Milk, Cheese and the Second Precept

I’d like to talk about the consumption of dairy products mainly in relation to the 2nd Buddhist Precept: “Do not take what is not given”.

Many students of Buddhism are vegetarians, and for those that are not I wouldn’t even know where to begin debating with them as the logical inconsistency between eating meat and the 1st Precept concerning not killing is so glaringly obvious I can’t understand how anyone could not see it.

But many do consume milk and cheese and I’m not talking about those in resource starved, agriculturally poor, or famine ridden areas of the world, I talking about westerners in first world countries. These people think milk and cheese is okay, but I’d like to show how they violate not just the 2nd precept concerning stealing but also the first concerning killing.

Now of course I’m the first to say that the precepts are not dogma and its up to everyone to interpret them themselves and deepen their own understanding of them as they go on, but for what its worth here’s my understanding.

Why Am I a Veggie?

People often ask me why I’m a vegan and they often have all sorts of preconceived notions about what my reasons must be, most of which are usually wrong. So I thought I’d put down my answer in writing as I can never quite convey it correctly through speech or at least not in the single sound-byte that people usually want me to answer with. So here’s the answer(s):

Top 10 Techniques to Piss off a Vegan/Vegetarian

From time to time I get slagged by my friends and co-workers for being a vegan nut-job. But frankly none of them are very good at it, so I thought I’d put together this guide on the top 10 techniques (in no particular order) on how to really get under the skin of a veggie and infuriate them.