accepts the idea of karma, it is believed that in order to maintain a life of peace and happiness and remain free of suffering, one must refrain from the harming, injuring or killing of any living being. As part of the Christian faith, animal cruelty is forbidden. The teachings of Jesus Christ focus on the ideas of love, compassion, mercy and acceptance. Although the question of eating meat is not directly addressed in Christian doctrine it can be implied that since animals are a creation of God and the idea of love for all of God’s creations is heavily stressed in the Christian faith, then out of Christian love on should lead a life

Buddhism came to the West towards the end of the 19th century. Three major groups of Buddhist practitioners can be identified within American Buddhism. The first group consists of the native-born Americans who have adopted Buddhist teachings over the years. They include Asian, African, and Native American. Another group can be identified as the Buddhist refugees and immigrants who came to the United States and are working to adapt their traditions and practices to the American country. The third group consists of Asian Americans, especially from China or Japan, who have been Buddhist practitioners for several generations. Each group has a particular way of practicing Buddhism, and engages in different efforts to adapt and adopt Buddhism. When

Buddhism was brought to China from India. At first, the people didn’t like the idea of a new

In addition, some bad actions and behaviors that I had in the past would account me for punishments in my afterlife. So those assumptions were not true at all until I learned the concept of karma. Karma can be determined whether if I have done more good things than bad things and vice versa throughout my lifetime. I could adapt the ideas of Buddhism in my moral actions and behaviors even though I do not actually practice Buddhism. Instead of trying to be a professional vegetarian to earn good karma, the important thing is how I attempt to think like a Buddhist and that is helping myself to become a good person and helping to avoid others from getting bad karma. Since humans are known as herbivores in this world, I would still eat meat because it is one of the main nutritional sources to help me survive. I believe the animals killed for everyday meals have their function of supporting human existence. Therefore, this allows us to have the cycle of life and death. I also consider about not eating exotic food because the animals killed for exotic food are usually not raised by humans and live in the wild environments. I had seen people in Vietnam kill animals for exotic food to fulfill new and strange appetite of some customers. I would advise my relatives and friends not to eat those

In the world today there are many religions of different beliefs with vast numbers of followers. However, some of these religions turn to have similarities and differences which defer them from each another.

Buddhists refrain from any wrong thoughts or actions like killing, because it causes suffering and bad karma. This means that they also do not eat any meat or fruit from trees. They must refrain

Given those rules, Chinese Buddhists are not allowed to have meats and seafood which similar to vegan. Some Buddhists are able to have eggs but some are not. They have to find a way to fulfill their essential nutrition such as bean and whole grain. My grandma practices Buddhism, and she doesn’t eat meat or seafood. She has mushroom, egg, fresh vegetables and some vegetarian foods from vegetarian stores. She doesn’t eat food with onions, garlic, scallions,

Religion is another external factors influencing food habits and food culture. Different culture has different religion, different religion has different custom and food is an important part of a religion. Some religion such as Muslims, consider eating pork as a dirty food, and people should not eat them. Buddhism do not recommend members to eat meat, because they think that is cruel to kill an animal and that we should respect them so we should not eat them. Therefore, a lot of Buddhism followers are vegetarians. Hinduism followers do not eat cow because they think that cows are scarce. People who believe in a religion will follow the rules of the religion, so this will influence their food habit. Some religions do not have rules about food, but they have specific food to eat.

not to eat meat. A similar idea can be seen in Buddhism where one of

Buddhism is a religion that is all about finding enlightenment and nirvana. People want to find nirvana, a state of mind in which one is released from fear and desire, so they no longer have to go through reincarnations (Monroe 110). Buddhism is a peaceful religion that doesn't believe in violence. They believe that all live are sacred and deserve to enjoy life whether it be a human or an animal. Buddhists live by a moral code of conduct with a proper control of emotions and thinking. There is a list of the Five Precepts for Right Living. The first one is do not kill, second do not steal, third do not lie, fourth do not consume alcohol, and fifth do not indulge in sexual excesses outside of marriage (Monroe 111). All buddhist search for enlightenment, however deny the existence of an afterlife. They do not believe there is a heaven nor a hell to punish their sins or reward their good deeds (Monroe 108). This means there is no salvation in an afterlife but