Tuesday, December 15, 2015

After Paris: Half the World's Animals

After the COP21 conference in Paris, the good news is that climate change is now being taken seriously by so many of the World's nations. Perhaps now all debate around whether it is happening will fade and we can get down to work.

However, while there is some good news here, my own concern is less about climate change, very real though I am sure it is, and probably worse than we now anticipate.

I am more concerned about this late 2014 report (and others) about the condition of the World's animals: we have killed off more than 50% of the vertebrates on Earth since 1970. We're talking about individual animals here, not species.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/30/weve-killed-off-half-the-worlds-animals-since-1970/

Based upon this discovery, I feel confident in my subsequent analysis of the numbers, which goes like this:

If we have killed more than half of the vertebrates on Earth since 1970 - 46 years ago, when there were fewer than 4 billion, mostly pre-industrialized people - then it will surely take fewer than 46 years for our 7 billion(++) industrializing people now to kill off all of the remaining animals.

Maybe 25 years?

I am also confident that the Earth will not be quite so habitable a place for humans when that mark is reached - when we have killed off all the animals we are not specifically raising for food - because Earth's ecosystems cannot support global life once all the natural animals are gone. (The reasons are complex and many, but also obvious.)

At that point, climate change may be forgotten. The greater concern will be survival.

We need to save Earth's animals and preserve their habitats.

May all beings be well.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

"Bring It On Down To Veganville!"

Justin Timberlake delivers a powerful pro-vegan performance on Saturday Night Live. Check it out!

http://en.musicplayon.com/play?v=321315

May all beings be free!

Dogs "On The Road"

This is a story of redemption. Repentant hunters now feed the animals they used to kill and have made a dog train!

This 2:15 min video is a must-see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-aDuNKSvio

May all beings be happy!

Friday, December 11, 2015

What is Sacred?

Everything. Everything is sacred. Nothing, Nothing is sacred.

Nothing has any intrinsic quality of "sacredness." Everything, being One All-pervading Reality, is just what it is. When we say "sacred," we are talking about our own attitude toward something, or toward everything. If there is any question, the question is not about anything or even everything, it is about how we feel and behave

"Biovinity," when it appeared in my dream, meant "all living beings are divine and worthy of our respect and reverence." And yet, I recognize that nothing is any more "divine" than anything else. 

The meaning of biovinity - and this blog - is to point toward our feelings, attitudes, ideas and actions toward other living beings in particular - especially the ones we have intimate and direct relationships with (or do not) - more than it has to do with our sense of wonder about rocks or stars.

Most importantly, how do we interact with what we regard as divine, as sacred? If this rock is sacred, will I behave differently toward it than if I think it is a non-living thing? If this pet is sacred - or this cow in a factory is sacred - will I behave differently toward her than if she were a thing?

The question is about the breadth and depth of our sense of reverence for Life. All living beings are worthy of our reverence, our love, our care, In this way, they are "sacred." We will revere them if we feel reverence for Life itself. Do we feel reverential toward God, toward divinities, toward saints, teachers, neighbors, family members? Do we revere the animals we share the Earth with? 

May all beings be happy and well.

Applying the Salve of Love

In a recent article, journalist, activist, author, and Presbyterian minister Chris Hedges wrote: “We have to let go of our relentless positivism, our absurd mania for hope, and face the bleakness of reality before us. To resist means to acknowledge that we are living in a world already heavily damaged by global warming. It means refusing to participate in the destruction of the planet. It means noncooperation with authority. It means defying in every way possible consumer capitalism, militarism and imperialism. It means adjusting our lifestyle, including what we eat, to thwart the forces bent upon our annihilation.” (Read the full article...)

As a rapidly growing population of beings that generally takes from the Earth more than it needs - something that most distinguishes humans from other animals - we are degrading the health of our little planet with rampant ferocity. Optimism is becoming increasingly scarce, quite in line with the reality we are creating. Remaining "optimistic" without recognizing our role in the problems we are perpetuating is one of the dangers we face.

Whether we are optimistic or otherwise, we have most likely already gone beyond the "tipping point" toward an increasingly unlivable planet. Far beyond indeed for those beings our actions have extinguished! Innumerable species, and individual animals within species, are going, going, gone too soon. With more and more industrializing people coming into the world, and barring some unimaginable catastrophe, this trend will only increase exponentially. Clearly, we cannot stop or go backward from here. We are firmly set on course for more of the same.

The magnitude of the growing loss of natural animals and their habitats, along with our increasing use of their lands for the unnecessary, cruel, and heavily polluting animal industrial complex to feed more and more human mouths, points to a decreasingly habitable world. Healthy ecosystems inhabited by animals living according to the needs of their evolutionary development are requisite to maintain a habitable world for human beings in the long run. This truth involves great complexity and is also plainly obvious.

So then, what if we can't fix it? What can we do? What I want to suggest is that all is not lost, even if we cannot meaningfully slow the damage we continue to wreak, let alone repair it.

