I do give them credit for becoming aware of what they are doing by getting their hands bloody. This way they know blood had to be spilled to get the protein they think they need. I stopped eating meat when I was 17 simply because I realized I was eating flesh very similar to mine. That felt weird and scary. I started eating fish again in my early thirties for about a year when I was very ill at the request of my partner who was a naturopath and acupuncturist. One day I realized I wanted to stop because I felt yucky about taking the life of another creature to benefit my health. It's not that I think we need to suffer over another. I just realized I did not need it to become healthy and I was right. I have healed on a vegan raw food life style. I don't believe in the B12 scare. It seems to be the only argument out there right now. I have read that when we have a healthy digestive system our body makes it's own B12. Also while looking up information about B12 I found that not only some vegans were deficient but so are meat eaters. I am low in B 12 but not deficient. I did take a B12 supplement because my digestive track is still healing from the systemic candida I had for so long. I believe we get all we need from organic plants, cultivated and wild and that killing is really not necessary. I must speak for the animals. I can't just say that you can do what ever you think is best for you. I really want to say that their is no conscious way to kill another living creature except for being aware that you are actually killing. That is the first step in non violence. If we want a peaceful planet we must stop killing. I imagine that if we don't want to be killed and eaten then we should not kill others either.
Please understand, I am not judging you personally. I have eaten plenty of meat in this life time. I just wanted to say something because I have been reading and hearing so many arguments and reasons that support the innocent slaughter of our fellow earthlings. I felt it was time to speak up for them.
Here are some verses form the Mahabharata that talk about how we should not kill to sustain our life. I'm using the should word in defense of all the beautiful animal creatures on this planet.
He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth. Mahabharata, Anu. 115.47. FS, pg. 90
One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's own self. This, in brief, is the rule of dharma. Yielding to desire and acting differently, one becomes guilty of adharma. Mahabharata 18.113.8.
Those high-souled persons who desire beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long life, understanding, mental and physical strength and memory should abstain from acts of injury. Mahabharata 18.115.8.
Most of us grew up eating animals and it seemed perfectly fine. It is all we knew. Many of us were even taught that a creator gave us dominion over the animals and that they were put here solely for our food consumption. They even go so far as to say animals don't have a soul. These are people who believe that only humans have a soul. I say then, what gives that spark of life we see in all creatures with eyes, and why do we accept only some into our family life and not others. For instance, why would you eat a cow and not your beloved dog?Please, I welcome all your responses and questions. I will do my best to answer them.
7 comments:
I was a vegan open to suggestion and one summer in Alaska, I was convinced that I should eat fish again. The only job I found was aboard a 42' longliner in Sitka. With a small (baseball) bat and gaff hook in hand, I would club the poor Cohos on their foreheads. I swore I could see the terror in each salmon's eyes. I stopped eating salmon and continued to eat halibut on that sad voyage, because they're funny looking and only have eyes on one side of their faces...But Life is Life-salmon or halibut...(Sorry, I was trying to be funny there.) I became a vegan again when we made port and I booked off to Seattle, bidding farewell to my Alaskan experiment.
2) The Old Guard is reaping the harvest of a bad diet. Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha (D) just died from gall bladder surgery complications.
It's better to get it flushed once in a while is the moral of that story... And eat raw foods... An ounce of prevention... PETA just sent the Newfoundland Premier some dulse. He's recovering from heart surgery. Hopefully, he'll substitute dulse for seal meat from now on.
I still take a B-Complex three times a week or so. It's hard to be vegan, when "they"'re throwing that pernicious anemia threat at you. I know life is not meant to be easy, but we can't be vegans without B-12? I'll continue to function at a diminished capacity, then. At least my conscience will stay healthy... Just as it's hard and seemingly foolish to love everyone in a world of predators (the people who haven't figured out why we're really here and who transgress our intention to live in peace and harmony), living cruelty-free requires awareness and cautious decision making. The year
2010 is my raw foods year. A local baker The Village Baker went out-of-business, so I stopped eating bread and the promise of raw foods came to me in January at that time (New Year). I'm loving the difference. I thought I had to saute garlic, but no more. The same for mushrooms. It still takes getting used to. I have more free time (free from cooking) and use less energy, with the end result of feeling better.
Let Your Love Flow,
Bob
On review, this is a sound argument for vegeterianism.
Premise #1: Vitamin B-12 can be derived from non-animal sources.
Premise #2: All creatures have living souls and are sensitive to pain.
Conclusion: Killing to eat defeats our purpose to be and delays our journey to become enlightened.
It's evident the best diet is one free of flesh foods, from newborns on. Lately, I've been looking for opinions regarding leather apparel. When I attended a hiking boot fitting clinic in Seattle, I was told that leather is a by-product from the stockyards. The attitude put forth, the leather's already there, so we might as well use it.
One of my friends in high school never wore any leather. I got through my adolescence in the 1970's without buying a black leather jacket and a pack of smokes for the pocket, the tour-de-rigeur back then. I still wear leather shoes, though. I recently even bought a suede jacket at a second hand shop. It will never enter my mind to buy anything new, that's made from leather, excepting footwear. I stood at the rack and honestly, I wondered what the steer was thinking, who was put down to make this jacket. After some thought, I bought it. Am I on a slippery slope with this line of "logic"?
Happy Saint Valentine's Day to All,
Bob
The quotes from The Mahabharata are helpful. I saw that suede jacket, that someone bought and discarded and thought that at that point , the death of the steer would be in vain. If someone didn't buy it, it would just languish on the rack.
When I visit Montreal, Canada, all the tourist booklets are festooned with colorful fur ads and they look so anachronistic to me. Then I remember I'm in Canada, the history of the trappeurs, the seal hunts. I'd move there anyday in a heartbeat, don't get me wrong. I can't get a visa out of here, though. Neither the EU nor Canada wants me. I want out of here. And that't that story.
I wish a full recovery for Newfoundland's premier. I don't wish ill health on those who transgress my ethics concerning animals' rights. PETA are always controversial, but thought provoking to those still asleep. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is waking up, cutting out processed snacks for bananas (or Banawnas should I say). He apparently consumes 7-9 daily. Must get a bit stodgy, though. And William Clinton got some stint work, still ticking after quadruple bypass some time ago.
I moved to my downtown apartment on March 1st, 2009. There was a chipping sparrow living in a crevice in the brickwork and he/she has returned. Signs of Spring 2010 already appearing. It's a mild winter in Washington, but the sea is never warm enough for swimming and I'm not into pools and chlorine. Hoping Haiti will heal and "Go, team go" for all the athletes gathered in my favorite North American city, Vancouver, B.C.. I hope the protesters don't wreck my city. The corporations have done enough to it. Save our city, right now.
Is B-12 by itself okay or should one choose a B-Complex to complement and aid absorption?
Hi Bob, I just read your comment! I feel so grateful for your interest and responses. I will respond back in the next few days. Thanks, Shanti
Hi Shanti,
Thanks for the note. I just like to hear other's viewpoints on these moral decisions, as well as the practical side of things.
I used sugar for baking and the bag of it just sits there now. Sometimes I'm tempted to sprinkle some on my buckwheat kasha in the morning, which I never did since I was a kid, but the sugar's there. I remember how you stay away from sweets and it's enough of a reminder to refrain and feel better for doing so. Now I get the view from the raw perspective and I'll just sprout the buckwheat from now on. I currently sprout alfalfa and wheat berries.
Bye for Now,
Bob
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