II. The Mahayana Diet Mahayana lays most emphasis on the Great Compassion, even though it is still connected with the Dharma-Sunyata. Diet of carnivores surely causes killing of birds, animals, insects, fish, and even snakes. They especially call the following foods, robbed foods:
1) Eggs: Robs the offspring's life from its parents.
2) Honey: Robs the food of bees.
3) Milk: Robs the food of the offspring, food from their mother.
A Buddhist who eats only vegetables not only selfishly keeps his own health in excellent condition, but also keeps others' lives and food for their own benefits.

(...) In Brahmajala Sutra, our Lord Guatama taught us not to be a Mamsabhakasana (meat-eating) person. It says:

"One should not eat any kind of meat. If one eats meat, then the seed of great compassion in him will be cut. He will be disregarded by every sentient being."

In the Lankavatara Sutra Buddha Gautama gave us some reasons for forbidding meat-eating. I translate below:
1) "Those animals have been our parents."
2) "All kinds of animal meats mix together even with dogs."
3) "The impure smells of animals are not good for eating."
4) "Dogs usually bark at meat-eater."
5) "Meat-eaters have no mercy."
6) "Meat-eaters do not have a good reputation."
7) "All incantations cannot function out."
8) "It causes many animals to be killed."
9) "God and good ghosts do not like meat-eaters."
10) "Bad smells come from their mouths."
11) "Meat-eaters have bad dreams."
12) "Tigers follow their bad smell and kill them."
13) "Meat-eaters have no limitation of gluttony."
14) "Meat-eating cuts the renunciation of the practitioner."
15) "Meat-eaters may sometimes eat one's own children of past lives."
Besides Buddha's teaching, there are many reasons for us to be a vegetarian. Also, many reasons have been found by scientists and scholars which should be noted below:

1) The foods of vegetarianism can build up more pure blood; but carnivores make the red corpuscles poisonous.

2) Those who usually take rice which contains acidity 30-fold more than calcium should take only vegetables or fruit, the contents of which are opposite to it, and they balance it.

3) If one takes too much meat and too few vegetables and mineral food, one's blood will contain more acidity and less calcium which make one's skin loose and become old. Those with more acidity in the blood bring about black spots on the skin. Surely, the ladies may not want to destroy their beauty.

4) By not eating adequate vegetables, calcium (is) lessened which also harms one's bones. Ladies' pelvises become easily broken, and old and young persons' legs break more easily as well.

5) When one always eats various meats at different national restaurants, the better the food he eats, the worse the smell he has. Especially his armpit odor becomes unbearable to himself or anybody close to him. It is written in the biography of Saint Milarepa that when he was at parinirvana, many angels came down to the world, but they stayed only in the sky. People of this world did earnestly beg them to land on this earth. They refused by saying, "You human beings have more or less some bad smell, we cannot bear it."

6) Persons of some countries are meek while other persons of another country are wild. They usually cannot live together in peace. When they have been examined, it happens that meek persons are vegetarians, but the wild ones are carnivorous.

7) To make our brains skillfully develop, one needs to eat many glutinous acids which may be found in beans, peanuts, and wheats. They are vegetarian food.

8) Vegetables can make our sleep sound, but not too long. While meat can make you sleep too long, but not sound. For those diligent persons they might prefer the former to the latter. (...)

15) Meats do not contain iodine, but vegetables do. That is why the hair of a vegetarian will always stay lustrous. It grows and becomes white very slowly at the age of eighty. The hair of carnivores becomes white even in youth. (...)

19) Most mental diseases are caused by lack of the vitamins which are plentiful in vegetables, but not in meats. They may be listed below: Vitamin B3 deficiency: insomnia, nervousness, irritability, confusion, apprehensiveness, depression, hallucinations.
Vitamin B12 deficiency: difficulty in concentration and remembering, stupor, severe agitation, manic or paranoid behavior.
Vitamin C deficiency: schizophrenia.
However, one must remember that this is the opinion of Western Science. In actuality, the Law of Cause and Effect as followed by Buddhists dictates a person's life according to his mental state. The mind is always the Chief. Food is only one factor of the exterior result. Therefore, all roots of mental diseases can be found in one's own mind. Likewise, through one's mind, they may be cured. Thus, we cannot predict health solely through the quality or quantity of diet, but almost always the answer lies in the manner of diet: the mental state of the person so afflicted. When one understands that his mind is basically the ruler of the state of his being, then he may select foods that aid him along the lines he has chosen. (...)