RelaX, your girl has a great chest! I was in Rotterdam and Amsterdam for work a few years back, and I loved your people and your country. I have never felt as free here in the states. Our culture is lacking, although I am glad to be home. (Wisconsinite forever!) And I have never seen so many healthy, attractive, real people in all my life. I'd better stop. My heart is aching from longing to visit again.
As for eating meat, I talked to a Tibetan friend (layman)and he also says that even if you pay a butcher to kill, you're not getting bad karma. Sounds like a religion gone stale to me. It's probably unfair, but since then I have been sensitive to the difference between "cultural Buddhism" and "fresh Buddhism". Any religion that becomes wrote repetition and/or incorporates rationalizations is in decline, IMHO. The Buddha himself addressed this, and I believe his teaching was to judge actions good or bad in terms relative to the suffering or joy that results. In many ways I feel that we westerners have an advantage in that we seek out the source of Buddhadharma rather than being spoon-fed out parents' beliefs, only to reject them later. --I know I cut Christianity apart while young and critical.
The branch of Buddhism most closely associated with the way of life of the Buddha and his students is called Theravada, which means "elder teachings" among other things. I prefer Zen because it is the result of collection and examination of the Dharma by our ancient chinese friends who were in a similar position, as outsiders examining a new way. I think they did a good job getting to the point, and the influence of Taoism and the existing culture of China was a bonus treat. Some Zen is deviant because of the poor state of information storage/transfer in those days. So I think any Buddhist study has to be backed up by reading multiple translations if possible and getting ahold of actual sutras, not just interpretations. With meditation one can begin to see the truth being referred to in the sutras. "The words are not the thing", to paraphrase Shakespeare. Direct experience and personal scientific examination of one's own "Being" are the original teachings. All other teachings are messy approximations used out of compassion. The Buddha doubted that this sublime experience could be passed from one to another, but realized he had to try. What was he going to do, just stay on the cushion the rest of his life? He had already been there & done that! I recommend "The raft is not the shore" for all zealots and fundamentalists. (Only a fool would carry his raft on his back after crossing the stream of suffering.) Love that teaching. Oh- the one comparing his own teaching to a poisonous snake that must be handled carefully lest one be killed is also a good proscription for independent thought. If anyone is actually interested in details, pm me. I'm dying for interpersonal communication with minimal commitment !
