To Cherish All Life: A Buddhist View of Animal Slaughter and Meat Eating

The book is organized into three main parts and supplementary sections. The first part describes the suffering of animals raised for slaughter, including the factory farming of chickens, the confinement of pigs and calves, the pain of transportation, and the violence of slaughterhouses. The second part turns to Buddhist ethics, examining the first precept, contrasting Buddhist and Judeo-Christian views of animals, discussing whether the Buddha ate meat, analyzing Pāli and Mahāyāna positions on flesh eating, and presenting vegetarianism as a practical extension of Buddhist compassion. The third part provides supporting materials on protein, health, meat consumption, hunger, food resources, and recommended readings, reinforcing the book’s ethical argument with practical and social considerations. Throughout the work, Kapleau presents the protection of animals as inseparable from spiritual cultivation, nonviolence, and the realization of kinship with all living beings.