The Buddhist scripture "Guangben of Precepts" writes very clearly: Buddhism has no requirements for vegetarianism. What Buddhism prohibits is "meat". This meat is not our current concept, it refers to animal foods such as chicken, duck, and fish. The meat we are talking about now is called "Xingxing" in Buddhism, not "Meat". In the Buddhist scriptures, the word meat is not pronounced as hun, but rather as xun, which means smoked and refers to vegetables with a smoky smell. "Meat is the smell of vegetables." "The Brahma Net Sutra" is more specific: "If a Buddha is not allowed to eat the five pungents. Garlic, onions, green onions, orchid onions, and Xingqu are the five pungents." Meat is these five vegetables. The word "荤" starts from the head of the grass instead of from the side of the meat, indicating that the original meaning of "鍤" is a plant rather than an animal. As for why the word "鍤" changed from a plant to an animal, it is difficult to explain in a few words, and will be introduced separately later. Buddhism believes that eating meat dissipates popularity, damages sincerity, and makes it difficult to communicate with gods, so it is strictly prohibited. Twice, I went to the temple to eat vegetarian food and saw onions and garlic in the dishes. It can be seen that the monks in the temple have not yet read the Buddhist scriptures thoroughly. So much food is wasted.

Whether monks can eat meat is based on different situations and should be treated individually without making generalizations. Buddhism is divided into Mahayana and Hinayana. Mahayana is about saving people with one heart and using self-salvation as the means to save others, so you cannot eat any meat. Hinayana seeks to save oneself rather than save others, and is allowed to eat three kinds of "pure meat" (the "three pure meats" are: "one is killed without my eyes seeing it; two is killed for me without hearing it; three is killed for me without any suspicion"). "). For "sick monks", that is, sick monks, a humanitarian policy is implemented, special care is given, and any meat can be eaten.

Nowadays, foreign monks in India, Sri Lanka and other countries, as well as monks from Mongolian, Tibetan, Dai and other ethnic minorities in China, are allowed to eat meat