As we look toward a future with fewer healthy ecosystems and fewer individual animals and animal species, my own sense of how the Dharma, the Message, the Wisdom of the great wisdom traditions may inform our actions in relation to the needs of our changing Earth today involves to some extent beginning to refocus away from ideas about how we can fix it, looking instead toward how to most beneficially behave with one another as fellow denizens of Mother Gaia facing these increasingly painful challenges together.

As social beings, we are ethical beings. That is how we have survived over millennia. Our ethics, based upon our capacity for compassion, is what makes our human species humane. At the deepest level, our sense of well-being has less to do with the conditions we face; it has more to do with how we behave, how much we care about others, and how we enact that caring with one another.

As the Buddha told us: all we can take with us beyond this life is our actions. This includes not only the effects of our actions. His message points more to how well our actions have matched our most loving aspirations and kindest intentions.

The Dharma is eternal and universal. Our alignment with it begins with our best, most selfless, intentions. Yet, how it is to be applied varies according to the circumstances that arise before us. 

Now, as always, kindness is paramount. Now, as we face unprecedented challenges as a global community, learning to love one another as the sacred beings we are may be more important than ever before - or, to put it another way, more urgently needed and most appropriate to the needs of our fellow beings.

Even if we cannot repair what we have broken, we can remain optimistic that we may yet be able to call upon our best intentions, align them with the Great Wisdom of the ages, and therewith hope to resolve our story on Earth by having learned the meaning and value of Love and having applied that wisdom in loving one another and all beings through the painful and difficult times to come.

May we pray, and also act accordingly. "May all beings be happy and well."

Vatican Animal Projections

Vatican animal projections light up St Peter's Basilica - BBC 8 December 2015

The Vatican has thrown its weight behind an environmental cause, to coincide with the final days of the climate negotiations in Paris. It allowed St. Peter's Basilica to be turned into a huge backdrop for an art show about nature, with images of various animals being projected on to the building.

See the beautiful 1 min. video and read more...

May all beings be happy and well!

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Metta

May all beings be happy and peaceful

May all beings feel safe and protected

May all beings be healthy and strong

May all beings be free of suffering

And may they live with ease.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Racing Extinction

Mass animal extinction. Global climate change. Illegal wildlife traffic. The problems are overwhelming. The scale enormous. But the solutions can start with you.

It starts with one thing. One thing that changes the way you live, eat, act, drive, work. One thing that changes your everyday. One thing that changes your corner of the world. One thing that leads to another and another and another. Learn here what you can do and then share your one thing.

May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Hear Koko

Koko the gorilla speaks for Nature. Her face and eyes speak volumes.

Watch the 1:14 video...

May all beings be well and free from suffering.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Beyond Words

Many make the case that people are more likely to refrain from eating animals when presented with the health benefits or the impact of industrial animal agriculture on climate change.

My observation is that people who experiment with vegetarianism because of some hoped-for health benefits just as readily go back to eating animals when someone tells them they "need to eat meat" for their health. And, those who take up the "ism" based upon some ideal, like helping the environment, don't always stick with it; they may decide the issues are too large or they may decide to focus their attention on other forms of advocacy and abandon their vegetarianism for something more momentarily interesting.

My own decision to go veg in the early '90s resulted from a deep and clear sense of identity of myself as an animal and of all other animals as my direct relations. 

Since that moment, I have not eaten my friends, of any species, and I will never again.

That experience was well beyond words. The agent of change was awareness itself, awareness of my relationship with all beings on Earth, and the loving and compassionate feelings I have for them, and - as I continue to discover - share with them.

Beyond Words is a book that may effect others similarly poised to give up eating animals. Here are some reviews that echo my own experience and writings about animals and their feelings and intelligence.

"Beyond Words will have a deep impact on many readers, for it elevates our relationships with animals to a higher plane....Along with Darwin's Origin and Richard Dawkins's Selfish Gene, BEYOND WORDS marks a major milestone in our evolving understanding of our place in nature. Indeed it has the potential to change our relationship with the natural world." -- Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books

“Captivating...A profound, scientifically based appeal for recognition of the kinship of all living things.” ―Kirkus, starred review

“Carl Safina shows there is indeed intelligent life in the universe, and it's all around us. At once moving and surprising, Beyond Words asks us to reexamine our relationship to other species-and to ourselves.” ―Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

Read more and buy....

May all beings be well and happy, free of suffering and the causes of suffering.

Compassion and B12

"To be truly healthful, a diet must be best not just for individuals in isolation but must allow all six billion people to thrive and achieve a sustainable coexistence with the many other species that form the 'living earth.' 

"From this standpoint the natural adaptation for most (possibly all) humans in the modern world is a vegan diet. There is nothing natural about the abomination of modern factory farming and its attempt to reduce living, feeling beings to machines. 

"In choosing to use fortified foods or B12 supplements, vegans are taking their B12 from the same source as every other animal on the planet – micro-organisms – without causing suffering to any sentient being or causing environmental damage."


May all beings be free of suffering.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Giving Tuesday


December 1st is Giving Tuesday. Please give generously to organizations that benefit animals in need, such as mercyforanimals.org.

May all beings be well and happy!

The Heart Is Noble

I want to again encourage you to obtain and read The Heart is Noble - Changing the World From the Inside Out by His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.

