Friend #1: “How’s your weekend?”
Me: “Great. I got to make bacon, egg and cheese breakfast boat baguette for the monks”
F#1: “Monks eat meat too?” She said surprisingly.
Me: “Yes, in Theravada tradition, monks do eat meat.” Since I knew that she only knows certain Buddhist traditions that don’t eat meat, I added “Different traditions, different interpretations (of the Buddha’s teaching). The Buddha never said not to eat meat”
Friend #2: Jokingly said, “Now it’s getting into the technicality of it”
Me: Feeling offended. “Well. The Buddha himself actually eats meat.”

In my mind, I could go on and on about how he was wrong. How he doesn’t know that Devadatta, one of the monks in the Buddha time suggested that all monks should be vegetarian and the Buddha refused. However, by doing that it’s just looking outward without fixing my own wrong view. I was told repeatedly time and time again by my teachers that whenever I have suffering or feel bad about something, it means that I have wrong views that do not align with the truth of the world. That’s why I feel the suffering. It doesn’t matter if the person involved is actually right or wrong. Your own sufferings come from your own beliefs and wrong views. So the only way to deal with what’s bugging me so bad is to look inward within myself and find to true cause of my own suffering.

Afterward I thought long and hard about why I got so upset. Then I realized that to me what he said meant I was a fake and my Buddhist tradition as a whole was just someone who tried to cheat the system or tried to find a loophole in the Buddha’s teaching just so we can enjoy eating meat. To me what he said also meant Theravada Buddhism, Luang Por’s teaching, all my teachers and I weren’t a good Buddhist. That’s why I got so offended and upset.

Trying to figure out what’s my wrong view, I realized that I have a belief that the Theravada tradition and Luang Por’s teaching in the wisdom tradition are “the only true Buddhism (that can make you become enlightened)” So my Buddhism and my teachers are the real deal. They are sacred. They can’t be touched, criticized or questioned. To me they are the constitution that can’t be challenged. Since I follow this Buddhist tradition and my teachers which are sacred; my words, my actions and my practice should not be questioned or criticized as well.

Then I thought about how’re about me? Do I never criticize other Buddhist teachers or other Buddhist tradition? Of course, I do that all the time. Then how could I deny the right of others to criticize or have opinions about my teacher, my tradition and my practice. That would be unfair.

Moreover, I thought about when Luang Por was still alive. There were a lot of people who criticized him and his teaching. Even though he’s an Arahant, and enlightened one, it still happened. Even in the Buddha’s time, there were people who questioned the Buddha and his teaching. It’s the worldly conditions of this world that nobody is exempted from, including me. And that is the truth. So who am I that I am more special than the Buddha and Arahants that I would be above criticism of others.

After the contemplation, it clicked and I no longer feel upset because I realized it was me and my permanent view of my teacher, my Buddhist tradition and my own practice that created the suffering in my own mind.