For the full Strawberry Moon (and Summer Solstice), I am delighted to launch a new short video reels series, called “Buddhism in a Nutshell” (available on Instagram and Facebook pages).
This series is to give short (and hopefully easy-to understand) explanations of key fundamental concepts and ideas in Buddhist philosophy and practice.
The first reel is “Why Buddhists are Not Supposed to Eat Animals”. A controversial topic for those Buddhists who actively and willingly choose to eat animals. For those who clearly understand what the Buddha taught on this topic, there is no debate or lack of clarity at all. In fact, we can all see directly the results on animals, the environment and climate change when people eat humans every day (sometimes two or three times per day!).
As the 17th Karmapa, an avid environmentalist and vegetarian himself has taught several times, we do not even need to use Buddhist scriptures to justify abandoning eating animals. We can use our own common sense, intelligence, compassion and empathy to come to this decision.
I hope it will be of benefit in making these ideas more accessible and comprehensible for a wider, general and non-Buddhist audience too. If you have any particular requests for topics for the reels, please let me know!
For more on Buddhism, Eating Animals and Vegetarianism, see the dedicated page on this website, with transcripts, research and articles on the topic. Also, my recent article for Buddhist Global Door Buddhist Teachings on Eating Slaughtered Animals.
Music? The Smiths Meat is Murder.
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 
I jjust heard this story now, that when chattral was in varanasi , he gave and payed for abanquet , and sayed eat what you like , it is I who chose not to eat meat, for myself, you are free to eat what ever you want
I just heard? 🤣 need to know who heard, when and where. Who wrote it down or even better a recording of it. Otherwise its just a totally unreliable source and quote. Like many things that are posted by Facebook pundits on the Internet these days.
In any case even if Rinpoche did say that, which seems highly unlikely given his passionate advocacy of vegetarianism and not eating animals, maybe he was just seeing who would actually follow his example and teachings and who would not. It could be a way for him to check and examine worthy and qualified students. Teachers do that. Also, no disrespect but what Chatrel Rinpoche says is not the point here. It is about what Shakyamuni Buddha said and taught as recorded by very reliable,wise sources and authentic students in the Sutras. All teachings claiming to be Buddhist must be able to show a direct source and lineage from Buddha and be in accordance with what he taught.