Translated by Teresa Chang
The immense fear and anxiety due to COVID-19 has been with us for a year, and yet the pandemic continues. What can we do? I believe now is the best time to abstain from eating meat to cultivate blessings for the world. Not killing animals for food prevents bad karma, nurtures our compassion, and sows blessings for humankind. Let’s put our love into action in this way for the good of the world.
Our craving for meat leads us to slaughter and eat animals. But many people, while satisfying their palate, forget or ignore that animals are a source of epidemics and other diseases. Illness can find its way into your body simply by eating meat.
Just as humans are afraid of pain and dying, so are animals. Resentment can arise in them when their lives are forcibly ended. Such resentment builds up as more animals are killed. This will eventually trigger a backlash and cause harm in the world.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 220 million animals are killed for human consumption each day. That works out to 2,500 animals per second. These numbers do not even include marine creatures or wildlife. Eighty billion animals are raised each year just to meet the global need for meat. Imagine the amount of waste so many animals must produce, and how that contributes to pollution around the world.
If more people would adopt a vegetarian diet, fewer animals would need to be raised, kept, and killed for food, which would reduce pollution. This would lighten the burden of the Earth. I expect every Tzu Chi volunteer to set a good example by eating vegetarian and encouraging others to do the same. The Buddha taught that all living creatures have a buddha nature. All living beings deserve to be cherished and protected. Thus, it’s our inescapable duty to protect and save all lives.
Eating vegetarian is not just a wonderful way for us to show our love for all living creatures—it is also good for our own health and spirit. Many doctors in our Tzu Chi hospitals in Taiwan have switched to a vegetarian diet, and they remain strong in body and sharp in mind, capable of performing operations that last up to 20 hours. Some Tzu Chi volunteers used to be big meat eaters, but they’ve become vegetarian too. They said that many health conditions that used to bother them had improved or even disappeared after they became vegetarian. Because they’ve personally experienced the benefits of such a lifestyle choice, they are the best spokespeople for vegetarianism.
Many vegetarians have found it hard to get their families to switch to vegetarianism too. If you are in the same boat, don’t lose heart. Try to focus your family’s attention on the benefits of vegetarianism and the good it will do them and the world. In our year-end blessing ceremonies last year, we viewed a video with a segment showing a six-year-old urging everyone to eat vegetarian. He said it’s no use to fear the pandemic, and that the best way to help end it is by eating vegetarian. Though very young, he doesn’t yield to the temptation of delicious meat dishes. His classmates have even made fun of him, but he remains unwavering in his embrace of vegetarianism. He sticks to his diet of choice and does his best to promote it.
Many people in the world do whatever pleases them and eat whatever they desire without thinking much about it. But this child is different. He holds to what he believes is right. He tells us to harbor love in our hearts, to protect animals and not to eat them. If even a young child can do this, I believe we can too.
It’s my deepest hope that everyone will adopt a vegetarian diet. It is a hope I have held in my heart for 60 years. I realize that it can be hard to become a vegetarian, but I’m urging people to take it up more strongly than ever before. That’s because the situation is different now. The pandemic is a wake-up call for all of us. It’s time for everyone to make the switch. It’s time we step up our efforts to promote vegetarianism. Eating vegetarian is not as difficult as you imagine. I want everyone to understand the health benefits of a such a diet and how much good we can do to the Earth by refraining from raising and killing animals for food. Let’s expand the love we have for our fellow human beings to include all other living creatures. Working together, we can create a multitude of blessings for the world and help keep disasters at bay.
Hsiao Yiu-hwa
