The best way to explain religious animal sacrifice to backward cultures:
"Instead of killing animals so the gods can perform favors for you, learn how to save lives for a change and generate your own damn blessings!" This thought HAD to have dawned on somebody by now :/ As a vegan, I would simply say NO, but I realize that the moral issues can be complex depending on what a person believes to be the highest good. It's also hard to know unless it actually happens to you and challenges your integrity. These are the points that come up in my mind:
1) Is their physical/emotional suffering any less than the physical/emotional suffering that a human goes through without treatment? Is it therefore more important to preserve the complex life form when faced with this circumstance? OR 2) Is it perhaps more important to base preservation upon the delicate balance of the ecosystem, and not the complexity of the life form involved--meaning that due to human overpopulation, humans must forego such miracle drugs to allow death as normal and not harm other beings in order to preserve itself and the balance. OR 3) Does one believe that alternative non-chemical methods can be used and feel that it is wiser to allow some suffering and die off of humans in the wisdom of finding a healthier and more compassionate solution? In short, because I do believe in a higher, divine power evidenced in my own life and responses through prayer, I advocate #3. This means enduring your own suffering or the suffering of a loved one if you are against animal testing. We should continue with drugs that have already safely passed the research stage with animals because it is too late and many of us currently take/taken those drugs. For future drugs, I would hope that I can stand by my word and avoid consuming any that have been developed on the backs of animals. I think all life forms have a right to their own life and if you're suffering, that's your own problem. Don't conduct harmful experiments on others without their consent. The Taiwanese equivalent of saying "You are way too noisy" is "You bug dead people."
I think sometimes Heaven also gives on credit--bestowing kindness and blessings even if karma has not warranted it...like those micro loans for impoverished folk to become successful someday. But instead of paying it back, it gets paid forward ;-)
At first, I never understood when people said you have to love yourself before you can love others. I thought it sounded selfish and didn't make sense especially when I loved animals and helping others, even if I was unhappy about my own life. However, I started to realize that those who have self-love (or rather self-compassion), can easily forgive those who wrong them intentionally. Those who don't feel self-love cannot stand when another person injures what little worth they have. When you comprehend your own self worth, you can forgive anyone and anything. To honor yourself translates into honoring others and seeing the connectedness of all life.
The greatest kindness is for someone to tell you when you're doing something wrong. Sometimes the kindness comes in dreams, like it did when I used to eat meat. Thank goodness for that dream...it opened my eyes even though I was asleep.
I don't judge anyone who still consumes meat. There is a time for everything and I believe that those who want to live healthier and happier lives will encounter the right people and the right conditions to help them do so. |
ZENSUGARSome Thoughts ARCHIVES
May 2014
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