I wish you, John and the kids a happy new year, and that 1994 will bring
meaningful changes to your life. But I want to make this not just an empty greeting.
I want to give you and your loved ones something which all the wealth in the
world cannot buy, something that will ensure that you live long, healthy and
happy. More than that, a gift that sustains past this present life. A gift that
ensures that you will be reborn no less than a wise human being with all full
healthy faculties, and not fall into the three realms of woe. Previously, I
encouraged you to stop eating meat. But your reaction was that your children
were growing up and that you needed time to learn to cook non-meat meals. If
you think over it, those are just excuses, not to me, but to yourself. Deep
in your heart, you know it is wrong to eat the flesh of those poor living creatures,
but habits are hard to stop. Deep inside is your compassion which tells you
eating meat is wrong. That compassion comes from your Buddha-nature, which is
inherent in every living being. The Dharma has enriched you in many ways. I
will try to fill in one more part. I will try to help you understand the ramifications
of eating meat. There are at least five reasons why a wise person should not
eat meat, namely:
1. The Protein Myth.
2. Good health and long life are the result of your karma.
3. Compassion can never be considered a waste on any living being.
4. You become what you eat.
5. Livestock are loaded with chemicals.
Meat consumption has been most conspicuous in western countries especially since
the 1930's when new methods of husbandry were researched and used widespread.
The animal farmers, in an effort to boost sales, build up the "Protein
Myth", i.e. "protein is essential for your body and that meat is the
only good source of protein." Your western education has brain-washed you
with the myth.
The protein myth was the result of researches based on rats in the 1930's. What
they did not know then was that rats have a body metabolism six times faster
than that of human beings. Rats' requirement for protein is much higher than
the equivalent for humans.
When humans consume protein excessively (especially animal protein), they end
up with more illnesses than being short of proteins. Today, an alarming number
of women in western countries who are now past middle age are suffering from
osteoporosis. It is a disease caused by a number of things, the most important
of which is excess dietary protein. The protein they eat attack on the calcium
substance in their bones. The more protein is consumed, the more calcium is
lost. Consequently, such women have brittle bones which break at the slightest
impact, such as bumping against a car door. Osteoporosis is caused also by excessive
milk consumption. In Asian countries, like China, where meat was consumed in
tiny quantities, osteoporosis does not exist. Excessive animal protein also
cause kidney stones. American Inst. for Cancer Research: "...a strong correlation
between dietary protein intake and cancer of the breast, prostate, pancreas,
and colon."
The best protein sources are from vegetables and fruits. Besides, they don't
have side effects, such as cholesterol. In a non-meat diet, without even trying
to select the vegetables for any meal, any random combination of vegetables
would guarantee the required protein for the human body. You can check all the
facts in the book: Diet for a New America by John Robbins. It also contains
lots of reliable reports and references.
In the US, two thirds of the deaths are caused by these three diseases: heart
diseases, cancer and stroke. Excessive meat consumption is the main cause of
these three major killers. In most Asian countries where meat is mostly consumed
in tiny quantities, if any at all, people don't suffer from lack of proteins
nor those disease just mentioned.
Good health or long life are not the result of eating meat. If that's the case,
then rich people who can afford meat would be the only ones to live healthy
and long lives. Western people who could afford it, and in fact do eat more
meat than others, are now predominantly the ones suffering from those dreadful
diseases I mentioned. On the other hand, you see many people who don't eat meat,
or couldn't afford much meat enjoy good health and live long. The diseases in
the poorer countries usually stem from unhygienic and unsanitary conditions.
Eating meat does not guarantee good health and long life. Visit any hospital
and you will see that people with cancer and diseases in the heart, liver, kidney,
etc. are those who eat meat.
Good health and long life come from good karma. Good karma comes from not killing,
whether directly or indirectly. Good karma comes from practicing compassion,
not only to human beings, but to all living beings. If one could feel sorry
for a wounded canary or a limping horse, why couldn't one have mercy for the
millions of helpless animals that are slaughtered everyday for people to gobble
up? The number of animals killed every single day for food around the world
is more than the total number of people killed in all wars.
If one adopts the attitude that "Oh, those animals are meant to be killed
for our human consumption", then you are also saying that for your own
"selfish precious life", many other living beings should be killed
for your food for your entire life span. Your body then becomes the cemetery
for those animals. Is it necessary for other beings to die in order for us to
have our daily meals? Is the killing absolutely essential?
