May all beings be free!
Friday, June 15, 2018
Eating Animals
Please watch this interview of Natalie Portman on Stephen Colbert, then please see her new movie, "Eating Animals."
Sentient, or Not Sentient?
Recently, this question appeared in media:
"Are animals sentient? Over 2,500 scientific studies say that they are. Animals as small as mice, rats and fish exhibit similar sentient behaviours as humans."
Feeling confident I already understood that all animals (and even insects) are "sentient", I Googled the word: SENTIENT: adjective: able to perceive or feel things.
There can be no question that animals are sentient. (And, a good lesson in the given example for everyone!)
"Are animals sentient? Over 2,500 scientific studies say that they are. Animals as small as mice, rats and fish exhibit similar sentient behaviours as humans."
Feeling confident I already understood that all animals (and even insects) are "sentient", I Googled the word: SENTIENT: adjective: able to perceive or feel things.
There can be no question that animals are sentient. (And, a good lesson in the given example for everyone!)
May all beings be happy and free of suffering.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
The Netherlands' Party for the Animals!
How great to learn from a friend in the Netherlands that they are the first to give rise to a political party that does not put humans first, but all of the Earth's inhabitants!
From their website:
"The Party for the Animals is the first political party in the world, which does not put the short-term interests of man at the pivotal position, but the entire planet and all her inhabitants instead. Thus, a fundamentally different approach than the traditional parties, which focus on the short-term interests of people and in particularly on money and economic growth without thinking about the consequences for humans, animals, nature and the environment. All our work and all our solutions have a planet-wide focus. And that makes us unique!" https://www.partyfortheanimals.nl/
Salutations to the Party for the Animals! May the movement spread far and wide!
From their website:
"The Party for the Animals is the first political party in the world, which does not put the short-term interests of man at the pivotal position, but the entire planet and all her inhabitants instead. Thus, a fundamentally different approach than the traditional parties, which focus on the short-term interests of people and in particularly on money and economic growth without thinking about the consequences for humans, animals, nature and the environment. All our work and all our solutions have a planet-wide focus. And that makes us unique!" https://www.partyfortheanimals.nl/
Salutations to the Party for the Animals! May the movement spread far and wide!
May all beings be happy, may all beings be well.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Anima - A Film About Religion and Animals
A new short film, “ANIMA: Animals. Faith. Compassion.” could challenge traditions and misconceptions surrounding religion and animal consumption.
The film features influencers from 12 different faiths, all of whom discuss the pressing need for better animal welfare and dispelling myths about how their faith’s religious texts regard animals. The people featured come from a wide range of faiths and backgrounds, including Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, ISKON (Hinduism), Bahá’í Faith, the Brahma Kumaris movement, Judaism, Vedanta (Hinduism), Indigeneity, and Jainism.
Exploring the theme of compassionate living, the film challenges long-upheld beliefs about the relationship between human and non-human animals. The film claims to be the first of its kind that unites religious figureheads from a multitude of different faiths for the greater good of animals and by extension, the planet. Its website says, “Our hope is that this film will help to forever change the way people interact with animals through understanding them as living, feeling, sentient and sacred beings.”
In the film’s trailer, Reverend Dr. Gwynne Guibord, Founder and President of The Guibord Center, addresses misconceptions surrounding Christianity and animal consumption. “In the book of Genesis it is written ‘And God gave man dominion over the animals.’ That’s a mistranslation,” comments Dr. Guibord. “It should read: ‘And God gave man responsibility or stewardship.’ It shifts the whole notion of [the word].”
According to Jan Creamer, President of Animal Defenders International, “Millions of people across the world draw their beliefs and perceptions about the other species who share our planet, from their faith.”
“There has never been a more important time to challenge the misunderstandings which have, in the past, been used to justify exploitation of animals. As Dr. Lo Sprague says in ANIMA, every religion has compassion as part of its mandate. It is time to mobilize that,” she adds.
Recent food system advances have introduced the possibility of “clean meat” — a slaughter-free meat product made through cellular agriculture with real animal cells — a process that could overhaul conventional meat production. Rabbinical leaders have previously discussed whether these products would be suitable for people following the religion. But Rabbi Suzanna Singer challenges the need for animal products altogether. “Our belief in Judaism is that God never actually meant us to eat animals. In the Garden of Eden, God shows us the fruit of the trees, the grass in the fields, and says ‘You may have any of this to eat.’ But God never mentioned animals,” she notes in the film’s trailer.
According to estimates from 2012, an overwhelming majority of people across the globe identify as religious. In numbers, this demonstrates the huge potential for a drastic reduction in animal product consumption.
