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Stainless Light, The commentary on the Kalachakra-tantra

It is said that Lord Buddha predicted that the yogis of the Mantrayana would eat meat, but that meat itself is always the product of killing. If people did not slaughter them for meat, animals would remain unharmed. Without a meat eater, there is no animal killer. For this reason both consumer and slaughterer are both guilty of the act of killing. Furthermore, practitioners of the Secret Mantra must observe daily the fourth samaya * (of the fourteen root samayas). (...) This was surely the Lord's instruction.

Venerable Milarepa said:

Harmless beasts you slay and eat;
You make and taste a drink to make you drunk
And lay the cause for the Reviving Hell.
Oh, do not jump into the gulf with open eyes.
Take care, you gods and humankind, take care!
When pricked by thorns, you cannot bear the pain,
And yet you kill and eat the flesh of living beings.
How harsh will be the prickles of Reviving Hell,
When skin will be flayed from your burning limbs!
So take away your dreadful blood-red meat.
Here it is, unspoiled and quite untouched;
Take it now and use it as you wish!


* The fourth samaya is not to commit the root downfall of abandoning love for living beings.

(Source: FB, p. 81)

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