Field Trip #2: Shi Lai Temple Visit and Interview with Venerable Miao Yu
Topics: Begin your research project on animal rights. Visit a religious center with a strong vegetarian stance and find out why they follow a non-meat diet. In other words, discover the philosophy behind their beliefs. Then having conducting your research/interview write a 2-3 page observation paper detailing your findings. Include a one page background of the organization; detailed description of what you saw, heard, learned, who you interviewed and what you discussed – include date of visit and who you went with; and finally, a reflection on what you learned. Details are important.
Non-Meat Diet From the Buddhist Stance
For my second field trip for the summer ethics class, I am asked to visit a religious center with a strong vegetarian stance and find out why they follow a non-meat diet. To complete the field trip requirement, I visited the Shi Lai Buddhist Temple with my mother on August 4, 2006.
Shi Lai Temple is a majestic temple located in Rowland Heights. It encompasses 15 acres and a floor area of 102,432 sq. ft. The architectures of the temple adopt the styles of Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings in China. Beautiful gardens and statuary of traditional ancient Chinese monasteries can be seen throughout the temple. The temple is a joy to visit for religious people and non-religious people alike.
Venerable Master Hsing-Yun, a head religious figure recognized world-wide for his dedication in promoting Humanistic Buddhism, is the founder of Shi Lai Temple. Humanistic Buddhism emphasizes salient teachings of the Buddha, which encourages people to embrace all traditions and integrate kindness, compassion, joyfulness, and equanimity into their lives. ‘
Since its creation, Shi Lai Temple is committed to serve as a bridge between the East and West so that these great teachings of Buddha may benefit people and those who surround them by cultivating their wisdom and helping them understand the true nature of all things.
With the concept of propagating Humanist Buddhism to all corners of the world in mind, Shi Lai Temple attempts to achieve its mission through various methods including spreading the dharma with cultural activities, nourishing Buddhist missionaries through educations, benefiting the community with charitable programs, and purifying human hearts through Buddhist practice.
Because the field trip requires an interview of a head religious figure on the topic of ethics in general and animal rights more specifically, I made an appointment with Venerable Miao-Yu to discuss the topics with her. Venerable Miao-Yu is someone with charisma who draws people to her. During the interview, she spoke very softly and politely, and shared her knowledge with me patiently while I took notes.
When asked about the Buddhist view in supporting vegetarianism, Venerable Miao-Yu explained that there are several reasons. The first and most well known reason is compassion. Buddhism values compassion heavily. Compassion is exhibited by treating others with equality, and regarding friends and foes with impartiality. Therefore, to treat animals with equality and not see them as food is a good practice of compassion.
Secondly, Buddhism teaches the belief of karma, or the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny. Killing brings bad karma. Eating meat is a indirect form of killing because the market demand of meat leads to the killing of animals. Thus, it is good for a person’s own sake to follow non-meat diets.
Lastly and most importantly, Buddhism teaches the belief of reincarnation, or the rebirth of the soul in another body. Combining the ideas of karma and reincarnation together, a person’s conducts lead to his or her rebirth in the life form of celestial, human, spirit, and animal. As a result, a person may reincarnate and become an animal after his or her death if he or she has acted unethically. So through Buddhist teachings, people believe that every dish of meat may be their parents from their past life. Because people do not want to eat their parents, they do not eat animals.
Satisfied with finding the answer to the Buddhist stance on vegetarianism, I then asked Venerable Miao-Yu about the Buddhist view on ethics in general. Venerable Mail-Yu responds that Buddhists live abide by five principles: Thou shall not kill; thou shall not rob or steal; thou shall not offend others sexually; though shall not convict the innocent; and thou shall not drink alcohol.
All five principles are based on the concept of respect: The first principle forbids people from killing because it wants people to respects others’ lives; the second principle forbids people to rob or steal because it wants people to respect others’ wealth and property; the third principle forbids people to offend other sexually because it wants people to respect others’ dignity; the fourth principle forbids people to convict the innocent because it wants people to respect others’ name; and the last principle forbids people to consume alcohol because it wants people to respect their own wisdom.
Having explained the five principles, Venerable Miao-Yu added that the purpose of the principles is to provide a guideline that people can live by, and not a restriction that people can use on others. Many people use the principles to limit the conducts of others, but they forget that the application of the principles should start from themselves.
The newfound wisdom of the five principles draws a perfect ending for my long interview with Venerable Miao-Yu. In sum, I have learned a lot of knowledge in the area of Buddhism and ethics from this field trip. On the topic of vegetarianism alone, I was impressed that there are so many reasons behind the following of non-meat diets.
