Dark and Dairy (from The Hindu)

"The dairy system inflicts suffering at every stage, starting with the calving process, for milk comes from a cow or a buffalo that has calved recently. For dairy farming to be financially viable, animals are made to calve at least once a year (for cows) and once in 15 months (for buffaloes). Calves, male and female, are separated or significantly restricted from accessing their mothers three to four days after birth. This separation is traumatic for both mother and calf, but leads to a 15-30 per cent increase in milk availability for humans. Following separation, calves are mainly fed on milk substitutes and are allowed only limited suckling. The mother’s milk is instead diverted for human consumption.

Most male calves are either sent for slaughter or let loose to starve. A limited number are used for breeding. Some are used as draught animals where they are subject to castration without anaesthesia, nose-roping, whipping and hard labour until they are old and weak. At that point, they are sent for slaughter or abandoned. The economic undesirability of male cattle is evident in the gender imbalance — 64.42 per cent female and 35.57 per cent male in cattle, and 85.18 per cent female and 14.8 per cent male in buffalo. The slaughter of male calves — whether intentional or incidental — is integral to milk production.

Healthy females are kept alive for use in the dairy industry, which means a repeated cycle of impregnation, separation, painful milking, oxytocin shots and mastitis. To keep dairy animals productive, animal husbandry manuals recommend re-impregnation around 60 days after calving — a longer calving interval is uneconomical and a shorter interval reduces milk production.

Impregnation is increasingly being carried out through artificial insemination. India’s National Dairy Plan aims to use artificial insemination on at least 35 per cent of all fertile animals by the end of 2017. Artificial insemination involves extracting semen from selected bulls and forcibly placing it in restrained cows. This technology is popular because it is efficient, allows for selective breeding of high-yielding animals and reduces the need for males.

Dairy farming involves the killing of unproductive, infertile and ‘spent’ cows and buffaloes. Milk production starts to decline after three to four lactations (pregnancies). At this stage, cows and buffaloes are sold for slaughter through middlemen, or to a smaller farmer who will use them for an additional two to three lactations before selling them for slaughter or abandoning them. An infertile or unproductive animal shares the same fate, only much earlier. India’s world-beating output of 132.4 million tonnes of milk in 2012-13 would not have been possible if cattle and buffalo were taken care of for the entirety of their natural life-spans.

Dairy cattle have a terrible choice: life can be nasty, brutish and short, if you are male; or nasty, brutish and longer, if you are female. Beef is an inevitable consequence of dairy. The data bear out this hypothesis. Figures provided by the National Dairy Development Board show that the monetary value of milk production almost tripled between 2004-05 and 2011-12. So did the monetary value of beef production. There was a 98.6 per cent match between milk and beef production over this period.

Both qualitatively and quantitatively, a milch cow or buffalo has a worse life than an animal bred solely for meat. Why, then, do we believe dairy to be better than beef?

Part of the explanation lies in psychology. Meat is obviously linked to the death of a fellow- creature. The impacts of dairy are easily veiled in narratives about ‘surplus milk’ and the Indian veneration of the cow. Of course, buffaloes that provide more than half the milk we consume as a nation don’t figure in these debates.

Neither do the environmental consequences of dairy farming, whether pollution caused by runoffs, greenhouse gas emissions, or high water footprints.

Ultimately, Indian vegetarianism is about us rather than the vulnerable creatures we claim to care for. We may prefer to turn our eyes away from the connection between our individual acts of drinking our filter coffee or morning chai, and the cow or buffalo that produced the milk.

The logic, however, is clear: drinking milk causes as much suffering as eating meat, if not more. Indeed, milk involves more cruelty than meat does."

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/the-sorry-tale-of-the-milch-animals/article6578663.ece

#Reverence4Life #Veganism #MindfulConsumption

Sitting In The Autumn Breeze (2007)

Dear friends,

The Buddha taught: “Dear friends, we have to practice eating in such a way that we can retain compassion in our hearts. We have to eat in mindfulness. If not, we may be eating the flesh of our own children.”

UNESCO reported that each day about 40,000 children die because of hunger or lack of nutrition. Meanwhile, corn and wheat are largely grown to feed livestock (cows, pigs, chickens, etc.) or to produce alcohol. Over 80 percent of corn and over 95 percent of oats produced in the United States are for feeding livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equivalent to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population on earth.

Eating meat and drinking alcohol with mindfulness, we will realize that we are eating the flesh of our own children.

