Did meat play a role in the Buddha’s death?

It is claimed by some that the Buddha died because he ate putrid meat, thought to be pork. It is also asserted that he condoned eating meat if you did not know, hear or suspect that the animal was killed specifically for your own consumption.

The first point has been researched by scholars and the majority of them conclude it was not meat but a poisonous truffle (a type of mushroom) that killed the Buddha. The word truffles was given as a translation for sukara-maddava. Arthur Waley in his article "Did the Buddha Die of Eating Pork?" says that sukara-maddava has four interpretations:

1. a pigs soft food.
2. pigs delight i.e.; a favorite food of pigs.
3. soft parts of a pig.
4. pig pounded i.e.; food trampled by pigs.

The scholar K. E. Neumann has shown that in Narahari’s, Rajanighantu among the names of medical plants there occurs a whole series of compound words having pig as their first element. For example sukara-kanda means pig bulb; sukara-padika means pigs foot and sukareshita means sought out by pigs. Neumann takes sukara-maddava to mean pigs delight and assumes that it is the name of some type of truffle.

Waley further points out:

Plant names tend to be local and dialectical. It is quite likely that if such an expression sukara-maddava means truffles in Maghada (the Buddha’s home) it might, in the more western and southern centers in India where Pali Buddhism came into existence, have been entirely unknown and therefore misinterpreted.

Edward Thomas referring to the controversial sukara-maddava in his "Life of The Buddha", notes this word however, is not the obvious sukara-mamsa (pig flesh) which we would expect if this were meant.

Mrs. Rhys David in her book "A Manual of Buddhism" casts the "pigs flesh" interpretation into further doubt when she observes;

A food compound of pig flesh (sukara-mamas) does occur in the scriptures, in a Sutta of a curiously unworthy kind where a householder inviting Gotama to dine, goes through quite a menu in a refrained detail. In the literature Maddava is nowhere else associated with meat, and I remain of Rhys David’s opinion that we have here a dish… of a root, such as truffles, much sought by swine, and which may have been called pigs joy. We have such a root - this the critics did not know - in our "pig nut"… the little nut shaped bulbous root which are also called "earth nuts", these are eaten and enjoyed by both pigs and children.

Overview

It should be remembered that the First Precept prohibits killing. It also makes anyone who causes another to take a life equally culpable. One of the forbidden professions is butchering. Specifically the fifth step of the Eight Fold Path as taught by Buddha "Right Livelihood" forbids the following trades to laymen, much less monks: trading in weapons, breathing things, meat, and poisons. Further it was has been stated in various Sutras that monks should pass their drinking water through a strainer before drinking it so as not to kill living things in the water. In fact, one of the items a monk was required to carry was a water strainer!

References to vegetarianism in the scriptures.

It should be noted that there are two main classes of scriptures in Buddhism, those of the Pali Cannon which form the foundation of Theravada Buddhism and the Mahayana which represents the Buddhism of China, Japan, Korea, etc. The Pali Cannon was written around 80 BC and the Mahayana in approximately 100 to 400 AD.

Pro vegetarian references:

Surangama Sutra (Mahayana)

In the Chapter entitled "The enlightenment of others" and the section Prohibition against Killing, page 154. The Buddha said:

"If a man can (control) his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal flesh and wearing animal products, I say he will really be liberated."

Also from the Surangama Sutra:

"The reason for practicing dhyana and seeking to attain Samadhi is to escape from the suffering of life, but in seeking to escape from the suffering ourselves why should we inflict it upon others? Unless you can so control your minds that even the thought of brutal unkindness and killing is abhorrent, you will never be able to escape from the bondage of the world’s life…After my Parinirvana in the last kalpa different kinds of ghosts will be encountered everywhere deceiving people and teaching them that they can eat meat and still attain enlightenment… How can a bhikshu, who hopes to become a deliverer of others, himself be living on the flesh of other sentient beings?"

Brahmajala Sutra, (What the Teaching is Not), from the Pali Canon; "Long Discourses of the Buddha", Sutta 1: Translation by Maurice Walshe pages 69 and 70.