Consider this recommendation my holiday gift to you! This beautiful book could serve as a wonderful gift for your spiritually inclined loved ones, as well.

http://www.shambhala.com/the-heart-is-noble.html

May all beings be well and happy!

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Change Your Diet, Change the Climate!

[Excerpt]: "When the international climate negotiators assembling in Paris next week sit down for dinner, they might reflect on the climate impact of their meal.

"Indeed, in the midst of a growing - and very encouraging - global conversation on how to address the common threat of climate change, far too little attention has been paid at the highest levels to the impact of our diets and farming practices on planet-warming emissions.

"To put it another way: if we are serious about changing the climate, we need to get serious about changing agriculture."


May all beings be happy and well.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Emotional, Mental & Spiritual Benefits

Aside from the physical benefits I have enjoyed since becoming vegan (described below under "Vegan Health"), I am discovering surprising benefits, emotional, spiritual and mental.

Emotional and spiritual, because my emotions are more centered around compassion, which is the natural orientation of the spirit. I feel greater harmony between the two. No surprise here. I expected that.

What I find surprising are the mental benefits rising in the form of greater clarity, ease and efficiency of thinking, particularly with synthesizing and connecting ideas and thoughts and following lines of reasoning.

And here's why.

While I was vegetarian, I operated in ethical denial to the extent that my motivation in being vegetarian was feeling the suffering of animals and wanting to bring relief to them. At the same time, I knew that animals producing diary products within our industrial animal operations were also experiencing great suffering from their involuntary servitude.

I was operating with some level of denial. Going vegan was the only way out of this dilemma, at least for me.

What I can see now is that thoughts and ideas were routinely short-circuited then, because those lines of thought would run up against impenetrable obstacles created and necessitated by that denial. I would be thwarted in trying to think an ethical problem through, because I would run up against my own ethical contradictions, and so that line of thought would self-destruct right then and there. There were places in my mind and conclusions I might reach that I did not want to look at. End of exploration.

By contrast, I am now discovering a surprisingly greater level of mental continuity. I am much more easily able to connect the dots and understand what used to seem like conflicting or contradictory ideas, as well as what felt like intellectual dead-ends. Finding that one thought more easily leads to another, I am more able to synthesize otherwise apparently disparate thoughts into a more cohesive whole.

The extent to which this may increase my capacity to be of benefit - which is the only important matter - may be revealed over time.

May all beings be well and happy!

Please Sign to Help Elephants

Wild elephants are disappearing right before eyes. Every single day, poachers kill 96 elephants and steal their tusks worth thousands as part of the $10 billion wildlife trafficking industry that goes into the pockets of some of the most violent terrorist militias in Africa.This translates to an elephant dying every 15 minutes. At this rate, none will be left roaming in 2025.


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving from Best Friends!

From the staff and animals of the Best Friends Sanctuary and their adoption centers in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, thanks for providing a lifesaving second chance to homeless pets around the country.


May all beings be happy and free!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Vegan for Health?

My decision to go vegan had nothing to do with health. Well, not my health, but the health of my animal sisters and brothers. I continue to try to align my behavior with my prayers that all beings may be well, free and happy. The dietary change marked a natural - and somewhat overdue - extension of my 20+ years as an "ethical vegetarian." I simply reached the point where giving up all animal foods was no longer optional. Responding to clear inner guidance, it became mandatory for me to live in an ethically consistent way, at least with regard to my dietary choices.

I feel this is necessary so long as animals are mistreated and while it is not in any way necessary that I eat them. I have no judgment of others around the killing and eating of animals who are revered, respected, and where it is strictly necessary for survival.

Giving up meat in the early '90s was no sacrifice at all; I love - and increasingly revere - living animals and lost all desire to eat them. I have never once missed the taste of meat and have instead only felt grateful for the many alternatives available, especially the wide range of Asian foods.

However, I continued to feel reluctant to give up cheese, butter, ghee, ice-cream and eggs and could hardly imagine how I could, given my love for these foods and also their ubiquity in my regular diet.

I am now learning one very physical meaning of "renunciation." Giving up these delicious treats is proving a genuine practice, one that feels so good to undertake and also challenging. Just negotiating how to eat with the family at holidays requires careful attention.

But, along with this change has come some unexpected and really delightful surprises for my physical health - icing on the cake over the more important benefits of being vegan.

I regularly give blood. One of the benefits I derive from giving blood is the health reporting that follows each donation.

Several months ago - while still eating dairy - I was kicked off of the donor roles because of a low blood iron reading; I would not be able to donate for 6 months.

In the interim, I happened to give up dairy and eggs and wondered how that might affect my iron and general blood chemistry. Along with low hemoglobin, my cholesterol had plateaued at the threshold of danger, remaining there for about a year after gradual, steady increases over the past three years. Additionally, my weight had increased over the past 10 years or so, something I had never experienced at any time in my life before that period!

Two months into being vegan, with great interest I accepted the invitation to again give blood, especially looking forward to the lab results I would obtain. When the phlebotomist took my iron sample and found it over 15, he remarked, "Wow! What accounts for your excellent iron reading? Do you take supplements?" No. I'm vegan, so maybe I eat more leafy greens.