In 2005, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) began an in-depth assessment of the various significant impacts of the world’s livestock sector on the environment. Its report, titled Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, was released on November 29th 2006. Henning Steinfeld, chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior of the report, in the executive summary, asserts that:

“The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution and loss of biodiversity. Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency” (page XX).

Land degradation:
Presently, livestock production accounts for 70 percent of all agriculture land and 30 percent of the land surface of the planet. Forests are cleared to create new pastures, and it is a major driver of deforestation. For example, in Latin America some 70 percent of former forests in the

Amazon have been turned over to grazing (page XXI). From these figures, we can see that the livestock business has destroyed hundreds of millions acres of forest all over the world to grow crops and to create pastureland for farm animals. Moreover, when the forests are destroyed, enormous amounts of carbon dioxide stored in trees are released into the atmosphere.

Climate change:
The livestock sector has major impacts on the atmosphere and climate. It is responsible for “18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, which is a higher share than transport.” This means that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. The livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. It also emits 37 percent of anthropogenic methane, most of that from enteric fermentation by ruminants. This is an enormous amount, because every pound of methane is twenty three times as effective as carbon dioxide is at trapping heat in our atmosphere (23 times the global warming potential [GWP] of carbon dioxide). The meat, egg, and dairy industries are also responsible for the emission of 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide, most of that from manure. Nitrous oxide is about 300 times more potent as a global warming gas than carbon dioxide (296 times the GWP of carbon dioxide). It is also responsible for about two-third (64 percent) of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute largely to acid rain and accidification of ecosystem (page XXI).

Water scarcity and water pollution:
More than half of all the water consumed in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food. It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat. Meanwhile, it takes only 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of grain. Livestock in the United States produce an enormous amount of animal excrement, 130 times more than human excrement; each second the animals release 97,000 pounds of feces. “Most of the water used for livestock drinking and servicing returns to the environment in the form of manure and wastewater. Livestock excreta contain a considerable amount of nutrients [nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium], drug residues, heavy metals and pathogens” (page 136). These waste products enter streams and rivers, polluting water sources and causing disease outbreaks that affect all species.

Just as the Buddha cautioned us, we are eating the flesh of our children and grandchildren. We are eating the flesh of our mothers and our fathers. We are eating our own planet earth. The Son’s Flesh Sutra needs to be available for the whole human race to learn and practice.

The U.N.’s recommendation is clear: “The environment impact per unit of livestock production must be cut by half, just to avoid increasing the level of damage beyond its present level,” (page XX). We need to reduce at least 50 percent of the meat industry products, and that means we must consume 50 percent less meat. The U.N. also reports that even if cattle-rearing is reduced by 50 percent, we still need to use new technology to help the rest of cattle-rearing create less pollution, such as choosing animal diets that can reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, etc.

Urgent action must be taken at the individual and collective levels. As a spiritual family and a human family, we can all help avert global warming with the practice of mindful eating. Going vegetarian may be the most effective way to fight global warming.

Buddhist practitioners have practiced vegetarianism over the last 2000 years. We are vegetarian with the intention to nourish our compassion towards the animals. Now we also know that we eat vegetarian in order to protect the earth, preventing global warming [climate change] from causing her serious and irreversible damage. In the near future, as global warming [climate change] increases, all species will suffer. Millions of people will die, and sea levels will rise and flood cities and land. Many life-threatening diseases will result, and all species will suffer the consequences.

Both monastic practitioners and lay people practice vegetarianism. Even though the number of lay practitioners who are 100 percent vegetarian is not as many as monastic practitioners, but they practice eating vegetarian meals either for 4 days or 10 days each month.

Thầy believes that it is not so difficult to stop eating meat, when we know that we are saving the planet by doing so.

Lay communities should be courageous and give rise to the commitment to be vegetarian, at least 15 days each month. If we can do that, we will feel a sense of well-being. We will have peace, joy, and happiness right from the moment we make this vow and commitment. During the retreats organized in the United States this year, many American Buddhist practitioners have made the commitment to stop eating meat or to eat 50 percent less meat. This is a result of their awakening, after they have listened to the Dharma talks on the greenhouse effect. Let us take care of our Mother Earth. Let us take care of all species, including our children and grandchildren.

We only need to be vegetarian, and we can already save the earth. Being vegetarian here also means that we do not consume dairy and egg products, because they are products of the meat industry. If we stop consuming, they will stop producing. Only collective awakening can create enough determination for action.