Moreover, I was amazed by how compassion, a simple and common term, can be the origin of so many Buddhist teachings. It was also interesting to know that the famous five principles of Buddhism are actually all based on the idea of respect. The interview has helped me see behind everyday ethics and understand their true meanings.
Non-Meat Diet From the Buddhist Stance
For my second field trip for the summer ethics class, I am asked to visit a religious center with a strong vegetarian stance and find out why they follow a non-meat diet. To complete the field trip requirement, I visited the Shi Lai Buddhist Temple with my mother on August 4, 2006.
Shi Lai Temple is a majestic temple located in Rowland Heights. It encompasses 15 acres and a floor area of 102,432 sq. ft. The architectures of the temple adopt the styles of Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings in China. Beautiful gardens and statuary of traditional ancient Chinese monasteries can be seen throughout the temple. The temple is a joy to visit for religious people and non-religious people alike.
Venerable Master Hsing-Yun, a head religious figure recognized world-wide for his dedication in promoting Humanistic Buddhism, is the founder of Shi Lai Temple. Humanistic Buddhism emphasizes salient teachings of the Buddha, which encourages people to embrace all traditions and integrate kindness, compassion, joyfulness, and equanimity into their lives. ‘
Since its creation, Shi Lai Temple is committed to serve as a bridge between the East and West so that these great teachings of Buddha may benefit people and those who surround them by cultivating their wisdom and helping them understand the true nature of all things.
With the concept of propagating Humanist Buddhism to all corners of the world in mind, Shi Lai Temple attempts to achieve its mission through various methods including spreading the dharma with cultural activities, nourishing Buddhist missionaries through educations, benefiting the community with charitable programs, and purifying human hearts through Buddhist practice.
Because the field trip requires an interview of a head religious figure on the topic of ethics in general and animal rights more specifically, I made an appointment with Venerable Miao-Yu to discuss the topics with her. Venerable Miao-Yu is someone with charisma who draws people to her. During the interview, she spoke very softly and politely, and shared her knowledge with me patiently while I took notes.
When asked about the Buddhist view in supporting vegetarianism, Venerable Miao-Yu explained that there are several reasons. The first and most well known reason is compassion. Buddhism values compassion heavily. Compassion is exhibited by treating others with equality, and regarding friends and foes with impartiality. Therefore, to treat animals with equality and not see them as food is a good practice of compassion.
Secondly, Buddhism teaches the belief of karma, or the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny. Killing brings bad karma. Eating meat is a indirect form of killing because the market demand of meat leads to the killing of animals. Thus, it is good for a person’s own sake to follow non-meat diets.
Lastly and most importantly, Buddhism teaches the belief of reincarnation, or the rebirth of the soul in another body. Combining the ideas of karma and reincarnation together, a person’s conducts lead to his or her rebirth in the life form of celestial, human, spirit, and animal. As a result, a person may reincarnate and become an animal after his or her death if he or she has acted unethically. So through Buddhist teachings, people believe that every dish of meat may be their parents from their past life. Because people do not want to eat their parents, they do not eat animals.
Satisfied with finding the answer to the Buddhist stance on vegetarianism, I then asked Venerable Miao-Yu about the Buddhist view on ethics in general. Venerable Mail-Yu responds that Buddhists live abide by five principles: Thou shall not kill; thou shall not rob or steal; thou shall not offend others sexually; though shall not convict the innocent; and thou shall not drink alcohol.
All five principles are based on the concept of respect: The first principle forbids people from killing because it wants people to respects others’ lives; the second principle forbids people to rob or steal because it wants people to respect others’ wealth and property; the third principle forbids people to offend other sexually because it wants people to respect others’ dignity; the fourth principle forbids people to convict the innocent because it wants people to respect others’ name; and the last principle forbids people to consume alcohol because it wants people to respect their own wisdom.
Having explained the five principles, Venerable Miao-Yu added that the purpose of the principles is to provide a guideline that people can live by, and not a restriction that people can use on others. Many people use the principles to limit the conducts of others, but they forget that the application of the principles should start from themselves.
The newfound wisdom of the five principles draws a perfect ending for my long interview with Venerable Miao-Yu. In sum, I have learned a lot of knowledge in the area of Buddhism and ethics from this field trip. On the topic of vegetarianism alone, I was impressed that there are so many reasons behind the following of non-meat diets.
Moreover, I was amazed by how compassion, a simple and common term, can be the origin of so many Buddhist teachings. It was also interesting to know that the famous five principles of Buddhism are actually all based on the idea of respect. The interview has helped me see behind everyday ethics and understand their true meanings.
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