A week later, I received my cholesterol report: it had plummeted from 240 to below 215, back in the healthy range and below any previous reading! And, since then, I have returned to my normal body weight - and with no additional exercise!

Overall, I feel much stronger and healthier, with very few digestive issues and almost no headaches, where those had become almost chronic concerns.

I take these health improvements as one example of how acting for the benefit and happiness of others (in this case, animals) also brings many benefits to our own lives.

May all beings be well and happy!

News Report: Pigeons Spot Cancer

From the BBC: Pigeons identify breast cancer 'as well as humans'

Pigeons, with training, did just as well as humans in a study testing their ability to distinguish cancerous from healthy breast tissue samples. The pigeons were able to generalize what they learned, correctly spotting tumors in unseen microscope images.

"Pigeons can distinguish identities and emotional expressions on human faces, letters of the alphabet, misshapen pharmaceutical capsules, and even paintings by Monet vs Picasso."

Read more....

May all beings be well and happy!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

More Vegan Humor and Our Vegan Agenda

Today, I told my brother we had gone vegan, and he told me this joke:

Q: How can you tell if someone is vegan?
A: You don't have to. They will tell you.

It's good to be able to laugh at ourselves! My life partner and I regularly and unashamedly joke about our "vegan agenda."

One way it plays is revealed in how we now approach dining out: rather than simply going to restaurants we know have lots of vegan options already, we stop in to other dining establishments, explain that we are vegan and ask what they can serve us.

Most restaurateurs kindly try to help by taking us on a tour of their menus, suggesting variations to the non-vegan or vegetarian selections. As the vegan diet is becoming more popular, we delight to discover more and more options are available to us.

When we found an online list of vegan fast food, I was happy to see that Taco Bell - for all of its many other shortcomings - does not use lard in their beans or tortillas, and many of their menu items can be made vegan.

That is, if the one taking the order understands what "vegan" means.

At my latest visit to the drive-through, I explained I wanted a "vegetarian Cantina Burrito made vegan" and began to list the things they would hold. "So, that means, no sour cream..."

The cashier interjected: "Do you want cheese?"

We have a long way to go as a culture at so many levels.

Some Really Good News!

On Nov. 16, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that the agency will end the last vestiges of federally supported chimpanzee experimentation.

May all beings be happy and free!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Looking Down at Animals

Any who carefully look can see that it is our anthropocentric tendency that allows us to regard humans as fully "superior" to other lifeforms on Earth, especially despite the fact that it is only we who are now threatening all living beings on our planet in addition to the many whole species our activities are already wiping out each day.

If we do want to see ourselves as positively different, then we might look toward our humanity - our capacity for genuinely humane behavior - to distinguish us from the rest of our animal sisters and brothers, whether or not that behavior is actually exclusive to human consciousness.

If we feel that our humanity is what makes us better, then along with this capacity, we are responsible for actualizing humane behavior, having the opportunity to express our humanity as compassion toward other living beings.

Whether or not a lioness may feel compassion, she must - in following the laws of her own body and ecosystem - kill and eat other living beings.

But, we do not. We might also distinguish ourselves in our ability to give birth to technologies and means by which we no longer need to kill animals to live healthy lives.

Modern, affluent humans have not only the technology to provide for bodily sustenance with an increasingly vast array of food choices, we also have the responsibility to make ethical decisions about what we eat, based upon our humane compassion.

If we wish to shore up our sense of place and purpose on Earth by placing ourselves at the top of some hierarchy of lifeforms, then might we do better by demonstrating that superiority, acting from that position, by behaving more ethically and refraining from any unnecessary enslavement and death of animals to satisfy our baser desires?

The actuality of our own humanity may depend upon it.

May all beings be happy and well.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Got Milk? No Thanks!

A growing body of research has found that, for grown-ups, consuming too much dairy can actually be harmful. Read more...

May all beings be well, happy and free.

Do You Know the Biggest Global Challenge?

Please watch this quick, 1.5 minute video to learn what the most pressing challenges our bio-sphere (that's you and me and all living beings) faces today.

May all beings be well.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Not Ready to Go Veg?

How about signing up for Meatless Mondays? Read more...

May all beings be happy and well.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Honoring Dogs as Sacred - Kukur Tihar

In Nepal at Tihar (equivalent of Hindu Diwali "festival of Light"), the second of three days is devoted to honoring dogs as the sacred beings and friends they are. Dogs are given sweet treats and decorated with kum-kum and flower garlands. (Day one honors crows, and day three, cows.) This amusing video explains!


All good blessings for Kukur Tihar ("Dog Diwali")!

Fortunately, many of us honor our dogs everyday of the year!

May all beings be happy!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Your Support

Recognizing the sacredness, the preciousness and the importance of each and every being, taking action following our aspirations and prayers that all beings may be happy and free, please do what you can to help our animal friends, such as contributing to the Humane Society as part of their endcrueltynow.org campaign, or to the very effective bestfriends.org, founded by "spiritual seekers" who saw that their dharma was to help alleviate the suffering of animals and raise awareness of their awareness.

Thank you.

