Following immediately upon this declaration the Pancha Sila, commonly called “The Five Precepts”, are recited. Again “precepts” is hardly the right word, although it is a possible translation of sila; “pledges” comes much nearer the fact, though hardly permissible as a translation. These are often compared to the Ten Commandments of Judaism; but in reality they differ greatly in character and, though fewer in number, are much more comprehensive. They are as follows:
(1) I observe the precept to refrain from destruction of life.
(2) I observe the precept to refrain from taking that which is not mine.
(3) I observe the precept to refrain from unlawful sexual intercourse.
(4) I observe the precept to refrain from falsehood.
(5) I observe the precept to refrain from using intoxicating liquors or stupefying drugs.
It can hardly fail to strike the intelligent person that, as Colonel Olcott writes:
One who observes these strictly must escape from every cause productive of human misery, for if we study history we shall find that it has all sprung from one or another of these causes. The far-seeing wisdom of the Lord Buddha is most plainly shown in the first, third, and fifth, for the taking of life, sensuality and the use of intoxicants cause at least ninety-five per cent of the suffering among men.
It is interesting to notice how each of these precepts goes further than the corresponding Jewish commandment. Instead of being told to do no murder, we find ourselves enjoined to take no life whatever; instead of being commanded not to steal, we have the more far-reaching precept not to take that which does not belong to us, which would obviously cover the acceptance of praise not honestly due to us, and many another case quite outside of what is commonly called stealing. It will be observed also that the third of these precepts includes a great deal more than the seventh of the commandments of Moses, forbidding not only one particular type of unlawful intercourse, but all types. Instead of being forbidden to bear false witness in a court of law, we are enjoined to avoid falsehood altogether. I have often thought what a .good thing it would have been for all these European countries which have taken up the teachings of Christ if the legendary Moses had included in his decalogue the fifth of the Buddhist precepts—the instruction to touch no intoxicating liquor nor stupefying drugs. How much simpler would be all our essential problems if that commandment were observed in England and America as it is observed in Buddhist countries!
It is also very characteristic of the Buddhist faith that there is here no commandment “Thou shalt not do this or that”—no order given by a Deity or a teacher, but simply the quiet promise made by each man that he will refrain from certain actions which are obviously undesirable.
How Theosophy Came To Me:
http://www.singaporelodge.org/htctm.htm
54. THE SIN OF SLAUGHTER
55. Hitherto we have been speaking of what we have called the physical and selfish considerations which. should make a man give up the eating of this dead flesh, and turn him, even though only for his own sake, to the purer diet. Let us now think for a few moments of the moral and unselfish considerations connected with his duty towards others. The first of these - and this does seem to me a most terrible thing - is the awful sin of unnecessarily murdering these animals. Those who live in Chicago know well how this ghastly ceaseless slaughter goes on in their midst, how they feed the greater part of the world by wholesale butchery, and how the money made in this abominable business is stained with blood, every coin of it. I have shown clearly upon irreproachable testimony that all this is unnecessary; and if it is unnecessary it is a crime.
56. The destruction of life is always a crime. There may be certain cases in which it is the lesser of two evils; but here it is needless and without a shadow of justification, for it happens only because of the selfish unscrupulous greed of those who coin money out of the agonies of the animal kingdom in order to pander to the perverted tastes of those who are sufficiently depraved to desire such loathsome aliment. Remember it is not only those who do the obscene work, but those who by feeding on this dead flesh encourage them and make their crime remunerative, who are guilty before God of this awful thing. Every person who partakes of this unclean food has his share in the indescribable guilt and suffering by which it has been obtained. It is universally recognised in law that qui facit per alium facit per se - whatsoever a man does through another he does himself.
57. A man will often say: "But it would make no difference to all this horror if I alone ceased to eat meat."That is untrue and disingenuous. First, it would make a difference, for although you may consume only a pound or two each day, that would in time amount to the weight of an animal. Secondly, it is not a question of amount, but of complicity in a crime; and if you partake of the results of a crime, you are helping to make it remunerative, and so you share in the guilt. No honest man can fail to see that this is so. But when men's lower lusts are concerned they are usually dishonest in their view, and decline to face the plain facts. There surely can be no difference of opinion as to the proposition that all this horrible unnecessary slaughter is indeed a terrible crime.
58. Another point to be remembered is that there is dreadful cruelty connected with the transport of these miserable animals, both by land and sea, and there is often dreadful cruelty in the slaughtering itself. Those who seek to justify these loathsome crimes will tell you that an endeavour is made to murder the animals as rapidly and painlessly as possible; but you have only to read the reports to see that in many cases these intentions are not carried out, and appalling suffering ensues.