The film features influencers from 12 different faiths, all of whom discuss the pressing need for better animal welfare and dispelling myths about how their faith’s religious texts regard animals. The people featured come from a wide range of faiths and backgrounds, including Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, ISKON (Hinduism), Bahá’í Faith, the Brahma Kumaris movement, Judaism, Vedanta (Hinduism), Indigeneity, and Jainism.
Exploring the theme of compassionate living, the film challenges long-upheld beliefs about the relationship between human and non-human animals. The film claims to be the first of its kind that unites religious figureheads from a multitude of different faiths for the greater good of animals and by extension, the planet. Its website says, “Our hope is that this film will help to forever change the way people interact with animals through understanding them as living, feeling, sentient and sacred beings.”
In the film’s trailer, Reverend Dr. Gwynne Guibord, Founder and President of The Guibord Center, addresses misconceptions surrounding Christianity and animal consumption. “In the book of Genesis it is written ‘And God gave man dominion over the animals.’ That’s a mistranslation,” comments Dr. Guibord. “It should read: ‘And God gave man responsibility or stewardship.’ It shifts the whole notion of [the word].”
According to Jan Creamer, President of Animal Defenders International, “Millions of people across the world draw their beliefs and perceptions about the other species who share our planet, from their faith.”
“There has never been a more important time to challenge the misunderstandings which have, in the past, been used to justify exploitation of animals. As Dr. Lo Sprague says in ANIMA, every religion has compassion as part of its mandate. It is time to mobilize that,” she adds.
Recent food system advances have introduced the possibility of “clean meat” — a slaughter-free meat product made through cellular agriculture with real animal cells — a process that could overhaul conventional meat production. Rabbinical leaders have previously discussed whether these products would be suitable for people following the religion. But Rabbi Suzanna Singer challenges the need for animal products altogether. “Our belief in Judaism is that God never actually meant us to eat animals. In the Garden of Eden, God shows us the fruit of the trees, the grass in the fields, and says ‘You may have any of this to eat.’ But God never mentioned animals,” she notes in the film’s trailer.
According to estimates from 2012, an overwhelming majority of people across the globe identify as religious. In numbers, this demonstrates the huge potential for a drastic reduction in animal product consumption.
May all beings be happy and free!
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Monday, June 4, 2018
Cut Rings!
I have made a practice of cutting ALL plastic rings, even ones like this that I found on the ground. They can do horific harm to wildlife, land and sea.
Cut rings and plastic bag handles, too!
Cut rings and plastic bag handles, too!
May all being be happy and free
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Is This Dharma?
We recently sat with a well-known Buddhist teacher (whose name I will not share here) who gave a Dharma talk that included saying that it is more meritorious to feed a human than a dog, because a human is more intelligent.
When Parvati and I talked together later that night - each disgusted to hear this - Parvati pointed out that to believe what the teacher said would be like saying that it is better to give food to a physicist than to someone with a cognitive impairment, when actually, a stronger case could be made that the opposite is true.
I observed that "intelligence" ought not be the basis for why we have compassion for others, but rather their capacity to feel. If they feel pain or if they suffer, it is on that basis that we should help them if we can.
By saying that animals are less valuable than humans, she completely lost both of us.
Let's get clear:
Dharma isn't about compassion for others based upon their intelligence. It is about compassion for all beings with capacity for suffering, humans and animals alike.
When Parvati and I talked together later that night - each disgusted to hear this - Parvati pointed out that to believe what the teacher said would be like saying that it is better to give food to a physicist than to someone with a cognitive impairment, when actually, a stronger case could be made that the opposite is true.
I observed that "intelligence" ought not be the basis for why we have compassion for others, but rather their capacity to feel. If they feel pain or if they suffer, it is on that basis that we should help them if we can.
By saying that animals are less valuable than humans, she completely lost both of us.
Let's get clear:
Dharma isn't about compassion for others based upon their intelligence. It is about compassion for all beings with capacity for suffering, humans and animals alike.
May all beings everywhere - without exception - be well and happy, free of suffering and the causes of suffering, and may we refrain as best we can from causing suffering.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Vystopia
"Vystopia is a normal response of any human being distressed by animal cruelty."
A great read for those of us who care about animals and feel distressed that change to protect animals is not happening quickly enough:
A great read for those of us who care about animals and feel distressed that change to protect animals is not happening quickly enough:
HOW VEGANS CAN OVERCOME THEIR ‘VYSTOPIA’ AND CHANGE THE WORLD
May all beings be well and happy, free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Why Only Some Animals?
I spent 7 days in silent meditation retreat at a lovely old ranch-cum-retreat center that had happy, well cared-for animals including horses, chickens, one pig and two goats.
The two goats have distinct personalities. The one who looks and behaves kind of like a teenager is uninterested unless you have food, but the other is very affectionate and connective when you engage him. He will come close to the fence and even sidle up to it so you can scratch through his fur down to the skin, whereupon he squints like a contented puppy.