This December 2007, Deer Park will have 100 percent electrical power generated from solar energy for the monastery use. All of our monasteries, in the Plum Village tradition in Europe and North America, have also been practicing no car day once a week, and thousands of our friends are also practicing with us. We have begun to use less cars and to use electric cars and vege-cars (run on vegetable oil). These cars can help reduce 50 percent the amount of carbon dioxide released. Buying a Prius Toyota, which uses half gas and half electricity, we can prevent about 1 ton of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year.

However, according to the University of Chicago, “being a vegan is more effective in the fight against global warming; a vegan causes approximately 1.5 fewer tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year than a meat-eater does….You could spend more than $20,000 on a Prius and still emit 50 percent more carbon dioxide than you would if you just gave up eating meat and other animal products” (Fight Global Warming by Going Vegetarian). Do you see that, my dear spiritual family? Being vegetarian is already enough to save the world. Who amongst us has not experienced the delicious taste of vegetarian foods? Only when we are too used to eating meat we cannot see this truth.

This evening when we begin the retreat, everyone will be informed that we will not use dairy and egg products during the whole retreat. From now on, all of our retreats and, of course, all of our practice centers in Asia, Europe, and North America will be conducted like that. Thầy trusts that lay practitioners will understand and support wholeheartedly. Our present practice is to help everyone become aware of the danger of global warming, in order to help save Mother Earth and all species. We know that if there is no collective awakening, then the earth and all species will not have a chance to be saved. Our daily life has to show that we are awake.

On October 2nd 2007, at the University of San Diego, Thầy talked about the worry, fear, and despair in relationship to the danger of global warming. The number of people becoming ill due to worry, fear, and despair is increasing each day. They realize that if humans continue to live in ambition, hatred, and ignorance, then the earth and all species will not have an opportunity to escape from this danger. This realization and fear may overwhelm and paralyze many people, and there will be those of us who die from mental illness, before the danger of global warming take place fully. In the Dharma talk, Thầy offered the practice taught by the Buddha: to acknowledge and accept the truth and not run away from it.

The Buddha has taught us to practice looking directly into the seeds of fear in us, instead of trying to cover them up or running away from them. This is the practice of the five remembrances.

1) I will have to grow old.
2) I will have to get sick.
3) I will have to die.
4) One day I will have to lose the things I cherish today, and the people I love today.
5) When my body disintegrates, I cannot bring anything with me except my actions of body, speech and mind – they are the only inheritance that I can bring with me.

When we can practice accepting these truths in this way, we will have peace, and we will have the capacity to live healthy and compassionately – no longer causing suffering to ourselves and to others. When people with cancer or AIDS are first diagnosed and told that they only have 3 months or half a year to live, they often react with anger, denial, and despair in the beginning. They cannot accept it. However, once they can accept the truth, they begin to have peace. When they have peace, they will have the opportunity to practice living “deeply” every moment of their daily lives. As a result, they have the chance to live longer, even 15 years more.

We have the example of sister Dam Nguyen from Hanoi. She came to Plum Village one year with the intention to live with Thầy and the Sangha for a few months, then she would return to Hanoi to die. The doctor told her that she could only live 3-4 more months. When she arrived at Plum Village, sisters suggested that she went to see a doctor, but she refused to. She did not feel the need to see a doctor. She accepted her death, and she lived wholeheartedly every moment she had with the Sangha during those three months. When her visa was about to expire, she bade farewell to the Sangha. An older sister suggested she see a doctor “just to see” what had happened to her cancer. Sister Dam Nguyen agreed, in order to please that sister. The doctor informed her that all the metastatic sites in her body had receded to one place, and that she was doing very well. Our sister went back to Hanoi with great joy. It has been 14 years since she left Plum Village for Hanoi, and she continues to live.

The Buddha taught that all phenomena are impermanent; there is birth, then there is death. Our civilization is also like that. In the history of the earth, many civilizations have ended. If our modern civilization is destroyed, it also follows the law of impermanence. If our human race continues to live in ignorance and in the bottomless pit of greed as at present, then the destruction of this civilization is not very far away. We have to accept this truth, just like we accept our own death. Once we can accept it, we will not react with anger, denial, and despair anymore. We will have peace. Once we have peace, we will know how to live so that the earth has a future; so that we can come together in the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood and apply the modern technology available to us, in order to save our beloved green planet. If not, we will die from mental anguish, before our civilization actually terminates.

