Sila and Compassion: A Dialogue on Dairy in Vipassana
Reflections on Dhamma Practice and Ethical Choices
In this modern society it is hard to practice sila with utmost fidelity. Nevertheless, all of us try to practice sila as much as possible and reasonable given the constraints we all face. Goenka ji, as with all his decisions, made wise, deliberate and appropriate decisions. And, I am certain this decision was made with genuine goodness for all concerned. His own metta chanting song indicates that he wishes all beings well, all beings happiness. It is clear from his teachings/tapes that he extended his compassion to all beings, not just human beings.
And, We all are certain, that when Goenka ji made the decision to choose vegetarian food, he did it out of compassion. We are in the health profession, and we had no idea about the dairy business and we just had the notion that cows just produce milk and never made the connection, that cows have to be repeatedly artificially impregnated (human equivalent of rape) for a steady supply of milk. We did not know that the life of dairy cow is reduced to 5-6 years (normal lifespan is 15-20 years) because of the repeat pregnancies and then the cow is slaughtered/killed for its meat. We were not aware that when a male calf is born, it would be immediately sent to slaughter or sent to veal farm, where the calf is kept immobile for several weeks and then slaughtered/killed. We have no reason to believe that Goenka ji would know any of this. Also, things were probably not as bad as this in India 30-40 years ago, as they are now with factory farming in the developed countries.
The fact remains that in this country at the present time, if one chooses to consume dairy, he or she is directly participating in cruelty towards these animals. No doubt this is not the only form of cruelty that we participate in. We have our home exterminated for insects from time to time, but this is done with the thought that there's no reasonable alternative. Even so, we try to keep things clean and take other measures to even minimize this practice. With milk and yogurt, there are many reasonable alternatives. We don't have to participate in the cruelty that the dairy industry imposes on these gentle creatures. This article gives good pictorial representation of the reality of cruelty in dairy industry: https://www.peta.org/features/dairy-industry-cruelty/
Clarifications and Recommendations
We are not asking anyone on the board, or any of the servers or other volunteers to become vegan. If the servers or the teachers would want to consume dairy in their daily lives or even if they are at the course, that is their choice. We want the students who come to Vipassana to have the best course possible and a necessary prerequisite of this is the best sila possible. The organizers of the course are partly responsible for guarding the sila of the students (they are monks) while they are at the course. And, from the previously mentioned facts it is clear that serving/consuming dairy is breaking the one of the 5 precepts and is not in line with Dhamma.
So to practice Ahimsa, to provide the best food and atmosphere for the students for meditation, and to be fully in line with the spirit of Buddha's teachings and Goenka ji's guidelines, dairy should not be served to the students while they are taking a course.
As it is usually mentioned that Shri Goenka ji draw the line at vegetarian food and it is also printed in the vipassana code of conduct handout we give to the students. The wonderful part is that vegetarian really means eating foods from the plant kingdom. The correct term for someone taking milk and plants is lacto-vegetarian, and one who chooses plants, dairy and eggs, is correctly referred to as lacto-ovo-vegetarian. So no reprints of the handouts would be need to be done, because handouts mention that 'simple and wholesome vegetarian food' is served at Vipassana. That will now be true in the strictest sense and in accordance with guidelines laid by Goenka ji.
Many other students have also raised the concerns about use of dairy in vipassana. Please look at the following link where an Australian meditator started a petition to have vipassana courses dairy free. This petition was signed by more than 600 vipassana students. It is interesting to read the 'Reasons to Sign' given by vipassana meditators from across the globe: https://www.change.org/p/me-turn-vipassana-vegan
The good news is that with present menu of the vipassana center it is very easy to make transition to a dairy free food for students. To give a fair chance it will be good to conduct few courses a with menu free of animal products and see the response from students and organizers. We are more than willing to work on that in details. We have done some home work on this and made some suggestions presented in the attached pdf file.
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