Even if you don't care for the pain and suffering of those animals, eating their
flesh causes harm to only yourself and no one else. Your health does not benefit,
nor would you live any longer. In fact the opposite happens; your health will
suffer. In contrast, protein from vegetables do not kill humans.
A good deed brings good results. A good thought brings good results. Constant
compassion for those chickens, pigs, cows, fish, and animals ensures that you
will not be reborn as one of them.
You might remember the incident when the Buddha picked a handful of earth and
explained that the number of beings born as humans is like the earth in his
hand, whereas the amount of earth in the world is like the number of beings
born in lower realms, such as animals, ghosts and in the hells. Humans commit
many evil deeds which cause their rebirth in these lower miserable realms. Even
the average citizen who, on the surface, appears to live without evil, is actually
accumulating killing karma so long as he continues eating meat, and causing
many innocent animals to die. With the number of animals a person eats, is it
any mystery then, why he is reborn countless times as animals before he finally
gets reborn as a human again? The trouble is that, once given the break as a
human, he eats animals and again gets reborn countless times as those animals.
Do you now understand why humans are so woefully few compared to those reborn
in the suffering states?
The average person believes that eating meat gives him the energy and nutrition
for his life force. In fact, anything you eat fills up your entire body system,
whether vitamins or poison. But people forget that in eating animals, the entire
animal life force also fills up your life force. The fear, anger, agony and
vengeance that fill up every cell of the animal at the moment of death will
also fill up every cell of the person who eats the animal. If you consider the
sum total animal flesh eaten by the average person, do you know if there is
any part of his blood supply, body cells or psyche which is not contaminated
by those toxic animal energy? Think about this.
At the rate people are gobbling up meat, retribution couldn't wait until the
next life; retribution manifests in the very present life. The escalating diseases
that I just mentioned suffered by meat eaters result from just their individual
karma. Their collective killing karma is manifested in the alarming number of
murders, wars, calamities such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, accidents,
fires, etc. People are thinking and acting like animals, killing each other
for no reason, in increasing numbers. Even kids kill their parents nowadays.
People in greater numbers are growing up with a death wish, partly fed daily
by the unnecessary abhorrent violence shown on TV and movies. The world is obsessed
with killing.
You and I are related as brother and sister in this present human life. This
is nothing new. We have been related as humans countless times before. But we
have been related as animals many more times than as humans. If you continue
eating meat, even if you do other good karma, it is unsure how many lives you
would be reborn as animals or in other painful realms before we can be reborn
in the same human family again. The chances of my explaining this to you again
in a future human life is like looking for a needle in the entire Ganges River.
The reason I have written this long letter is because I cannot bear to have
you, my loving sister, reborn countless times as chickens or cows only to be
slaughtered over and over again.
With each passing day, as you continue eating meat, you sink deeper into samsara
with that many more lives to go through as those pitiful animals. Being an animal
is no fun! Believe me! Who do you think are those getting reborn as chickens
and cows everyday? And being killed everyday? They are the previous humans who
ate animals without compassion. As humans they had no concern whatsoever for
the fear, pain or agony of those poor animals. So the humans eventually end
up being reborn as those animals only to be eaten by others. So the vicious
cycle repeats itself ad infinitum.
The meat eater incurs more killing karma than the butcher, because you paid
him to kill. It is like paying an assassin. So, don't be naive in thinking you
are absolved from the killing karma.
Be realistic. It is not eating meat that makes you or your children healthy
and live long. It is doing good deeds, being compassionate and liberating life
that guarantee you good health, and a long and happy life.
When it comes to changing our bad habits, we should not wait. The best time
to do good and avoid evil is NOW! If you would only make the resolve to stop
eating meat this very instant, you would know how to cook non-meat meals. You
are only putting unnecessary hurdles in front of yourself by fussing over the
difficulty of cooking. Besides, there are many good cook books available on
non-meat cooking. You teach your children to be filial by being filial yourself.
You also teach them to be compassionate and respect life by not eating meat
or feeding them the flesh of living beings.
This letter has taken a long time to write. But I write it with the sincerest
intention. It is an unsurpassed gift a brother could give a sister, or to anyone.
It is worth your reading it over many times. Today is the day to sincerely make
the resolve: "I vow that from today on, and in all future lives, I will
not knowingly eat the flesh of living beings or cause their death, directly
or indirectly." Amitabha.
With Metta and
wishes beyond words,
]
"Sabbadanam dhammadanam jinati"
The gift of Truth excels all other gifts.