Veg Inspiration, Wednesday
We will hopefully be able to create more and more opportunities for
people to experience vegan community in North America and elsewhere.
Practicing compassionate living together can send boundless waves of
healing energy into our world and help awaken the slumbering conscience
of our species.
Veg Inspiration, Tuesday
I hope that all vegans or aspiring vegans have the opportunity at some
point in our lives to live in a vegan community for a while. I have had
this opportunity a few times and it’s been transformative. Many of the
difficulties we encounter in living a vegan lifestyle, for our families
and ourselves, arise because we are basically alone in a culture that
is hostile to our values. I found when I was immersed in large-scale
vegan communities, contradictions and complications evaporated in a
remarkable feeling of inner wholeness.
Veg Inspiration, Monday
Veganism is not “veganism..” That’s all looking from the outside. We
live, serve, and give thanks for this precious life arising through All
of Us. It may look like and be called veganism, but it is not an
option. It is simply the expression of our own true nature: seeing
beings to be respected rather than things to be used.
Veg Inspiration, Sunday
When love is born in our hearts, we want only the best for others, for
we directly see them as ourselves. The imprisoning illusion of a
fundamentally separate self, struggling against other selves for its
own rewards, is transcended, and our life becomes dedicated to bringing
peace, joy, and fulfillment to others. This brings us our greatest joy,
and is the flowering of the highest form of love, which is compassion.
We must, if this process is actually happening in us, be drawn toward
veganism, and it is in no way a limitation on us, but the harmonious
fulfillment of our own inner seeing.
Veg Inspiration, Saturday
As we evolve spiritually, we become more awake to the truth of
interbeing, that all living beings are profoundly interconnected, and
that by harming others, I harm myself because the life in that apparent
‘other’ is the same life that lives in this apparent ‘me.’ As our
hearts open to deeper understanding, our circle of compassion thus
automatically enlarges, and spontaneously begins to include more and
more ‘others.’ Not just our own tribe, sect, nation, or race, but all
human beings, and not just humans, but other mammals, and birds, fish,
forests, and the whole beautifully-interwoven tapestry of living,
pulsing creation. All of Us.
Veg Inspiration, Friday
Anthropologists refer to the five prohibitions as the five universal
taboos, which cross-culturally prohibit, against other humans, the
actions of killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, and forcing
drugs or toxic substances on others. In our culture today, we are
evolving toward an understanding of these prohibitions that includes
animals as well: seeing that just as it is a violation to harmfully
interfere with Spirit’s experience of being a human, it is also a
violation to harmfully interfere with Spirit’s experience of being an
animal.
Veg Inspiration, Thursday. Shojin.
In the Japanese language there is a beautiful word, “shojin,” roughly
translated into English as “abstention from animals foods and products
for religious or spiritual reasons.” The existence of this word reveals
the culture’s recognition that abstaining from the use of animal
products is a valid dimension of religious practice and of spiritual
aspiration.
Veg Inspiration, Wednesday
It seems there are three main reasons why people continue to eat
animals in spite of the horror and tragedy this behavior generates. The
first and essential reason is that eating animals is not a behavior
people have ever chosen freely. It has, instead, been forced upon them,
starting at an early age. People have been indoctrinated to do it. The
second reason is because of social pressure. Being so gregarious, we
humans like to fit in and be part of the group, and this militates
strongly against questioning the eating of animal foods. The third big
reason is that people like the taste: they get a certain pleasure that
they are loath to give up. Fortunately, these three fundamental reasons
for eating animal foods are all ultimately invalid and indefensible.
Indoctrination, social pressure, and the self-centered pursuit of
pleasure have been behind all the atrocities we humans have committed,
and when we shine the light of our awareness and truth on them, they
are seen for the weak, erroneous delusions that they truly are.
Veg Inspiration, Tuesday
The great philosopher Schopenhauer, in criticizing how some Christians
treat animals, wrote, “Shame on such a morality that fails to recognize
the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth
with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun.” All of
us are celebrations of infinite mysterious Spirit, deserving of honor
and respect.
Veg Inspiration, Monday
In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Buddha says to the assembled monks,
“If one sees that there is much meat, one must not accept such a meal.
One must never take the meat itself. One who takes it infringes the
rule.” This is very clear, and as another example, in the Brahma’s Net
Sutra, he says, “ Disciples of the Buddha, should you willingly and
knowingly eat flesh, you defile yourself.” These teachings are repeated
strongly in many other sutras, including the Lankavatara Sutra and the
Surangama Sutra, both of which are foundational Mahayana Buddhist
scriptures. The cardinal precept in Buddhism is not to kill, and
animals are always explicitly included in this injunction.
