They hurt too!
"They can see. They can count and talk to each other. They react to the slightest touch and to estimate time with extraordinary precision. They are constantly on the move; developing, fighting, avoiding or exploiting predators or neighbours, struggling to find food, increase their territory, to reproduce themselves."
David Attenborough in The Private life of plants
Most probably you would not attribute the description above to plants. Yes, we see them as benign, even pitiful because of their passivity and immobility. Yet they go thru life in the same way as us and other more agile life. The difference is of time. Plants live in a different time-scale from ours. Time-lapse camera would reveal the movements plants go thru in their daily lives. Attenborough describes the ferocity of a strangler fig squeezing the life from its victim, revealed in the speeded-up time lapse film.
Why am I telling you this?
Many of my vegetarian friends would ask me to become one so that I would not kill "living" beings. Being a vegetarian is a benign way of life. The less harm I wrought upon "living" beings, the less bad karma I bring upon myself. I feel uneasy that somehow the advise sounds like they are pushing their beliefs on me.
By "living beings" they usually mean animal life; cows, chicken, fish, ducks, pig - the animals we usually use in our diet. Seldom would we consider plants as "living beings" capable of fear and terror as we pull them out from the soil!
Pictures of deers gazing peacefully, or of cows munching nonchalently may seem to give herbivores (and vegetarianism) harmless picture of existence. I wonder what those plant life which are being torn apart and eaten think of this!
Vegetarianism is often attributed to Buddha's teachings. But Buddha himself never made vegetarianism compulsary. He takes whatever food the people gave him and his followers.
So be a vegetarian if you must; for health or ethical purposes. But you are still taking life away when you eat plants. That's the natural order of things. The lion won't sit quietly beside a lamb contrary to what we see on some religious paintings. There is nothing to be ashamed of eating meat when it is afterall a condensed form of energy transfer for us to continue living.
I began my healing process by being a vegan; avoiding even eggs. Later I took eggs. Then some Chinese medication contain animal parts. Finally I started to eat fish a few days ago. I still avoid meat because I suspect the farm animals are being fed or injected with growth hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals which eventually passes on to us. I also felt sorry for the limited freedom of farm animals while waiting to be slaughtered (so-called "happy" free range animals are happy until the moment they are slaughtered...haha). Fish from the ocean may also be contaminated with man-made chemicals but I can live with that.
So I eat to sustain myself. I shall not deprive my body from the food it need. I sustain myself so that I can do good and work towards the ultimate goal of which I believe in. I respect the involuntrary supreme sacrifice of the living beings for my sustenance. I also understand that when I die, other living beings will also feed on my body for their sustenance.
If you are interested in the debate whether man is a natural vegetarian or an omnivore, do visit this page: http://ivu.org/history/early/index.html
David Attenborough in The Private life of plants
Most probably you would not attribute the description above to plants. Yes, we see them as benign, even pitiful because of their passivity and immobility. Yet they go thru life in the same way as us and other more agile life. The difference is of time. Plants live in a different time-scale from ours. Time-lapse camera would reveal the movements plants go thru in their daily lives. Attenborough describes the ferocity of a strangler fig squeezing the life from its victim, revealed in the speeded-up time lapse film.
Why am I telling you this?
Many of my vegetarian friends would ask me to become one so that I would not kill "living" beings. Being a vegetarian is a benign way of life. The less harm I wrought upon "living" beings, the less bad karma I bring upon myself. I feel uneasy that somehow the advise sounds like they are pushing their beliefs on me.
By "living beings" they usually mean animal life; cows, chicken, fish, ducks, pig - the animals we usually use in our diet. Seldom would we consider plants as "living beings" capable of fear and terror as we pull them out from the soil!
Pictures of deers gazing peacefully, or of cows munching nonchalently may seem to give herbivores (and vegetarianism) harmless picture of existence. I wonder what those plant life which are being torn apart and eaten think of this!
Vegetarianism is often attributed to Buddha's teachings. But Buddha himself never made vegetarianism compulsary. He takes whatever food the people gave him and his followers.
So be a vegetarian if you must; for health or ethical purposes. But you are still taking life away when you eat plants. That's the natural order of things. The lion won't sit quietly beside a lamb contrary to what we see on some religious paintings. There is nothing to be ashamed of eating meat when it is afterall a condensed form of energy transfer for us to continue living.
I began my healing process by being a vegan; avoiding even eggs. Later I took eggs. Then some Chinese medication contain animal parts. Finally I started to eat fish a few days ago. I still avoid meat because I suspect the farm animals are being fed or injected with growth hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals which eventually passes on to us. I also felt sorry for the limited freedom of farm animals while waiting to be slaughtered (so-called "happy" free range animals are happy until the moment they are slaughtered...haha). Fish from the ocean may also be contaminated with man-made chemicals but I can live with that.
So I eat to sustain myself. I shall not deprive my body from the food it need. I sustain myself so that I can do good and work towards the ultimate goal of which I believe in. I respect the involuntrary supreme sacrifice of the living beings for my sustenance. I also understand that when I die, other living beings will also feed on my body for their sustenance.
If you are interested in the debate whether man is a natural vegetarian or an omnivore, do visit this page: http://ivu.org/history/early/index.html
posted by Hee Boon at 2:38 pm
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