It is obvious to anyone with a heart that these two friends love each other. They delight in playing together, gleefully butting heads in that almost ritualized dance they do and playing with a manzanita branch, often holding it up together with their horns and wrestling it around in unison, sometimes using it like extended horns to whack each other. When they rest, they always lie together, fur-to-fur. Sometimes one lays its head across the other's rotund belly. It is touching to see how happy they are together.
During the Question & Response period one evening, someone asked about eating meat, and our teacher deftly answered that it is a complex issue: people may have economic and health reasons for eating animals (which he explained he did not fully understand the basis for).
Not fully satisfied with his relatively brief response, I asked him to say more about the "ethical integrity" he had been recommending as essential for doing this practice. Specifically with regard to our intention of dedicating all the merits of our practice by praying that all beings may be happy and free of suffering, I questioned -- in light of our understanding of the immense, unimaginable suffering involved in animal flesh coming to our plate -- how the action of directly supporting that suffering by purchasing and eating animals could result in ethical coherence?
The passionate intensity of my phrasing caused a bit of a stir. The teacher explained that he himself has strong opinions about this, and he does not share those opinions, because he does not want to "dictate" any particular behavior or code of ethics to his students. I thought he handled the question skillfully: while I do not know what his opinions were, I could roughly guess when he emphasized that it's good that we have access to videos about animal suffering and that we ought to be informed about the issues if we decide to eat animals.
He added that this is something best discussed within local sanghas, and that all voices should be included.
I asked about the animals, who have no voice at the table: Are they part of our sangha or our community, or are their concerns to be excluded? The teacher said that he appreciated my advocacy for animals' interests to be included in conversations, and that it is important to do so.
Evidently flustered and in order to counter my question, a young woman sangha member immediately stood up and interjected to the group that "hunting has been proven to be beneficial in some ecosystems," then she asked another question, as if to change the topic, or maybe to divert attention from herself, having just spoken in favor of killing to a group of peace-loving practitioners.
After the Q & R, when we returned from our walking meditation period, I discovered that she had left a note of "apology" for me, saying that she hoped to talk later (after the end of our silent period); when she'd like to try to convince me that hunting is good. I found this, her overtly promoting killing while we had every day taken the 5 Precepts (the first of which is to kill no being), simply heartbreaking.
That night, saddened that even a practitioner who takes vows to do no harm to other beings and prays that all beings will be well and happy would advocate violence against them, I couldn't help but think about her point of view, which I could sense was shared in some degree or another by some others in the group.
And, I thought about my own. I planned to offer no response, but I imagined what I might say about my feelings to folks at this retreat, if given a chance.
My heart went to the goats. My mind constructed a thought experiment.
I'd like to ask how many folks have noticed as we walk to and from the dining hall how sweetly the two goats play together? OK. So, what if, before our evening meal, I grabbed one of the goats by his horns and dragged him away from his companion, slit his throat and carried him up to the kitchen for the cook? Would that be ok with anyone? My hope and my sense is that no one would condone that.
So then, what if there are some goats just over the hill there beyond our view? Would it be ok to go and get one of those, kill it and bring it back here to eat for dinner?
And, how about if, before the retreat I had ordered some prime cuts of veal to be delivered to my home for my return, such that sometime during our retreat, some poor little calf is dragged away from its mother, brutally killed, sectioned and then sent to me via UPS. Would that be OK? If so, why?
If we befriend an animal, it would not feel ok to kill and eat it. But somehow, the animal across the way (who may be loved by someone else, or its own mother) is ok to kill and eat?
If we love one animal, we should at least respect all animals, even if our hearts are not yet fully awakened to compassionate loving kindness toward all beings.
May all beings be happy and well, free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
God's Plan Was Vegan
GENESIS 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
GENESIS 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
May all beings be free.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Smart?
All sentient beings are smart. The reason we have trouble understanding this is because we assess "smart" in mostly human terms. That is NOT smart!
May all being be well and happy.
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
From The 15th Century
Saints I've seen both ways.
Hindus and Muslims don't want discipline, they want tasty food.
The Hindu keeps the eleventh-day fast, eating chestnuts and milk.
He curbs his grain but not his brain, and breaks his fast with meat.
The Turk [Muslim] prays daily, fasts once a year, and crows "God!, God!" like a cock.
What heaven is reserved for people who kill chickens in the dark?
Instead of kindness and compassion, they've cast out all desire.
One kills with a chop, one lets the blood drop, in both houses burns the same fire.
Turks and Hindus have one way, the guru's made it clear.
Don't say Ram, don't say Khuda [Allah], so says Kabir.