Our mother, The Earth, the green planet has suffered from her children’s violent and ignorant ways of consuming. We have destroyed our Mother Earth like a type of bacterium or virus destroying the human body, because Mother Earth is also a body. Of course, there are bacteria that are beneficial to the human body. Trillions of these bacteria are present in us, especially in our digestive systems (known as intestinal normal flora). They protect the body and help generate enzymes necessary to us. Similarly, the human species can also be a living organism that has the capacity to protect the body of Mother Earth, if the human species wakes up and knows to live with responsibility, compassion and loving kindness. Buddhism came to life, so that we learn to live with responsibility and compassion and loving kindness. We have to see that we inter-are with our Mother Earth, that we live with her and die with her.

Mother Earth has gone through re-birth many times. After the great flood caused by global warming takes place, perhaps only a very small portion of the human race will survive. The earth will need over a million years to recuperate and put on a new whole, beautiful green coat, and another human civilization will begin. That civilization will be the continuation of our civilization. To the human species, one million years is a very long time, but to the earth and in geological time, one million years is nothing at all; it is only a short period of time. Ultimately, all birth and death are only superficial phenomena. No-birth and no-death are the true nature of all things.

With love and trust,
Thich Nhat Hanh (Thầy)

Eating Mindfully To Heal Our Planet

Looking deeply at the way we eat from a global perspective, we can see that meat production is a huge drain on the planet. The United Nations' report Livestock’s Long Shadow, an in-depth assessment of the damaging impact of livestock on our environment, concluded that livestock’s negative effect on our environment is massive and that we need to address it with urgency. The report estimates that raising livestock uses 8 percent of our planet’s water and contributes strongly to water depletion and pollution. Some scientists have estimated that it takes one hundred times as much water to produce a kilogram of beef as it does to produce a kilogram of protein from grain. Part of the reason that so much water is needed to produce livestock is that cattle are fattened on vast amounts of grain, which requires water to grow. In the United States, cattle consume seven times as much grain as the U.S. population as a whole. An Environmental Protection Agency report on U.S. agricultural crop production in 2000 states that, according to the National Corn Growers Association, about 80 percent of all corn grown in the United States is consumed by domestic and overseas livestock, poultry, and fish production. Yet, ironically, more than nine thousand children die each day from causes related to hunger and undernutrition. It is a painful realization that the grain and resources we use to raise livestock could be used more directly instead to feed the starving and malnourished children in the world.

Furthermore, a 2008 report by the Pew Charitable Trust and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that factory farming in the United States is taking a heavy toll on human health and the health of the environment—and that keeping livestock in these “concentrated animal feeding operations” constitutes inhumane treatment. Animal waste pollutes the water and air around the farms, causing illness among farmworkers and farm neighbors, as well as land degradation. Heavy use of antibiotics in factory farming leads to new strains of viruses and bacteria resistant to antibiotics, creating “superbugs” that may pose a public health threat to us all. In the report, the experts recommended phasing out and banning the use of antibiotics in farm animals except for the treatment of disease, instituting tighter regulation of factory farm waste, and phasing out intensive confinement systems.

The devastating environmental and societal impact of raising livestock goes beyond the use of water and land to grow food. Our society’s hunger for meat contributes mightily to the production of climate-changing greenhouse gases. The livestock industry is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, a higher share than the entire transportation sector. Seventy percent of forests in the Amazon have been cut to provide grazing land for cattle, and when such forests are destroyed, enormous amounts of carbon dioxide stored in trees are released into the atmosphere. The meat, dairy, and egg industries are also responsible for two-thirds of human-induced emissions of ammonia, which in turn plays a role in acid rain and the acidification of our ecosystem.

The data suggest that one of the best ways to alleviate the stress on our environment is to consume less meat and eat more plant based food, which results in reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We do not need cattle to process the food for us. It is much better and more efficient for us to eat more plant-based food and process it ourselves. It may seem like a huge change for many people, but reducing the amount of meat and dairy in your diet is a great way to keep your weight in check, improve your overall health, and take steps toward improving the health of our planet. When we learn to eat more vegetables, grains, and beans mindfully, we will enjoy their taste, and we can be happy knowing that we are supporting a new kind of society in which there is enough food for everyone and no one will have to suffer from hunger.

