Meat eating lead to wars...really?

[tonychat]

During thousands and hundreds of years,
the hatreds and viciousness in meats
in people's dining utensils,
are as deep as sea,
and are hardly to cease.
If one wants to know why there are wars in the world,
just listen to the thrilling screams
from a slaughter house

This is a well-known Buddhist poem, which reveals the connection between Meat-eating and War.

Meat-eating causes hatred, and hatred may cause war.

The hatreds arouse when an animal is killed, and when someone eats that animal's meat, the hatreds, and the thoughts of vengeance, will enter the eater's body together with the meat.

Those hatreds and thoughts of vengeance can accumulate in one's body, making him become more and more depressed, dislike others, easy to be angry, easy to conflict with others, etc. and when a large number of people (e.g. people in a nation) are dominated by these emotions, that may cause war.

Those hatreds and thoughts of vengeance will pollute and block one's heart, make his heart closed, as hard as stone, and become a great obstruction against enlightenment. A philosopher with evil inclination, who preaches the doctrines that supports violence, massacre, and anti-religion behaviors, may emerge under such a circumstance.

If one can renounce meat-eating, those pollutions will not continue to accumulate in his body and on his heart, but those pollutions will not be cleansed automatically. One also need to renounce killing, and practice some Dharmas (e.g. some Dharanis, mantras, repentances, etc ) which can cleanse those negative karmas.

For example, the Vajra-sattva Heart Mantra, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra, Great Compassion Dharani, Great Compassion Repentance, Shurangama Mantra, Six Words Great Enlightening Dharani, etc. are very powerful and efficient for bad karma cleansing. Their Dharma-streams can wash your heart, soften your heart, make your heart open for enlightenment, and make you an inartificial virtuous person.

 

[tonychat]

http://www.tstrain.com/Page.html


Karma– Is there a connection between meat eating and violence?

The basic principle of karma is that we get back exactly what we put out. If we put out love, we get back love. If we put out violence, we get back violence. Try it out - at least the first part. Be nice to everyone you meet one day and see what happens. But if you did go around another day punching people in the face, I guarantee you’d come home with two black eyes.

One of the major causes of bad karma is unnecessary violence to animals. Throughout history no man with a full stomach (or who lived near a grocery store) ever went hunting. And throughout history animals were never slaughtered en masse in slaughter-houses. It is only modern man who has become expert at the massive killing of animals for sport and for satisfying his tongue.

We are so removed from the killing of animals that when we eat a turkey leg we may not even be conscious that this was once the LEG OF A TURKEY WE ARE EATING. Most people don’t think of how the animal once ran around on the very leg that they are eating; that the animal might have been someone’s mother, son, daughter or father. If we saw it that way we probably wouldn’t want to eat it (oh did I spoil your appetite!).

Some of us love our pets and kill other animals for sport. Some of us give money to save endangered species and eat cows, sheep, chickens and turkeys. Some eat hot dogs and have a pet pig. Something’s wrong with this picture.

If you saw a turkey on the road, wouldn’t you try to avoid running it over? I sure would. And wouldn’t you feel bad if you ran it over? I bet there would be a lot more vegetarians out there if we all had to personally kill what ate. So in a sense meat eating really runs contrary to our natural instincts, particularly when there is enough vegetarian food to eat.

SINCE VIOLENCE THAT GOES OUT MUST COME BACK, THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE WAY WE TREAT ANIMALS AND WAR?

George Bernard Shaw wrote:
We pray on Sundays that we may have light
To guide our footsteps on the path we tread.
We are sick of war, we don't want to fight,
And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.

Like carrion crows we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and pain
We cause by doing so. In this way we treat
Defenseless animals for sport or gain.
How can we hope in this world to attain
The peace we say we are anxious for?
We pray for it on the catacombs of the slain
While outraging the moral law.
Thus cruelty begets its offspring—war!

The way karma works is that we don’t have to personally kill the animal to take part in the violence and get the reaction. If we have anything to do with the violence (working in the meat industry, transporting animals or meat, cooking or serving meat, buying meat or eating meat), there is a reaction we’ll suffer; and a reaction the world suffers. If I got into the details of the reactions you’d really lose your appetite this time (one reaction that is obvious is that meat eaters suffer higher rates of deadly diseases like cancer, stroke and heart attacks than vegetarians). The fact is that you do yourself, the animals and the world a great favor by being vegetarian.

My spiritual master said that if people stopped eating meat, there would be no more war. I realize that this is hard to swallow. We can’t make an experiment to prove this because we can’t control animal slaughter. But we can make another experiment that shows something important that gives more credence to this theory.

We can make a controlled experiment on ourselves. I want to ask you if you would try doing the following experiment on yourself. It could change you life.

STOP EATHING ALL MEAT, FISH, AND EGGS, FOR AT LEAST A WEEK AND NOTICE HOW IT AFFECTS YOU.