May all beings be happy and free.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

A Billion Buddhists

Senior Buddhists including His Holiness the Dalai Lama have called on world leaders to agree to a new climate change agreement at the COP21 conference in Paris.

Their statement from the leaders of over a billion Buddhists worldwide says that the causes of the environmental crisis are the use of fossil fuels, unsustainable consumption patterns, lack of awareness and lack of concern about the consequences of our actions.

"Everyday life can easily lead us to forget that we are inextricably linked to the natural world through every breath we take, the water we drink and the food we eat," said Lama Lobzang, secretary of the International Buddhist Confederation.

"Humanity must act on the root causes of this crisis, which is driven by greed, thoughtlessness and a lack of concern about the consequences of our actions."

Read more...

May all beings be well and happy.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Boost to Farm Sanctuary Movement!

Farm Sanctuary Gets Lift from Celebrity Couple Jon and Tracey Stewart

Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart and his wife, advocate and former veterinary technician Tracey, announced this weekend that their property in Middletown, New Jersey, will be the fourth outpost of the nation's largest and most effective farm rescue and protection organization.

And, Farm Sanctuary president and co-founder Gene Baur discusses his new book, Living the Farm Sanctuary Life: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Mindfully, Living Longer and Feeling Better Every Day.

Read more....

May all beings be well and happy.

Albert Schweitzer's "Reverence for Life"

Albert Schweitzer's "Reverence for Life" is identical to the attitude expressed when the new word "biovinty" is understood.

"As far back as I can remember I was saddened by the amount of misery I saw in the world around me. Youth's unqualified joie de vivre I never really knew.... One thing especially saddened me was that the unfortunate animals had to suffer so much pain and misery.... It was quite incomprehensible to me - this was before I began going to school - why in my evening prayers I should pray for human beings only. So when my mother had prayed with me and had kissed me good-night, I used to add silently a prayer that I composed myself for all living creatures. It ran thus: "O heavenly Father, protect and bless all things that have breath, guard them from all evil, and let them sleep in peace...."

"...this sport [fishing] was soon made impossible for me by the treatment of the worms that were put on the hook...and the wrenching of the mouths of the fishes that were caught. I gave it up.... From experiences like these, which moved my heart...there slowly grew up in me an unshakable conviction that we have no right to inflict suffering and death on another living creature, and that we ought all of us to feel what a horrible thing it is to cause suffering and death..."

"Standing, as all living beings are, before this dilemma of the will to live, a person is constantly forced to preserve his own life and life in general only at the cost of other life. If he has been touched by the ethic of reverence for life, he injures and destroys life only under a necessity he cannot avoid, and never from thoughtlessness."

- Albert Schweitzer



"Reverence for Life says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and want to go on living. This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass - and, of course, every human being. So we are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves."

- James Brabazon (Author of the Biography of Albert Schweitzer)

Monday, October 26, 2015

More Cause to Go Veg

BBC Health Report 10.26.15

Processed meats - such as bacon, sausages and ham - do cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Its report said 50g of processed meat a day - less than two slices of bacon - increased the chance of developing colorectal cancer by 18%.

Meanwhile, it said red meats were "probably carcinogenic" but there was limited evidence.

Read more...

And, in a 2013 report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigators used data spanning the decade between 1998 and 2008 to report estimates for annual US food-borne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths attributable to each of 17 food categories. The following were among their findings:

  • Poultry was the most common cause of death from food poisoning (19%), with Listeria and Salmonella species being the main infectious organisms.
  • Dairy items were the second most frequent causes of food-borne illnesses (14%) and deaths (10%), with the main factors being contamination by Norovirus from food handlers and improper pasteurization resulting in contamination with Campylobacter species.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Wish-Fulfilling Cow

In the tradition of sanaatana dharma, which most of us refer to as "Hinduism," we find among the pantheon of icons representing the One All-Pervading Reality, the image of kamadhenu कामधेनु ), "the Wish-fulfilling Cow."


It is natural to recognize in the history of so many cultures why the cow has come to be seen as a kind of mother: she provides essential sustenance as well as fertilization of our soils and fuel for cooking our food. (During my last visit to India, I noted that a single cow is at the center of a cup of chai: she provides the milk, the fertilizer to grow the tea leaves and her own grass food, and the dung that makes the fire that heats the tea!)

Kamadhenu is a manifest form of Divine Mother, and at the same time She represents actual cows, individually and collectively regarded within Her culture as Mother-in-the-flesh. More than that, She represents all animals, the entire Queendom of living beings.

Here we have a potent image that can and should serve both as comfort and as warning to us living in these times of dramatic changes on Earth, because this manifestation of Divine Mother is not eternal in the sense that the other divinities are.

We see the other goddesses and gods depicted within Her body, so we can see that the manner in which we regard this Sacred Cow may reveal our actual attitude toward the Divine. If we revere Her, we feel proper reverence for all that has been born from Her womb, all of Life.

At the same time, we also see in Her reflection how we treat the goddesses' manifestations - our actual, physical cows -, and this reveals a disconnect: though we may wish to think of Nature as "divine," how we treat the natural world so often does not reflect how we treat whatever else we regard as sacred, as holy. Sadly, much to the contrary. And, it seems that the more we have allowed ourselves to lose our felt connection with our own nature-bodies, the more latitude we have taken for violence against Nature and Her animals.