"Whereas some ascetics and Brahmins, feeding on the food of the faithful, remain addicted to the enjoyment of stored-up goods such as food, drink, clothing, carriages, beds, perfumes and meat, the ascetic Gotama refrains from such enjoyment."

Lankavatara Sutra (Mahayana) translated from Sanskrit by D. T. Suzuki. This Sutra was a discussion of the fundamental concepts of Mahayana Buddhism. Chapter Eight is entirely devoted to the prohibition of meat eating.

"The Blessed One said this to him: For innumerable reasons, Mahamati, the Boddhisattva, whose nature is compassion, is not to eat any meat."

"Now, Mahamati, the food I have permitted (my disciples to take) is gratifying to all wise people but is avoided by the unwise; it is productive of many merits, it keeps away many evils; and it has been prescribed by the ancient Rishis. It comprises rice, barley, wheat, kidney beans, beans, lentils, etc., clarified butter, oil, honey, molasses, treacle, sugar cane, coarse sugar, etc.; food prepared with these is proper food."

"If, Mahamati, meat is not eaten by anybody for any reason, there will be no destroyer of life. Mahamati, in the majority of cases the slaughtering of innocent living beings is done for pride and very rarely for other causes."

"It is not true, Mahamati, that meat is proper food and permissible for the Sravaka ( a hearer, hence a pupil or beginner) when (the victim) was not killed by himself, when he did not order others to kill it. When it was not specially meant for him."

Scripture of Brahma’s Net translated from the Chinese by Rev. Hubert Nearman with Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett and Rev. Daizui MacPhillamy as consultants and editors. Page 138.

Third Less Grave Precept:

On eating meat.

"Disciples of the Buddha, should you willingly and knowingly eat flesh, you defile yourself by acting contrary to this less grave Precept. Pray, let us not eat any flesh or meat whatsoever coming from living beings."

Pro meat eating references:

Pali Canon, Vinaya Pitaka, Chapter on Devadata (Buddha’s first cousin).

The Buddha is reported to have said:

"I have allowed fish and meat that is pure in the three aspects; when it is not seen or heard or suspected to have been killed for one personally."

The above may be found in "The Life of the Buddha" by Bhikkhu Nanamoli pg. 267.

Pali Canon, Majjhima Nikaya, Javaka Sutta, verse 5

"Jivaka, I say that there are three instances in which meat should not be eaten: when it is seen, heard, or suspected (that the living being has been slaughtered for the bhikkhu).

I say that meat should not be eaten in these three instances. I say that there are three instances in which meat may be eaten: when it is not seen, not heard, and not suspected (that the living being has been slaughtered for the bhikkhu). I say that meat may be eaten in these three instances.

The above may be found in "The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha" by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi pg. 474.

Summary:

It should be remembered that in the Buddha’s time the monks existed solely by begging and that it was not possible to turn away meat without offending the giver or for that matter, the animal from which the meat came. Further it was not always possible to have vegetables due to climatic and soil conditions as evidenced by the following taken from the Chapter on "The Enlightenment of Others" / Prohibition against killing in the Surangama Sutra, pg. 153:

"Ananda, I permit the Bhikkhus to eat only the five kinds of pure flesh which are the product of my transcendental power of transformation and not of animal slaughter. You, Brahman, live in a country where vegetables do not grow because it is too damp and hot and because of all the gravel and rock. I use my power of compassion to provide you with illusory meat to satisfy your appetite. How then, after my nirvana, can you eat the flesh of living beings and so pretend to be my disciple?"

In the Lankavatara Sutra the Buddha said; "Mahamati, in this long course of transmigration here, there is not one living being that, having assumed the form of a living being, has not been your mother, or father, or brother, or sister, or son, or daughter, or the one or the other, in various degrees of kinship; and when acquiring another form of life may live as a beast, as a domestic animal, as a bird, or as a womb-born, or as something standing in some relationship to you; (this being so) how can the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva who desires to approach all living beings as if they were himself and to practice the Buddha-truths, eat the flesh of any living being that is of the same nature as himself?

The Buddha may have permitted monks to eat meat under very limited circumstances. Would he allow monks to eat meat today? It is very doubtful, as there are many alternatives to meat and the Buddha clearly indicated that not eating meat was preferable if at all possible.