Question:  Is it a sin to eat meat?

The Very Venerable Kalu Rinpoche:  It is a great sin to eat meat, but
there are different levels of fault - the one who kills, the one who buys,
the one who cooks, and the one who eats - at each level the fault lessens.
For the one who eats the meat, the fault is not so great.  When a lama
eats meat, three different levels are possible: If a superior lama
(lama-rab) eats meat, he is meditating on the deity body and making an
offering of it, thus transforming it into dutsi.  In this way he is
creating virtue by eating meat.

For a lama of medium ability, he can have compassion towards the animal
whose meat he is eating.  He can say mantras and blow them onto the meat,
and since the body of this animal was of the lower three realms, this is
also good.  A bad lama may eat meat just because he likes it.  He thinks
today he feels like eating meat and so he does so for his own pleasure,
with no feeling of compassion for the animal.

The different yanas have different teachings of the Buddha on eating meat.
According to Hinayana teachings, one should never eat meat.  According to
the Mahayana, it can be done.  According to the Vajrayana it can be
transformed into dutsi.  If we eat meat with compassion and think we have
a connection with this animal, then the fault is very small.  In Tibet
people used to dry meat in a special way, cutting it up and leaving a
small piece of bone with the flesh still on it to be dried.  Then many
mantras were said over it and when the flesh was eaten, this piece of bone
was saved and used for holy purposes, such as making into tsa tsa (small
chorten), so there was much virtue in doing this. In India this process is
not possible, so it is not as good to eat meat here.

It is a sin to eat meat so it is very good to give it up.  But when we see
a lama or tulku eating meat we should not think badly of them, as they are
bodhisattvas.  Also, if there is a sin involved then it is the lama's, but
if we have bad thoughts towards the lama, then the sin is our own.  If
there is a particular sin in eating meat, the fault will come to the lama
who eats it, but if we have wrong views(log-ta), then the fault will be
ours.

To give you an example of such a wrong view, there was once a very old
lady who recived many teachings from a great lama.  He taught her the
nature of sin and virtue, telling her it was bad to drink chang and eat
meat - yet he did these things himself.  So the old lady said to him,
"Because you drink chang and eat meat, you will be reborn in hell.
Because of your teachings on virtue, which I practice, and because of all
the mantras I recite, I will have a much higher rebirth."

Basically, it is not good to eat meat, but if you do not eat it, it is
best if this comes out of compassion; however, if you do not eat meat
because you think it is a sin, this is still good. For the Kagyu lineage,
Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa and Milarepa all used to eat meat, drink chang, and
have wives, but the first through the seventh Karmapa did not eat meat.
One of the signs of the seven tulkus of Karmapa abstaining from meat was
the fact that the Seventh Karmapa cast no shadow and had no lice on his
body.  Karmapa now does eat meat, but we should not think that those who
do not eat meat are better than those who do.
---------------------------------------------
Dharma Teachings Given at Samdrup Darjay Ling, Sonada, Summer, 1973.
pages 16 & 17, from notes of Lisa Anderson (Elizabeth Zerzan)
pub. 1990 by KDK, 1892 Fell St., San Francisco CA 94117 (415) 752-5454