We must take urgent action at the individual and collective levels. For individuals, going towards vegetarianism can have great weight and health benefits. Vegans and vegetarians tend to weigh less than people who consume animal products; they also tend to have lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

Although this practice is primarily based on the wish to nourish compassion toward animals, it also offers many health benefits. Now we also know that when we eat vegetarian, we protect the earth and help reduce the greenhouse effect that is causing her serious and irreversible damage. Even if you cannot be 100 percent vegetarian, being a part-time vegetarian and consuming a more plant-based diet is already better for your own health as well as the health of our shared planet. You may want to start by eating vegetarian for a few days a month, or you can eat vegetarian only for breakfast and lunch every day. This way, you are already more than half vegetarian. If you feel that you cannot eliminate animal products from your diet for even one meal, simply reducing the portion of meat and eliminating processed meats like bacon, sausages, and ham can lower your risk of colon cancer and your risk of dying an early death from heart disease, cancer, or other causes. This is a good first step to adopting a more plant-based, healthful, environmentally friendly diet.

Using mindfulness to look deeply at what you eat can make it much easier to make such changes, because you realize the benefits they can bring to the planet and yourself—lower weight, lower risk of colon cancer and heart disease, and more energy for doing the things you enjoy. We are “interbeings”: we and our environment are interdependent. And even small changes on our part can have a large impact when combined with others. Our market economy is driven primarily by consumer demand. As a population, if a large number of people make even small moves to eat less meat and more plant-based foods, the livestock industry will shrink. Over time, farmers will find other crops to support their livelihoods. Through such collective awakening we can make a difference in our world.

- Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung (from the book "Savor - Mindful Eating, Mindful Life").

#ThichNhatHanh #5Mindfulness #विज्ञप्तिमात्र #HowToEat #Veganism #Vijñaptimātra #TrueLove #MindfulConsumption #Reverence4Life #LilianCheung #VeganAngels

The Three Stages Of Love

What would you say to a person who is in love with someone because that someone is very pretty or very rich? No doubt you think that is not true love. The desire for someone because she is pretty is a sensual desire and the desire for someone because he is rich is a material desire. True love is not a sensual or material desire. What is love and what has this got to do with veganism, you, me, a monk who lives in France and a cloud? I will tell you, but you must be open minded. If you have a concept of love in your mind then you cannot experience true love.

Bring to your mind the day you fell in love. The day your loved one manifested in your life, like sunshine, making your world bright. It was a nice feeling isn't it? That's the first stage of love - coming together (contact). Contact is possible because we have form (body) and consciousness (five senses, mind, manas and store consciousnesses). Contact does not mean beginning. There is no beginning. Your loved one existed even before you met that person. You existed as well and so did love. Contact is coming together. Contact develops into feelings, feelings into mental formations and mental formations into volitions. Depending on the type of contact feelings arise, depending on the type of feelings mental formations arise and depending on the type of mental formation that has arisen we make a decision (volition is the process of making a decision). Our volitions determine the future of our love.

The second stage of love is separation. If our coming together is based on the body or perceptions then we must part. Imagine a person in love with a man who is very rich. She wants material comforts. One day the rich man loses all his money. Then her desires remain unfulfilled. She will be angry, they will fight and will part. If you love someone because she is a girl or a boy, then one day that person will die and you will experience separation. Everyone who has ever loved a conceptual "person" has lost that person. If you love a body or a perception, it will end in suffering. When someone dies we miss them. When we die our children suffer, we are not there to help them when they need our help.

The third stage of love is liberation. How to be free from the suffering of separation? I will tell you, a little bit, today. I know a monk who lives in Plum Village, France. He is my teacher. He is very mindful. One day observing a cloud he realized that a cloud never dies! It transforms into rain, ice, steam but never dies. He then realized that nothing dies. We only fail to recognize the manifestations. We are unable to recognize the cloud when it transforms into rain and miss the cloud. But the cloud has now become water and is closer to us! If nothing dies how can a person die? When we think a person has died, it is because we consider her to be her body. This is so because of our habit of recognizing and discriminating on the basis of the five sense perceptions - body, voice, touch, taste and smell. To be liberated is to be free from the suffering of separation. There are two hurdles that must be crossed - knowledge and perceptions. A cloud can help you with knowledge. A bird can help with knowledge. A teacher can help you with knowledge. But to overcome the hurdle of perceptions you will have to transform your habits. One who practices the Five Mindfulness Trainings is doing just that! True love is the third mindfulness training.

Since separation is because of our habit of recognizing and discriminating on the basis of the five sense perceptions - body, voice, touch, taste and smell, we must first learn to stop making our love contingent upon sensual perceptions. We must stop discriminating on the basis of physical features, manners, their views etc. We cannot treat one race or one sex or one specie with love and another with hatred. Why? If you smoke cigarettes everyday, then it becomes a habit. Then you become a slave to the cigarette. Then you get a lifestyle and ailments that come with smoking.

