Why people should be a vegeterian

[Guest guest]

Below are extracts on 'Why people should be a vegeterian'

 

M - Master Ching Hai

 

Q. Would you speak on vegetarian eating and how this can contribute

to world peace?

 

M. Yes. You see, most of the wars that happen in this world are due

to economic reasons. Let's face it. The economic difficulties of a

country become more urgent when there is hunger, lack of food, or a

lack of equal distribution of food among different countries. If you

took the time to read magazines and research the facts about the

vegetarian diet, then you would know this very well. Raising cattle

and animals for meat has caused our economy to go bankrupt in all

aspects. It has created hunger throughout the world, at least in the

third world countries. It's not I who is saying this. It is an

American citizen who did this type of research and wrote a book about

it. You can go to any book shop and read about vegetarian research

and food processing research. You can read " Diet For a New America "

by John Robbins. He is a very famous ice cream millionaire. He gave

it all up in order to be a vegetarian, and to write a vegetarian book

against his family tradition and business. He lost a lot of money,

prestige and business, but he did it for the sake of Truth. That book

is very good. There are many other books and magazines which can give

you a lot of information and facts about the vegetarian diet and how

it can contribute to world peace. You see, we bankrupted our food

supply by feeding cattle. You know how much protein, medicine, water

supply, manpower, cars, trucks, road construction and how many

hundreds of thousands of acres of land have been wasted before a cow

is good enough for one meal. Understand? All these things could be

distributed equally to underdeveloped countries, then we could solve

the hunger problem. So now, if a country is in need of food it

probably invades the other country just to save its own people. In

the long run, this has created a bad cause and retribution.

Understand? " As you sow, so shall you reap. " If we kill someone for

food, we will be killed for food later, in some other form the next

time, the next generation. It's a pity. We are so intelligent, so

civilized and yet most of us do not know the cause of why our

neighboring countries are suffering. It is because of our palate, our

taste, and our stomach. In order to feed and nourish one body we kill

so many beings, and starve so many fellow human beings. We aren't

even talking about the animals yet. Understand? Then this guilt,

consciously or unconsciously, will weigh down upon our conscience. It

makes us suffer from cancer, tuberculosis and other kinds of

incurable diseases, including AIDS. Ask yourself, why does your

country, America, suffer the most? It has the highest rate of cancer

in the world, because the Americans eat a lot of beef. They eat more

meat than any of the other countries. Ask yourself why the Chinese or

communist countries don't have that high a rate of cancer. They don't

have as much meat. Understand? That is what the research says.

…..

 

Q. If everyone eats plants, will it create a food shortage?

 

M. No. Using a given piece of land to grow crops provides fourteen

times as much food as using the same piece of land to grow fodder to

feed animals. Plants from each acre of land provide 800,000 calories

of energy; however, if these plants are used to raise animals which

are then eaten as food, the animals' meat can only provide 200,000

calories of energy. That means that during the process 600,000

calories of energy are lost. So the vegetarian diet is evidently more

efficient and economical than the meat diet.

 

Q. Is fish all right to eat for a vegetarian?

M. It's all right if you want to eat fish. But if you want to eat

vegetarian, fish is not a vegetable.

 

Q. Some people say that it is important to be a good hearted man, but

it is not necessary to be a vegetarian. Does this make sense?

 

M. If one is truly a good hearted person, then why does he still eat

another being's flesh? Seeing them suffer so, he should not be able

to bear to eat them! Flesh eating is unmerciful, so how can this be

done by a good hearted man? Master Lien Ch'ih once said, " Kill its

body, and eat its meat. In this world there is no one more cruel,

malevolent, atrocious and evil than this man. " How can he ever claim

that he himself has a good heart? Mencius also said, " If you see it

alive, you can't bear to see it die, and if you hear it groaning you

can not bear to eat its meat; so the real gentlemen keep far from the

kitchen. " Human intelligence is higher than that of animals, and we

can use weapons to make them unable to resist us, so they die with

hatred. The kind of man who does this, bullying small and weak

creatures, has no right to be called a gentleman. When animals are

killed, they are terribly stricken with agony, fear and resentment.

This causes the production of toxins that stay in their meat to harm

those who eat it. Since the frequency of the vibration of animals is

lower than that of mankind, they will influence our vibration, and

affect the development of our wisdom.

 

Q. Some meat lovers say that they buy meat from the butcher, so it's

not killed by themselves. Therefore, it is all right to eat it. Do

you think this is right?

 

M. This is a disastrous mistake. You must know that butchers kill

living beings because people want to eat. In the Lankavatara Sutra,

Buddha said, " If there was no one eating meat, then no killing would

happen. So eating meat and killing living beings are of the same

sin. " Because of the killing of too many living beings, we have

natural disasters and manmade calamities. Wars are also caused by too

much killing.

 

Q. Some people say that while plants can't produce poisonous things

like urea or urokinase, fruit and vegetable growers use lots of

pesticides on the plants, which are bad for our health. Is that so?

 

M. If farmers use pesticides and other highly toxic chemicals like

DDT on crops, it can lead to cancer, infertility and diseases of the

liver. Toxins like DDT can diffuse into fat, and are usually stored

in animal fat. When you eat meat, it means that you take in all these

highly concentrated pesticides and other poisons stored in animals'

fat, which have accumulated during the growth of the animal. These

accumulations can be as much as thirteen times that in fruit,

vegetables or grains. We can clean the pesticide sprayed on fruit

surfaces, but we cannot remove the pesticides deposited in animal

fat. The accumulating process occurs because these pesticides are

cumulative. So consumers at the top of the food chain are the most

harmed. Experiments at the University of Iowa showed that of the

pesticides found in human bodies almost all came from eating flesh.

They discovered that the pesticide level in the bodies of vegetarian

people is less than half that in meat eaters. Actually, there are

other toxins in flesh besides pesticides. In the process of raising

animals, much of their food consists of chemicals to make them

develop faster or to change their meat color, taste or texture, and

to preserve the flesh, etc. For example, preservatives produced from

nitrates are highly toxic. On July 18, 1971, the New York Times

reported, " The great hidden dangers to health for meat eaters are the

invisible pollutants in meat such as bacteria in salmon, remnants of

pesticides, preservatives, hormones, antibiotics and other chemical

additives. " Besides the above, animals are injected with vaccines,

which may remain in their flesh. In this respect, the protein in

fruit, nuts, beans, corn and milk are all more pure than the protein

of meat, which has 56% water insoluble impurities. Research shows

that those manmade additives can lead to cancers, other diseases or

deformed fetuses. So it is even proper for pregnant women to eat a

pure vegetarian diet to ensure the physical and spiritual health of

the fetuses. From beans you can get protein, from fruit and

vegetables you get vitamins and minerals.

 

……..

 

For all health reasons, we should be vegetarians. For all scientific

reasons, we should be vegetarians. For all economic reasons, we

should be vegetarians. For all compassionate reasons, we should be

vegetarians. As well, to save the world, we should be vegetarians. It

is stated in some research that if people in the West, in America,

eat vegetarian only once a week, we would be able to save sixteen

million starving people every year. So be a hero, be vegetarian.

Please be a vegetarian for your own sake, for the sake of the world.

 

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at:

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