Edmond 's Veg World

Animals Have the Right to Feel Happy

2011-11-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

This is one of my shots taken at Animal Paradise, which is run by Johor Bahru-based Amituofo Buddhist Centre. Animals have the right to feel happy and be free. In order to liberalize all the suffering that farmed animals are going through, why not consider to be a vegetarian? You decide.

The Power of One ?

2011-11-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

Choosing to go vegetarian is simply a matter of living according to our values, such as being fair and kind to others. Most people would never dream of cramming up to 11 egg-laying hens into a file drawer-sized cage, ripping the testicles out of a screaming baby piglet, or cutting the throat of a cow as she stares back at you with her big brown eyes. How then, as compassionate individuals, can we justify paying others to carry out these atrocities on our behalf?

The average vegetarian spares the lives of over 50 animals each year. That adds up to thousands during a lifetime. Every time we eat, we are making a powerful choice that has profound consequences on the lives of animals. At each meal, we make a decision between supporting cruelty or living compassionately. You do have the power to make a difference.

Meaningful Interpretation of Chinese Character Meat （肉）

2011-10-31T09:02:00.000-07:00

In the Chinese character for meat （肉） are two people.
The one inside has been caught by the one outside.
So when living beings eat the flesh of other living beings,
If one really stops to think about it, isn't that just people eating people?

The Chinese character for meat （肉） is a picture of a mouth - an open mouth, since the horizontal stroke at its base is missing--and inside the mouth is a picture of a person, while outside the mouth is a picture of another person waiting. The person outside the mouth hasn't gone in yet. The person inside the mouth would like to escape, but can't. He's stuck inside the mouth. The one inside has grown while inside the mouth, so although the enclosure is only three-sided, he can't get out. Why is he stuck there? Basically this is a pictograph of a person being eaten by another person. The one who is eating the meat is on the outside--he still resembles a person. But the one on the inside is already no longer a person. He has turned into an animal. Not only has he turned into an animal, but he's been trapped--detained there. He can't go up and he can't go down; he's stuck right in there. He's as cooped up as if he were in a pen. The pen could be a pig pen, or a sheep pen, or a cow pen. The person on the outside is keeping watch over the pen so that the animal can't escape. He intends to eat that animal's flesh. So the poem reads: "In the character for meat are two people."

And there's another obvious thing about this character: those two people have an irrevocable connection between them. The one eating and the one being eaten have an involvement with each other that cannot be severed because they are bound up in resentment. They'd really like to get at each other.

In this way living beings eat the flesh of other living beings. Think about it. We people are living beings and what we eat is other living beings. So this is a case of living beings eating other living beings. Horses, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and dogs are all animals. And all other creatures are also living beings.

Well, does the interpretation sound meaningful as a start to reduce your intake of meat? It is up to you to decide.

Introduction

2011-10-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well let me start off with a self introduction. I have been a vegetarian since April 2004, starting out as a lacto-ovo vegetarian. I remembered on the last day of being a meat-eater, I took a few bites on the chicken drumstick before spitting everything out. It was just that few moments that I decided to become a vegetarian for good.....

Bring me to a few months back then, I was observing accumulating merit by being vegetarian for a whole month to my grandfather who had passed away. Somehow I had get used to eating vegetarian food but after the month of observation, I didn't continue to be one... Until someone passed me a vcd from VSS "Seeds For a Better World" that after watching had an impact on me. I still ponder for a while before that final day where I say goodbye to being a meat-eater.

I didn't realise that I have been a vegetarian for 7 years 7 months already. I am trying to cut down on products containing dairy and egg.