People ask me why I am a vegetarian. I almost invariably say, “Because I am!” That normally cuts the conversation short.
There were times when I would start explaining why … but the enquirers were almost always meat eaters. Within seconds, they would attempt to put me on the defensive.
Some felt guilty – “I really wish I could do what you do! It would be very hard to survive! It must be so hard for you.”
Others remarked, “But you eat vegetables … what’s the difference?”
Sometimes people start conversations but they don’t wish to hear what you really have to say. I sense that and I tell them that we don’t need to justify our respective beliefs to each other.
I am not a preacher. I don’t seek to convert anyone. I have a choice and so do you. If you are sensitive and not open minded, exercise your choice and stop reading right now!
I choose not to eat anything with eyes, limbs, ears, and noses – anything that moves or that will be born with such features. Anything with five senses.
By eating animals, I would be eating someone’s mum, dad, son, daughter, brother, sister or partner. On an evolutionary scale, I would have progressed just one step ahead from being a cannibal.
I would be deluding myself by thinking that an animal can be killed humanely so that it doesn’t suffer. You can’t kill humanely. Humane killing is an argument advanced by morons for morons – not by or for enlightened spiritual beings. You may kid yourself about humane killing to lighten your guilt.
However, killing remains the ultimate sin.
What if someone else murdered the animals on my behalf? Would I eat meat? No. If you get someone else to do your dirty work, your karma is still tainted. In fact, doubly so.
Take, for instance, the wealthy person who adorns himself or herself with ivory. In essence, he or she causes the murder of the elephant. The poacher kills, the designer crafts the ivory, the salesperson sells it. They are all tainted with murder. But the instigator attracts bad karma on a cumulative basis.
If I get the butcher to slaughter an animal for me, in spiritual terms, I would still be the killer.
Look at an animal in the eye. Do you have any compassion? Are you merciful? Do you believe in karma? Do you believe that we are spiritual beings or just glorified omnivores? Do you believe in causing as little harm as possible as you continue your journey to enlightenment?
Do you give a damn?
If yes, then let’s be friends and share our bread. If not, pray to God that you are not reincarnated as a cow – and the cow as you!
~ By “KKDKK”
