“Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen on Refraining from Meat.” In The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism. Edited by Geoff Barstow. Boston: Wisdom Publications. 2019
Chapter Abstract: Translation with an introduction to a Tibetan text on refraining from eating meat by the Jonangpa scholar Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361). The text that is partially translated here is his Advice and Quotes about Refraining from Meat and Alcohol, composed in 1325. Dolpopa organizes his work into three distinct sections corresponding to the three sets of vows: (1) the śrāvaka, (2) the bodhisattva or Mahāyāna, and (3) the Secret Mantra or tantric samayas of the Vajrayāna. As he makes explicit in his text, refraining from meat is not merely at the śrāvaka level of ethical restraint that avoids killing, nor even at the bodhisattva level that is motivated by compassion. For Dolpopa, not eating meat is tantric.