Actually, I have done some casual research in this area. I have asked many people to refrain from meat eating for a week just to test it out and see how they feel. Many were doubters thinking it would have no effect on the way they thought or the way they saw the world. Many didn’t even believe they could live without meat - or even be healthy without it. But given enough time with them to discuss the pros of being vegetarian and the cons of meat eating, I could convince almost any open minded person to try it for at least a week or two (move in with your vegetarian friends, buy a cook book, eat at vegetarian restaurants, whatever it takes! It’ll be worth it).

So what happened?

Aside from telling me they felt better, the vast majority said they became sensitive to the fact that they were causing pain to animals by eating them. This is amazing. Just by not eating meat for a week or two, people who had eaten meat all their lives without a second thought - who never associated the food they were eating to a live animal who gave their life and suffered - were somehow now looking at meat eating it an entirely different light.

THEY ALSO TOLD ME THEY FELT MORE PEACEFUL

It’s difficult to be objective about something when you are doing it yourself. So when you stop eating meat for a while, you start looking at the issue from a different perspective. But they also felt different because they were no longer taking part in the violence of animal slaughter.

THIS IS THE REAL REASON THEY FELT SO DIFFERENT

According to ancient India texts on consciousness and health, the eating of meat dulls the part of the brain that makes us sensitive to the suffering of animals. I haven’t done any serious research on this. All I can say is that I haven’t met any vegetarian hunters in my life - and I have been around the block quite a few times. Come to think of it, I haven’t met any vegetarian butchers either.

Of course, my personal experience can’t conclusively prove that vegetarians are less violent people, or that there is a connection between war and vegetarianism? But maybe this experiment could. We’ll make Osama and his buddies vegetarians and see what happens. I bet they’d become peaceniks. Hey, this could be the best counter terrorism plan out there!

And the animals would love it too.

Mahatma Das

 

[tonychat]

http://www.truehappiness.ws/The_horror_of_taking_lives_and_eating_meat.html


"What benefits are there in being vegetarian?" someone asked.



I said, "There aren't any. You're taking a loss while you're alive." Because vegetarian food isn't as tasty as meat, you take a loss by being vegetarian during your life. However, if you don't keep a vegetarian diet, then you will take a loss after death. It's like a scale. You have to figure out for yourself which side is heavier and which is lighter.



Why will you take a loss after death if you eat meat? Well, your body is composed of the foods you eat. If you eat vegetables, you will smell like vegetables; if you eat onions, you'll smell like onions; drink milk, and you'll smell like milk; eat cheese, and you'll smell like cheese. If you eat some garlic, your breath will smell of garlic. The things you eat become part of your body. If you eat a lot of a certain thing, your body will become very similar to it. Therefore, if you eat a lot of pork, you will become a pig. Eat a lot of beef, an you will become a cow. This accords with science and logic. The meat you eat incorporates with your body, and after you die you turn into that kind of animal. If you smell like a pig, for instance, after you die King Yama takes a sniff and says, "You smelly thing, you should be reborn as a pig." The same goes for sheep, cows, chicken, and dogs. That's what I mean by being cheated after death.



You can investigate this carefully. Why does a butcher of pigs have eyes resembling those of a pig? It's because he had been slaughtered as a pig many times in the past, and now he has come to seek revenge. Although he is human, his eyes are those of a pig. Cattle butchers have the eyes of a cow. The law of cause and effect is never off. There is a verse:



For hundreds of thousands of years,

The stew in the pot has boiled up

A resentment very hard to level.

If you want to know why

There are wars in the world,

Just listen to the haunting cries that come

From a slaughterhouse at midnight.



The grief and hatred brewed up in a pot of meat stew is as deep as the ocean. It could never be fully described. The wars and massacres in the world are brought about by the convergence of the evil karma of living beings, causing beings to undergo retribution at the same time. If you listen carefully to the cries of misery coming from a slaughter*house in the middle of the night, you will realize the horror of the ceaseless killing that goes on in there.



Scientists have discovered that people who eat a great deal of meat tend to get cancer. This is because the resentful energy in the bodies of slaughtered animals accumulates in the bodies of those who eat meat and eventually turns into a harmful toxin. We should cut off this relationship of causes and effects with animals and stop the vicious cycle of creating offenses against cows, sheep, chickens, and other animals. Then we will gradually be able to lessen the inaus*picious energy in the world.



At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, we want to uphold the Proper Dharma and avert the crisis of killing in the world. We want to slowly and imperceptibly avert this disaster. Therefore we advocate: not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not lying, not drinking, and not taking drugs. At the very least, we should observe the Five Precepts and maintain our purity in that regard. Since you have come to this treasure mountain, don't leave empty‑handed!

 

[ThugSin]

 

[looneytan]

"I tried it, I can't smell anything.. "

"you are having cold and stuffy nose, dear ... Try it again when you get better"

 

[tonychat]

Just to share this, educational...

[video=youtube;HnLg00_erZ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnLg00_erZ0[/video]