59. THE DEGRADATION OF THE SLAUGHTERMAN
60. Yet another point to be considered is the wickedness of causing degradation and sin in other men. If you yourselves had to use the knife or the pole-axe, and slaughter the animal before you could feed upon its flesh, you would realise the sickening nature of the task and would soon refuse to perform it. Would the delicate ladies who devour sanguinary beefsteaks like to see their sons working as slaughtermen ? If not, then they have no right to put this task upon some other woman's son. We have no right to impose upon a fellow-citizen work which we ourselves should decline to do. It may be said that we force no one to undertake this abominable means of livelihood; but that is a mere tergiversation, for in eating this horrible food we are making a demand that some one shall brutalise himself, that some one shall degrade himself below the level of humanity. You know that a class of men has been created by the demand for this food - a class of men which has an exceedingly bad reputation. Naturally those who are brutalised by such unclean work as this prove themselves brutal in other relations as well. They are savage in their disposition and bloodthirsty in their quarrels; and I have heard it stated that in many a murder case evidence has been found that the criminal employed the peculiar twist of the knife which is characteristic of the slaughterman. You must surely recognise that here is an unspeakably horrible work, and that if you take any part in this terrible business - even that of helping to support it - you are putting another man in the position of doing (not in the least for your need, but merely for the gratification of your lusts and passions) work that you would under no circumstances consent to do for yourself.
61. Then we should surely remember that we are all of us hoping for the time of universal peace and kindness - a golden age when war shall be no more, a time when man shall be so far removed from strife and anger that the whole conditions of the world will be different from those which now prevail. Do you not think that the animal kingdom also will have its share in that good time coming - that this horrible nightmare of wholesale slaughter will be removed from it ? The really civilised nations of the world know far better than this; it is only that we of the West are as yet a young race, and still have many of the crudities of youth; otherwise we could not bear these things amongst us even for a day. Beyond all question the future is with the vegetarian. It seems certain that in the future - and I hope it maybe in the near future - we shall be looking back upon this time with disgust and with horror. In spite of all its wonderful discoveries, in spite of its marvelous machinery, in spite of the enormous fortunes that have been made in it, I am certain that our descendants will look back upon this age as one of only partial civilisation, and in fact but little removed from savagery. One of the arguments by which they will prove this will assuredly be that we allowed among us this wholesale, unnecessary slaughter of innocent animals - that we actually battened on it and made money out of it, and that we even created a class of beings who did this dirty work for us, arid that we were not ashamed to profit by the result of their degradation.
72. MAN'S DUTY TOWARDS NATURE
73. Then there is the far more important unselfish side of the question - that of man's duty towards nature. Every religion has taught that man should put himself always on the side of the will of God in the world, on the side of good as against evil, of evolution as against retrogression. The man who ranges himself on the side of evolution realises the wickedness of destroying life; for he knows that, just as he is here in this physical body in order that he may learn the lessons of this plane, so is the animal occupying his body for the same reason, that through it he may gain experience at his lower stage. He knows that the life behind the animal is the Divine Life, that all life in the world is Divine; the animals therefore are truly our brothers, even though they may be younger brothers, and we can have no sort of right to take their lives for the gratification of our perverted tastes - no right to cause them untold agony and suffering merely to satisfy our degraded and detestable lusts.
74. We have brought things to such a pass with our miscalled"sport" and our wholesale slaughterings, that all wild creatures fly from the sight of us. Does that seem like the universal brotherhood of God's creatures ? Is that your idea of the golden age of world-wide kindliness that is to come - a condition when every living thing flees from the face of man because of his murderous instincts ? There is an influence flowing back upon us from all this - an effect which you can hardly realise unless you are able to see how it looks when regarded with the sight of the higher plane. Every one of these creatures which you so ruthlessly murder in this way has its own thoughts and feelings with regard to all this; it has horror, pain and indignation, and an intense but unexpressed feeling of the hideous injustice of it all. The whole atmosphere about us is full of it. Twice lately I have heard from psychic people that they felt the awful aura or surroundings of Chicago even many miles away from it. Mrs. Besant herself told me the same thing years ago in England - that long before she came in sight of Chicago she felt the horror of it and the deadly pall of depression descending upon her, and asked: " Where are we, and what is the reason that there should be this terrible feeling in the air ? " To sense the effect as clearly as this is beyond the reach of the person who is not developed ; but, though all the inhabitants may not be directly conscious of it and recognise it as Mrs. Besant did, they may be sure that they are suffering from it unconsciously, and that that terrible vibration of horror and fear and injustice is acting upon every one of .them, even though they do not know it.
Vegetarianism and Occultism:
http://www.anandgholap.net/Vegetarianism_And_Occultism-CWL.htm
http://leadbeater.info/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._Leadbeater
