Jnanavajra
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is now 14 years old
Our Encyclopedia recently received a wonderful opportunity for a major renewal on its 14th birthday . After many years of growing our Encyclopedia had become bit slow and sometimes even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for his great work in upgrading the server, website and all of the infrastructure and helping make TBE fast and reliable again for everyone!
We kindly ask our readers to help us cover the cost of this important upgrade and also help with the ongoing costs of keeping the Encyclopedia alive and freely available.
or card
Every little donation helps and every one is deeply appreciated. 🙏🙏🙏
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM 🙏🙏🙏
May blessings shower down on all of yous 🙏🙏🙏
Jnanavajra | T. ye shes rdo je |
Commenting on the Lankavatara-sutra, the Indian abbot Jnanavajra wrote as follows,
The entire ran ge of the Buddha's teachings, starting from the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, with the exposition of the Four Noble Truths, up to and including the teachings of the Vidyadhara-pitaka,* are covered by Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva, and Vidyadhara vows and precepts.
The precepts connected with the consumption of food constitute three gradual steps in a single path.
For this reason, even the meat qualified by threefold purity, which the Sharavakas are permitted to eat, is proscribed for practitioners of the higher vehicles.
The reason for this is to prevent the higher and very important precepts from being impaired.
The flesh of animals that have died by any of the ten natural kinds of death is not denied to the Sharavakas.
But in the higher vehicles, in order to draw carnivorous spirits onto the path, and so that practitioners do no harm, whether directly or indirectly, to living beings, every kind of meat is strictly forbidden, at all times and under all circumstances.
There are no special conditions under which it may be eaten....
One should eat in moderation even the food of sages, which is like medicine. One should always refrain from meat, in the knowledge that it is unwholesome food.
- Vidyadhara-pitaka constitutes, according to Gyalwa Longchenpa and other authorities, a fourth collection of teachings, namely, the tantras, which is added to the Tripitaka (the three collections of the Abhidharma, Sutra, and Vinaya).