— Kabir, Shabda 10, Translated by Linda Hess and Shukdeo Singh
The Hindu keeps the eleventh-day fast, eating chestnuts and milk.
He curbs his grain but not his brain, and breaks his fast with meat.
The Turk [Muslim] prays daily, fasts once a year, and crows "God!, God!" like a cock.
What heaven is reserved for people who kill chickens in the dark?
Instead of kindness and compassion, they've cast out all desire.
One kills with a chop, one lets the blood drop, in both houses burns the same fire.
Turks and Hindus have one way, the guru's made it clear.
Don't say Ram, don't say Khuda [Allah], so says Kabir.
— Kabir, Shabda 10, Translated by Linda Hess and Shukdeo Singh
May all beings be happy and free.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Humanity
The full potential of our humanity will not be revealed until we care for ALL living beings, not only humans.
May all beings be well and happy.
Mixed News for Elephants
Meanwhile, the Trump administration reversed the US ban. Learn more here...
May all beings be happy and free.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Rise of Veganism
Here's a great article about Veganism today. I hope you'll read it. Here are some highlights from:
The unstoppable rise of veganism: how a fringe movement went mainstream
“In 30 years or so, I believe we will be shocked [that] we killed animals en masse for food.”
If this is the year of mainstream veganism, as every trend forecaster and market analyst seems to agree, then there is not one single cause, but a perfect plant-based storm of factors. People cite one or more of three key motives for going vegan – animal welfare, environmental concerns and personal health.
A common trope among recent converts is that the revelations about the brutality of the meat, dairy and egg industries were hidden from view... Justice is no longer a dirty word, people can have a conversation about justice for the 70bn animals killed for food, without being shot down and screamed at as a radical extremist...
Now that it’s revealed, people just don’t want to be a part of that horrific industry. It’s like a weight off their shoulders; getting clean of the lies and the destruction.
Of course, the vegan movement already existed, but Cowspiracy’s success reflects a new emphasis on animal agriculture, in particular cattle farming, in the context of the deepening climate crisis. Critical in this refocusing from animal welfare as the primary motive for veganism was a 2006 report produced by the UN, Livestock’s Long Shadow, which described the livestock sector as one of the most significant contributors to environmental degradation, both globally and locally.
A follow-up UN report in 2010 warned that rising meat and dairy consumption, and a global population predicted to be 9.1 billion by 2050, meant a shift towards veganism was vital to save the world from climate catastrophe and food shortages. Overall, agriculture accounts for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of total land use and 19% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions; within this, the footprint of meat and dairy production is heavily disproportionate.
Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/01/vegans-are-coming-millennials-health-climate-change-animal-welfare
May all beings be happy and well.
Read the full article: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/01/vegans-are-coming-millennials-health-climate-change-animal-welfare
May all beings be happy and well.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Sudan, The Last Male White Rhino
We are witness to the alarming rate of extinction of animals on Earth. Unlike past mass extinctions - we have a firsthand, front row seat to this one.
May we see what is happening and care enough to do something that will stop this madness.
Today's grim news is that Sudan, the last male white rhinoceros, has died, leaving only two females - and the hopes of successful artificial insemination - to save this unique subspecies.
Here's the sad story on the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43468066
The dangers that animals face now are daunting. How many people will awaken to this unfolding tragedy? How many voices will speak out above the din of humans' running roughshod over our planet and her creatures? And, maybe most importantly, how many more whole species will we lose before we recognize that our fate is inextricably joined with theirs?
May we see what is happening and care enough to do something that will stop this madness.
For as long as there are beings....
May all beings be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
Monday, March 19, 2018
Wild Earth Takes Animals Out Of Pet Foods!
Great news!
California-based biotechnology company Wild Earth plans to become the first company to offer “cultured” (known as “clean” or “lab-grown”) protein for cats and dogs. The company’s flagship product will be made with Koji (a fungus) that is cultured in a lab-setting, mitigating the risk of chemical contaminants in companion animal food.
May all beings be happy and well!
Read more here: http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=10973&catId=1
May all beings be happy and well!
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Bring It On Down To Veganville!
Vegans now have a whole neighborhood in Toronto. Yay Canada! Check it out:
https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2018/03/vegans-have-their-own-neighbourhood-toronto-now
This reminds me of a really funny video from SNL's 2013 season, starring Justin Timberlake: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/veganville/n35373
And, one more: Visit the Vegan Society for the history of Veganism and so many great resources: https://www.vegansociety.com/
May all beings be happy and free!
https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2018/03/vegans-have-their-own-neighbourhood-toronto-now
This reminds me of a really funny video from SNL's 2013 season, starring Justin Timberlake: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/veganville/n35373
And, one more: Visit the Vegan Society for the history of Veganism and so many great resources: https://www.vegansociety.com/
May all beings be happy and free!
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