Once we are ready to look beyond body, we realize that love is not sexual desire. Love is liberating in nature. It makes us happy. Let a bird, a chicken, a cow come to you expecting love. When we practice loving animals, we are transforming our habits. We are practicing love that is not contingent upon how the other person looks. In fact, true love is true love because it is not contingent upon any conditions. Something is true when it does not change. Because of our habits we stop loving people when they change or they say something we don't like etc. We become angry or sad. Such love is like that of a selfish person who says, "I love myself, now you also love me", selfish and subject to change. True love is not contingent upon religion, political views, specie, gender, color etc.

What do you do when you love someone? The selfish lover wants his own happiness. He doesn't care for the loved one's happiness. The true lover wants his loved one to be happy. Will you kill and eat a woman because you love women? Then why do you kill and eat a chicken if you love chicken? We must learn to love all beings without discrimination. We don't hurt someone we truly love. We don't kill them. We don't eat them.

When we begin to practice true love, we are transforming our habits. It is very difficult. It may not happen overnight, not even in weeks but we have to try and make it happen because then all sufferings will end. There is only one vehicle that can free us from suffering in one lifetime and that is not any religion or doctrine or a pill or a person or an imaginary concept. It is true love.

The one who loves us is our true home. We can go home and be happy. The home does not follow us when we go to office. All sentient beings are waiting to love you. It is time you came home!

(The author, Saurabh Singh, is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh.)

#विज्ञप्तिमात्र #Vijñaptimātra #ThichNhatHanh #5Mindfulness #Enlightenment #Veganism

Mother's Day Meditation

Just like human mothers, cow mothers also love their children. They cannot be happy when their children are unhappy. Cow's milk is meant for the calf, not humans. Cows produce milk after childbirth. They are repeatedly impregnated so they give birth and produce milk, so we humans can enjoy milk tea, butter, ghee (clarified butter), milk sweets, milk chocolates, cheese, paneer (cottage cheese) etc. The calves are taken away and sold to butchers so some people can eat beef and wear leather shoes/bags/jackets. The cow mother spends all her life as a slave. She is repeatedly raped and helplessly watches the killing of her children.
Buddha taught that we cannot be happy by making others suffer.

The first mindfulness training is reverence for life. We cannot kill or let others kill if we have reverence for life. The second mindfulness training is to practice and promote true happiness. We cannot be truly happy by stealing from others, by exploiting others.

Veganism Is The Practice Of Promoting Freedom

My teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, is a vegan and so am I. In simple terms, we value freedom. Not just our own but of all sentient beings.

Due to the fact that we give ourselves very little time, we seldom realize how we have lost our freedom. If we look deeply, we can see that we are being used as resource. Companies even have a department,  Human Resource Department, leaving nothing to imagination. Our governments also view us as resource. Unnecessary battles are fought without much consideration for the lives of those who will die. If one soldier dies, we can train another. After all we are merely human resource. It appears to me that human resource is a more politically correct term for a slave.

What did we do to end up like this? We have to look at our own behavior to understand this. Wrong views ultimately lead to wrong actions. Wrong actions ultimately bring suffering. We have, for centuries,  used animals as resource. People are very fond of milk products. You will not find cows who are free. A cow has to work as a slave all her life. Mother cows are forced to watch their calves go hungry while their milk is sold for money. Many animals are killed to be eaten by humans. Some animals are killed for their skin. Some are tortured in labs.

Don't you like the warm sun, lazy afternoons, cool evenings, moonlit nights? The animals can enjoy these too, if we let them live. You don't have to be able to type on a computer to enjoy life.

When we use others as resource, we are preparing to let others use us as resource. When did you last feel one with nature? We made cows our slaves and in the process ended up as slaves ourselves. Now we have served as slaves for so many generations, to kings, governments, corporations etc. that we have mistaken slavery for freedom.

We must be mindful to meditate. Right Meditation leads to development of Right Views which promote Right Thoughts. Right Thoughts lead to Right Speech and Right Actions ensuring Right Livelihood and with Right Diligence we can practice mindfulness - Right Mindfulness. By respecting other living beings' right to freedom,  we are putting into practice all the eight elements of the path.

This is because that is. This is not, because that is not. By adopting a vegan lifestyle we are sowing seeds of freedom. With right mindfulness we will water them and in time they will blossom and will help us experience true freedom, which will lead to everlasting joy.