Commenting on the Lankavatara-sutra, the Indian abbot Jnanavajra wrote as follows:

The entire ran ge of the Buddha's teachings, starting from the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, with the exposition of the Four Noble Truths, up to and including the teachings of the Vidyadhara-pitaka,* are covered by Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva, and Vidyadhara vows and precepts. The precepts connected with the consumption of food constitute three gradual steps in a single path. For this reason, even the meat qualified by threefold purity, which the Sharavakas are permitted to eat, is proscribed for practitioners of the higher vehicles. The reason for this is to prevent the higher and very important precepts from being impaired. The flesh of animals that have died by any of the ten natural kinds of death is not denied to the Sharavakas. But in the higher vehicles, in order to draw carnivorous spirits onto the path, and so that practitioners do no harm, whether directly or indirectly, to living beings, every kind of meat is strictly forbidden, at all times and under all circumstances. There are no special conditions under which it may be eaten.... One should eat in moderation even the food of sages, which is like medicine. One should always refrain from meat, in the knowledge that it is unwholesome food.

* Vidyadhara-pitaka constitutes, according to Gyalwa Longchenpa and other authorities, a fourth collection of teachings, namely, the tantras, which is added to the Tripitaka (the three collections of the Abhidharma, Sutra, and Vinaya).

(Source: FB, p. 74-75)

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