Similarly, when viewed in this way we can readily see that the mistreatment of women is not unlike the mistreatment of cows.

Our relationship with the Holy Cow is not guaranteed; our hopes for the granting of wishes sought from Kamadhenu depend reciprocally upon how we treat Her. As much a part of Nature as of the Divine, She is de facto not an inexhaustible resource. We cannot expect to receive what is best for us from what we treat so poorly. We can also see in the ever-arising, human-caused Earth changes that this is true of our relationship with all of Nature.

Those who understand Khamadenu, the Sacred Cow, understand that every living being is sacred and worthy of our reverence and care, and that our own happiness is directly dependent upon theirs.

May all beings be happy and well.

Dancing with Nature

Continuing the exploration of Murshid Saadi's penetrating piece, "Dances of Innocence,"* I cannot help but read through the lenses I am now wearing, lenses that focus my attention upon my own and our collective relationship with Nature, with the natural world, and particularly with our animal siblings: the winged ones, the two- and four-leggeds, our scaly and more hairy brothers and sisters.

We know well Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan's revolutionary and also transparent assertion that "there is one holy book, the sacred manuscript of Nature..."

Murshid Saadi writes: "When a person has the courage to ask, 'use us for the purpose that Thy wisdom chooses,' this necessarily includes the willingness to face what might arise within oneself from the reflection of that part of humanity in the soul’s mirror." 

The majority of our Dances, at least in my experience, deal with the world's spiritual and faith traditions and religions. Without question, our responses to our impressions of these traditions, both known to us and those we are learning, are subjects of our "soul's mirror." Yet, as Inayat Khan guides us toward Nature as the one and the supreme holy book, so then gazing into the mirror of Nature may even more powerfully evoke our responses, what we resonate with and what we resist. Whether or not this may have always been the case (and I suspect it has been), now the more fertile soil for those courageous enough to work the inner earth of the heart (the hearth wherein the fire of our life burns) is Nature Itself and our relationship with and responsibilities toward Her. For this, we might take up the difficult and critical work of gazing into the Eye of Nature, most literally into the eyes of our animal friends, into the eyes of the sacred and actual Cow.

"It is much easier to sing a pleasant English song that appeals to the emotions, for instance, than look Hathor in the eye. One can find oneself needing to literally 'heal' an archetype before it is redeemed and shared." 

One archetype most in need of healing at this time is our own humanity, our very humane-ness. We see the destruction our way of life is having on the natural world, from which all archetypes arise. Those who attended the Parliament of the World's Religions heard the many voices of indigenous peoples - those most connected with Nature where they live - one after another pleading for changes in the way the "rest of us" live, because we are melting the ice the seals and polar bears call home, we are changing the migration routes of elk and caribou; we are threatening not only their lives, but the lives of those who depend upon them. These voices emphatically demand that we change our hearts so that we can change the way we are living, and now.

"Can we begin to contemplate something like ‘secular spirituality’ in any sense of real depth rather than intellectual lip service? Without being a caricature, what would a secular spiritual Dance look (sound or feel) like?"

I would also ask to what extent we might contemplate a more genuine Nature Spirituality, one that arises out of our bodies when those bodies feel themselves a part of Nature, rather than apart from nature? To whatever extent we remain disconnected from the natural world, to that same extent we remain disconnected from that which is natural within us. By whatever measures we oppress, however consciously or otherwise, the fellow living beings of our natural world - treating them as "less-thans" - in that same measure we rob ourselves of our own humanity. 

This is where most of us would find ourselves were we to look deeply and long into the mirror of Nature and into the eyes of Her animals. We will be struck with the awareness that "what we do to the least of these," we do to ourselves. The healing we need here will call upon our greatest courage and will require great strength and great tenderness. Fortunately, this Path we share gives us all of the tools we need. With those, and with our own initiative and courage, we can more effectively till the soil of our hearts and awaken the life of our authentic humanity, regaining our most natural and proper position as stewards and caretakers of the earth, weeding out the dead matter that is the many destructive paradigms of dominance and power-over that continue to threaten not only the well-being of all the inhabitants of Earth, but the well-being of our very soul. When we step into our inner-garden, we may find vestiges of those paradigms, and some of those may yet be living.

"...the next generation of Dances began to touch very human, everyday life experiences. Not the ‘peak’ experiences but the the ‘trough’ ones: grieving, feeling confused and acknowledging parts of one’s subconscious that had been neglected."

How then will we confront those parts of ourselves? The arising global awareness of what Nature Herself is now asking of us will help us along. What better time to acknowledge the neglected places in our subconscious than when faced with global urgencies, those that Nature Herself is increasingly calling us to acknowledge in the world around us?

"What about looking ahead a bit? How does the future call to us now? What challenges face us as we seek to keep the Dances living rather than as a parody of their past? ... All these current trends challenge our usual way of ‘doing’ the Dances of Universal Peace. What opportunities does the world today present?"

Looking into the mirror of Nature, an answer is also given in Murshid Saadi's text:

"...humanity’s nascent desire to feel globally, to recognize suffering on the other side of the world and to realize that we live in one, interconnected ecosystem called the earth."

