Animal Reunions

This PBS NATURE program, Animal Reunions, shows that all mammals share common emotions (including biochemically, via the amygdala, oxytocin, etc.), and quite clearly love, even between species. Also, mammals share similar behaviors within similar familial structures.

http://www.pbs.org/video/2365690567/

May all beings be happy and well.

Protecting "Protected" Cows

Recognizing that animals are sacred beings, the Ahimsa Foundation for Cattle Protection (AFFCAP) is an independent, third party, non-profit organization which certifies goshalas (Sanskrit: shelters for cows) to a basic standard of care and protection. It does so by registering and inspecting goshalas, while keeping records of every animal for life. This undertaking ensures that: “No animal is being made available, knowingly or unknowingly, for slaughter."

Visit the website and learn about these good efforts to protect cows from slaughter.

And, please do what you can to protect our dear animal friends. It can be as simple as refraining from eating them.

May ALL beings be happy!

Rancher's Wife Goes Vegan

A vegan rancher's wife fell in love with their cows. She sings to them with her
guitar and she started a blog, raising enough money to buy the whole herd from her
husband, saving them from slaughter ...and then he went vegetarian, too!

See the video and story on CBS news

...and the Rowdy Girl Sanctuary website:
http://rowdygirlsanctuary.com/project/vegan-heart-blog-story/

So heartening!

May all beings be well, free, and happy!

Karma's Reunion With Her Mother

This incredibly touching story/video speaks to the love and care between one mother and her child.

Crying Mother Cow Greets Lost Baby In Breathtaking Reunion

"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

Please stop supporting the killing of our sister and brother, mother and father animals, and do all you can to help protect them.

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

Biophilia!

I am delighted to have now learned about the biophilia hypothesis, a proposal that humans have a natural bias toward loving other beings - including not only animals, but also plants - an innate "love for life." The hypothesis suggests that this mechanism has the effect of helping to increase the survival rate across species. The tendency for humans to feel affection toward babies of many non-human species is an example of this.

Biovinity - the word and idea that appeared to me one morning in a dream (October, 2015) - certainly includes this idea and goes further in making the declaration that this innate affinity for other living beings derives from all beings having a shared, essential nature which is divine. In other words, Life itself is Divinity.

What these ideas share most importantly is the recognition of affinity, and each suggests not only a natural inclination, but therefore also a moral responsibility to respect, protect, revere and indeed love all living beings. It is not a new idea; we find this idea in mythologies and mysticism across cultures and far back in time (sanaatana dharma being one obvious example).

Learn more about biophilia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophilia_hypothesis

May all beings be well and happy!

The Happy Egg Company

Here's a company moving in a good direction toward caring for the animals who earn their money!

Most "organic" egg hens don't go outside :-(. Learn about the labels "Free Range," "Cage Free," "Organic" and more, and take a look at these happier hens and find their eggs for purchase via the Store Locator at their website:

http://thehappyeggco.com/

May ALL beings be happy and free.

Humane Economy

Humane Economy. A new book by HSUS President Wayne Pacelle.

"The Humane Economy is essential reading for anyone interested in animal welfare. This fabulous book reveals the inside story of how the fight against human cruelty to animals is gradually being won and some of the surprising individuals who have helped to make this happen. HSUS's Wayne Pacelle is to be congratulated on writing a fascinating, highly readable, and remarkably comprehensive book, covering animal issues ranging from factory farms to puppy mills, from trophy hunting to genetic modification, from medical and pharmaceutical testing to entertainment. Please help to increase awareness of ongoing animal suffering by sharing this book and encouraging everyone to take some part in creating a truly humane society." 

— Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE; Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace.

May all beings be well and happy.

Ivory Anniversary

The 14th Wedding Anniversary has "ivory" as the theme. Heavens, no!! So, for our anniversary today, we have opted to donate to two Orgs helping to save elephants from ivory poachers. Among all animals, elephants reside in a special place in our hearts owing to their wise and community-oriented nature, their love and care of their children, their sorrow in loss....

Won't you help to protect elephants, too? Consider giving generously.

http://www.elephants.com/
http://worldwildlife.org/

Thank you for anything and everything you do to protect and help our animal friends.

May all beings be happy and free!

Langar

Many of us were deeply moved at the 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions by the immense generosity and inclusiveness of the Sikh community’s daily seva (“service offering”) of langar meals at lunchtime. Langars have been served by Sikhs in all their Gurdwaras for many centuries. They are invariably vegetarian. Of special note here: Sikh people tend not to be vegetarians themselves. But, they are keenly aware that in order to serve others in a beautiful and harmonious way (we know that Sikhs have long played a mediatory role, helping to ease tensions between Hindus and Muslims), they serve only vegetarian meals in order that all may sit together and dine together in peace and above the distinctions that otherwise arise where one group eats the flesh of the animals the other groups consider holy.

My great hope is that we who gather in community will follow in the wise footsteps of our Sikh sisters and brothers (whose living “Guru” is the Granth Sahib, a collection of writings that include substantial Sufi sections, such as by Kabir) and dedicate ourselves to offering only vegetarian food at community tables. With the more recent concern over the well-being of animals in factory farming, an all-vegan fare would go even farther toward the realization of our dedicated prayer:

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

Good News for Hens, and a Long Way to Go

Here is a letter from the President of the Humane Society:

We’re just one month into 2016, and it’s already shaping up to be a tremendous year for hens!

The list of companies who’ve announced cage-free timelines this year is growing fast: ConAgra, Target, Denny’s (which uses half a billion eggs annually), Wendy’s, Quiznos, Barilla, Campbell Soup, Norwegian Cruise Lines, California Pizza Kitchen and Mondelez (the $30 billion snack food giant) have all joined a landslide of companies in committing to abolish cages for egg-laying hens from their supply chains. 

While cage-free doesn't guarantee perfect living conditions, it’s a dramatic step forward to a better life. Cage-free hens, even in indoor barns, have at least double the amount of space per bird as caged hens, and often much more space than that. In addition, they have the ability to walk, spread their wings, perch, lay their eggs in a nesting area and more -- all behaviors denied to caged hens.

This momentous shift simply would not be happening without you. Your support provides a voice for the hundreds of millions of hens who can’t speak for themselves. And it shows food companies that animals have allies around the world willing to take a stand against cruelty.

Thank you for everything you do for animals.

Wayne Pacelle
President and CEO 
The Humane Society of the United States


May all beings be free.

Michael Jackson's "Ben"

Let us remember, this is a love song to a rat. Having had friendships with many beloved rodents, this song always brings a tear to my eye. "Ben" could just as well be any animal, any pet. Could we still see a song to an animal sung at the Oscars, or have we become too inured to our current global predicament, our artificial and apparently increasing separation from our animal friends?

Listen to "Ben" (click here to view the YouTube video).

May all beings be happy and well!

A Friendship We Can Learn From

It is the story of an animal friendship that was never meant to be.

A month ago, at a safari park in the far east of Russia, a goat was released into a tiger's enclosure as a live prey.

Things haven't turned out as might have been expected for Timur and Amur - and now fans are following the pair's progress via a live webcam.

BBC: 3 January 2016:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35204936?post_id=1543000511_10207863079805240

May all beings be happy!

Words From the Wise

May all beings be happy and free.

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.

"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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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."

Read more...

May all beings be free of suffering.

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!

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."

Read the full article...

May all beings be happy and well.

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.

Read more and sign...

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.

See the video (1:40min)...

May all beings be happy and free!

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!

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.