Are Buddhists vegetarian?
Some are, some aren’t. I know of no evidence in the Pali Canon to suggest that the Buddha discouraged his lay followers from eating meat. Although some people may point to the first of the five precepts as evidence that the Buddha asked his followers to be vegetarian, this precept only concerns the intentional act of depriving a living being of life, and says nothing about consuming the flesh of an animal that is already dead. Many Buddhists (and, of course, non-Buddhists) do eventually lose their appetite for meat out of compassion for other living creatures, but from the strict Theravada Buddhist perspective, the choice of whether or not to eat meat is purely a matter of personal preference. Theravada monks are forbidden to eat certain kinds of meat,[1] but because their food is provided by the generosity of lay supporters,[2] who may or may not themselves be vegetarian,[3] they are not required to practice strict vegetarianism. Nor are Theravada monks required to eat everything that