And so, the following questions also arise from that Mirror:

"Are we prepared to be channels for Dances that redeem the inner ecology...? ... More importantly, what do we do, or more accurately, what is ours to do?"

For this, our motivation - if we feel it - can be readily found in the closing prayer we so often repeat. May we continue to invoke it sincerely and with increasing awareness of its reach into our inner heart and its scope in the world around us (italics mine):

"May all beings be well. May all beings be happy. Peace, peace, peace."

With love,

Friday, October 23, 2015

Awakening True Identity

Rather than looking broadly and perhaps too vaguely at our responsibilities toward "the earth," we might specifically look at our relationship with animals (not only our pets) and recognize their essential equality with us, awakening our true identity with them, in our bodies, minds and hearts, as fellow "children of God."

My own impulse in this direction has been strengthened and affirmed not only by sessions at the 2015 Parliament concerning faith traditions and our relations with animals, but even more so by the dream I had about one week before the Parliament, where the word "biovinity" appeared and meant: We must awaken to a condition of reverence for all life - for every individual living being - not only in word, but in our daily deeds, in what we buy and what we eat and do not eat (those being the most direct actions which most of us have the great fortune and affluence to be able to most easily change).

At the Parliament, one speaker pointed out that to "love" our pets, yet fail to extend that same affectionate love toward ALL animals, reduces our "love" to mere sentimentality.

"Are we willing to, as Joe Miller used to say, really feel without sentimentality?" - Murshid Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz, "Dances of Innocence, Dances of Experience," October 2015

For me, this is about "reclaiming the heart of our humanity," the theme of the 2015 Parliament. With loving perspective, we gain strength and courage to become more able to recognize that for too long we have erred in thinking we have some "right" to oppress others. Only then can we intentionally begin the walk away from actions that oppress others (here, in addition to other races, creeds, genders, castes, etc., our animal siblings).

I feel inspired, and also duty-bound, to take up this concentration. May we all recognize this ground-swell of intention and take up our own parts in it.

May all beings be well, may all beings be happy.

Moving Beyond Consumerism

We know that our dollars represent powerful "votes" in the direction we wish to see change happen. How conscious are we about each dollar we spend, especially those that move the world in directions that are not in alignment with our aspirations for a more loving and gentle world?

At the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions, one simple message delivered by many speakers and re-stated as a sort of bottom-line summary, is the request that we simply consume less.

Naturally, because each dollar spent is a "vote," we can also make more conscious choices about what we consume, with the interest of bringing greater benefit to all beings.

Here are some inspiring messages and calls to action that correspond to understanding Biovinity:

http://worldconsciouspact.org/wcp-manifesto/
http://www.pachamama.org/

May all beings be well. May all beings be free!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Lisa Simpson Vegetarian 20 Years Ago

How Lisa Simpson became vegetarian. Great!

Cowspiracy

The official Cowspiracy book is here! The book and film (now available on Netflix) present the compelling case that factory farming is not only cruel, unethical and unnecessary, it is the prime factor contributing to climate change and the destruction of our biosphere.

Biovinity at the 2015 Parliament

At the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions in Salt Lake City, I attended the "first animal-related session in the history of the Parliament," Revisioning the Human-Animal Relationship, facilitated by Episcopal priest, Anne Benvenuti, author and scholar Paul Waldau, author and scholar Veena Howard, and head representative of the Yoruba tradition Wande Abimbola and his wife. The session focused on spiritual traditions' views and responsibilities related to our animal brothers and sisters and revolved around Thomas Berry's "communion of subjects...". I made the final comments, describing the origin and meaning of the "new word," biovinity.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Sign Parliament of World's Religions' Declarations

The 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions is helping to foster commitments to actions to assist all beings. Please consider joining with those signing these Declarations.

May all beings be well and happy!

Saturday, October 10, 2015

All Our Relations...

A practice of discovering biovinity, the sacredness of all living beings.

When the word "biovinity" appeared, I did not go back to sleep for fear that I might forget.

I went to the computer and Googled it, to see where it might have come from. I could find nothing.

All my life, I have loved animals. Up until 1993, when I felt the full impact of who and what those animals really are, I also used to eat them.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound...

We "love animals," and yet so many of the animals we love are made to live lives wholly devoid of love.

Might we challenge ourselves to gaze into the Mirror of Nature - to look into the eyes of our animal sisters and brothers - to discover what we resonate with and also what we resist?

May all beings be well and happy!

Favored Quotes

"Everything that lives is holy; life delights in life! How can I see another's sorrow, and not be in sorrow too." William Blake

“If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.” Albert Einstein

"Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."  Albert Einstein

"One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral." Leo Tolstoy

“The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.” Schopenhauer

“You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.” Paul McCartney

"They alone see truly who see the Lord the same in every creature, who see the deathless in the hearts of all that die. Seeing the same Lord everywhere, they do not harm themselves or others. Thus they attain the supreme goal." Sri Bhagavan Krishna, Bhagavad Gita

Pope Francis’s encyclical

While it does not address the need to reduce factory farming as strongly as I had hoped it might, Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ is exceptionally profound, important, and beautiful.

