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Meat: To Eat It Or Not: A Debate on Food and Practice

STUART SMITHERS JOHN MCCLELLAN John Stevens GELEK RINPOCHE and PHILIP GLASS BODHIN KJOLHEDE Zen Master Ryokan and KATE WHEELER

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WHAT THE historical Buddha ate for his last meal has been the subject of much debate. The controversial passage from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the sutta that recounts the Buddha's final days, tells us that on his last night the Buddha rested in the home of Cunda, a metal smith apparently known to the Buddha. In honor of his guest, Cunda prepared (probably not personally) "hard and soft delicious food, and also a large quantity of sukaramaddava. "The difficulty lies in the translation of sukaramaddava. The amateur mycologist Gordon Wasson studied the available literature on the problem and admirably summarized it in his essay "The Last Meal of the Buddha": The first part of that compound word, sukara-, is simple: 'pertaining to pig or swine,' suk- being cognate with Latin sus.

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