Source of the Danube, 15th Day of Fall, 525 M.E. (Helios): I'm a vegetarian, or at least very nearly so. While there's no slabs of beef in my diet or any meat dishes on my dinner table, small amounts of chicken occasionally appear in my salads. Also, I like Progresso's Chicken and Sausage Gumbo - I have a can of that mixed with some brown rice for dinner about once a month (it usually lasts for two meals). But other than that, I'm pretty much meat free.

Why can't vegetarians eat meat, anyway? Carnivores eat vegetables - it doesn't seem fair that they have a dietary freedom that's denied to vegetarians. 

I've known Buddhists who are adamant that Buddhists shouldn't eat any meat. It you're not a vegetarian, they insist, you're not a Buddhist. But I understand that the Buddha himself would eat meat if that's what was given to him when he was out collecting alms. And Tibetans ate meat - living in the Himalaya, you'd starve if not for the occasional yak.

There's a Japanese story about a band of hunters lost in the woods. One gets separated from the others and nearly dies of exposure, but a she-bear comes along and takes pity on him. Gently, she carries him back to her den, nurses him on bear's milk, and keeps him warm by cuddling up with him through the cold mountain nights. Once his strength is restored, she allows him to leave the den. 

Heading back to his town, he encounters another band of hunters. They ask him if there's any game in the area, and he tells him there's a she bear in a den just up the trail. They find her, kill her, skin her, and bring the meat back to the village.

When they learn, though, of what happened between the bear and the man they met in the woods, they decide it would be evil to eat the meat, so instead they sell the fur and then donate the money earned and the bear meat to the local Zen monastery.

The moral of the story is that Zen monastics would eat meat if it was donated to them.