Some people argue that eating vegetables is not sin, but eating animals is.
Most people think animals have life, but plants don’t have any life or feelings, therefore eating plants is not a sin, but this is not true, please read http://noneism.org/do-plants-have-feelings/.
The law of karma advances the notion according to which every action has a consequence. Therefore, if killing animals is a sin, then killing plants is also a sin, because killing plants has as consequence killing animal life. Let me explain in a different way: if we assume plants haven’t got life, then still, in order to harvest “x” kg of rice or wheat or vegetables, we need to destroy forest land or paddy fields, therefore we are killing “x” amount of lives like worms, insects, small animals, birds, reptiles, pests, weeds and other types of life from the plantation land. So harvesting rice means indirectly killing other lives, therefore if killing animals is sin, then harvesting plants is also a sin, so we cannot eat anything because whatever we eat is sin. This makes no sense, so the statement “killing animals is a sin” cannot be true.
Lions only eat meat, therefore their survival is dependent on killing other animals. If lions commit sin, then that’s the creator’s fault, isn’t it? Similar scenario: a fisherman catches thousands of fish, therefore he is killing thousands of lives everyday, but his family is depending on his income, so where is his sin?
Karma in Buddhism refers to willful actions, but a life form has been turning into meal for another life form since the beginning of time, therefore, in my view, killing animals is not a sin, but without a real need, it is a waste of wonderful life, because everything in the universe is meaningful, according to the Buddhist philosophy.
I mention one form is turning into different form i.e. energy cannot be destroyed etc. About 2500 years ago, the great scientist Siddhartha Gautama Buddha said these three universal truths below:
1.Nothing is lost in the universe
2.Everything Changes
3.Law of Cause and Effect – read more on http://noneism.org/karma/
Karma
Karma is the concept of “action” or “deed”, understood as that which causes the entire cycle of “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality”cause and effect. “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu”Hindu, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainist”Jain, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist”Buddhist and “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhism”Sikh religions have this concept.
Karma according to my knowledge and the Buddhist philosophy means whatever action you do, you will get appropriate result. For instance, at a farm, if you plant rice, you will get more rice, while if you let weed grow, you will get more weed. In other words, if I cheat someone I will gain cheating, because in reality I cheated myself. Are you wondering how is it possible?
Let me explain! Read this example: A friend gives me some money as a loan and later-on he asks for his money back. I give him a lot of excuses, such as I will pay next week and so on. He waits till next week, then he calls me again on my mobile I tell him: Sorry, I’ll give it to you next week and so on. Next week I do not answer my mobile, so he comes to my house and rangs my door bell the I I tell my wife to open the door and tell him I am not in the house, so my friend goes and comes back a week later. Then, I say to my son to go and tell him that dad is not available. Now, from this example you can see that I taught my wife and children how to lie and cheat. Now they have learned cheating as they saw me as an example. They think borrowing money is easy and there is no need to work hard, but in reality I can only cheat for a while because once everyone knows I am a cheater, no one would lend me money. I lost respect in the community and now I start cheating the government, taxman and so on, so I might end up in big trouble. Furthermore, my wife may start to cheat on me, as well as my child, passing this ideas on to his children. If I hadn’t cheated on my friend, I would have learned how to earn money and how to to pay back his loan and I would have lived in peace. My child also would have learned those good things.
Newton’s third law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The law of karma says that for every action there is an equal and appropriate result or consequence.
Keywords: karma in Buddhism
law of karma
Buddhist philosophy