You can read online, download it, or buy in paperback, here:

https://laudatosi.com/watch

All Life is Sacred. May all beings be well!

Thursday, October 8, 2015

MORE THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Diet and our "isms"; beliefs and what we eat

We seldom use the terms, "omnivorism," or "carnivorism," yet we freely use "vegetarianism," as though it were a mere subset of some universally established human diet. The implied presumption here seems to suggest that not eating animals is in some way the product of an ideology or set of values or beliefs, while the other diets represent the normal human fare.

As most people prefer not to think much about the animals they eat, I would suggest that the abstraction of the hamburger from the cow is more based on ideas than is my non-meat diet. In this way, "carnivorism" may be the more ideological of the diets. When pressed, many meat-eaters will freely, if uncomfortably, admit they'd "rather not think about it." This means that some set of ideas, which they'd rather not think about, is involved in their decision to eat meat.

Our "isms" are tied up with our dietary choices, no doubt. Of course, one can assert that all dietary inclinations are enculturated, such that all are the result of beliefs. Maybe. But, my point is to address the unfortunate and unfounded bias toward assigning "ism" to one diet, while not to another. This bias does considerable and unnecessary damage, so we need to look at it.

The term "vegetarianism" is a misnomer, at least in my case. It is not at all because of any "beliefs" that I don't eat animals. It is solely because no part of my being registers any part of an animal as food. It has been since 1993 that I have neither eaten meat nor had any desire to do so. To be devoid of desire and therefore to not indulge in something is no matter of belief.

If there is any "belief" at play for me, it may be tied up with the following: I have long noticed that I have a much greater opportunity to learn from, serve, and enjoy a living animal than I possibly could by killing and eating it. I would much rather befriend a cow or a pig than find her on my plate. Over a lifetime friendship with an animal, surely there would manifest much more growth and value than whatever I might derive from one or two meals from that animal's dead body. I suspect the animal would feel that way, too, given the chance. I think my dog sees it this way, for example.

Generally, when we consider any "ism," we are referring to actions deriving from or supporting some set of ideas, principles or practices, rather than to any sort of incontrovertible understanding. If I say I believe in God, yet have had no experience of God, I am saying something different than one whose affirmation of God is based on some kind of direct experience; such experience is incontrovertible and enduring, while beliefs may change from day to day. The enlightened Buddhist rejects "Buddhism," because the understanding is not based on any ideology, even if some principles or values had led to such enlightenment. The ideological vegetarian may return to eating meat upon receipt of some new advice, while my motivation is not subject to such influences. Originally, I stopped eating meat both because I believed it was morally wrong, and because I increasingly could not avoid feelings of disgust when I did. Now, no "ism" applies any longer; for me, animals are simply not food.

I have lost touch with why so many eat meat, given that it is evidently unnecessary (millions live in prime health without it). I know that blind habit is a lot of it. Sure, it might be necessary if I were starving in the wilderness, or if that were all I had available to eat. The same is true in surviving a stranded airplane wreck: I might eat my wife or kid if I had to. But that is clearly not why most folks go out for a rib dinner.

Hindus hold the cow to be sacred. She represents, or is a manifestation of, Divine Mother. The idea of eating one is completely appalling, much like the idea of eating our own dog or cat is to us. One man's steak is another's Mother, one could say.

We're in the domain of beliefs again at this point. Or are we? Do you refrain from eating your cat because of some "belief?" Ask yourself that. More likely, your cat simply isn't a food item. Then, why is your neighbor's cow? What if they wanted to eat your dog? Eating a cow is much like eating your pet, depending on your perspective.

"Cannibalism" is a word that continues to evoke visceral response. I see this term including any creatures with vertebrae and eyes. All are my relatives, in a direct kind of way. My aversion to cannibalism is more based on direct identification than on any ideology or belief. I tend not to eat what I most identify with. I don't refrain from eating my neighbor because I believe it is wrong, so much as because my neighbor resembles me more than she does food. The revulsion I feel about eating another human is nearly identical to what I feel about eating a hamburger. I have no desire to eat either.

God help me I never have to eat my friends.

Seasonal Levity

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

New: The 17th Karmapa's Book

The Heart Is Noble - Changing the World from the Inside Out

http://www.shambhala.com/the-heart-is-noble.html

OM AH HUNG

Loving the Planet, Loving Ourselves

The problems associated with and contributing to climate can change feel too big, too vast for any one of us to address. Collective transformation is needed there. But starting now, in each moment, each one of us can do our best to save individual lives of our brother and sister beings.

We do all we can when we respond to the call of Love in the awareness of our collective Unity. To love ourselves is to love and care for others, to extend love and care toward all beings.

May all beings be well and happy!

Two Valuable Reads

Big Meat loves the TPP:


May all beings be well.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

What is BIOVINITY?

This word, "biovinity," appeared while sleeping this morning. 

I take it to mean: Every living being is holy, divine.

As it represents my most motivating feelings about my relationship with Life, it has prompted me to create this blog.

May all beings be well and happy. May all beings be free!

Love to all,
Shivadam