Vegetarian food in Buddhism

    Hello, everyone. Today, I will introduce Vegetarian food in Buddhism. It is called '精進料理' in Japan, and it is eaten mainly in temples. As you can know from its English name, such cuisine doesn't include any meal. But also, it is different from ordinal vegetarian food in terms of origin. I will explain the origin and idea in following paragraphs.

     There are three reasons why people in temples eat Vegetarian food. The first reason is that Buddhists think that we human should not kill every animals if we do not have to do so. In Buddhism, killing animals for eating is useless. The second reason is that Buddhists think that we should not have earthly desires (煩悩 in Japanese). They believe that if we take luxurious meal, we will have earthly desires and want to eat more luxurious cuisine than what we ate. The third reason is that Buddhists believe that we can enlightenment and be Buddha by eating simple meal. 

    However, at the origin of vegetarian food in Buddhism, its rule was not so strict in Japan. When this cuisine started to spread in Heian period, people can eat fishes and birds. As time went by, to eat any animals was forbitten as it is now. Finally, people cannot eat any strong spices, and they became to eat lighter taste food from Edo period to current. 

    These days, vegetarian food is very familiar to any people because it help us to keep our body healthy. Therefore, if you want to lose your weight, I recommend you that you will make 精進料理! 

    Thank you for reading.

＜reference＞

https://engimono.net/gourmet/vegetarian_food/