The fight for existence.

Based on the teaching of Venerable TCQ with special contribution from Jon Rauch.

It is a cruel law of nature caused by our mere presence on earth: other lives are annihilated in order to preserve our own.

Supposedly, prior to being born into this world, you were asked the question:”In order to be born and survive in this particular world, you must kill other living beings in order to sustain your own life; will you consent to do so?” Who would want to say yes to that? Who would want to be born into this world only to live by killing?

Regrettably, that monumental question was never posed to us. We delightfully went for a “joyride” and took in the scenic beauty on earth. Only later did we come to recognize the ill-fated dilemma that we had gotten ourselves into.

Over the course of our lifetimes, how often, if ever, have we thought about the countless lives that were sacrificed in order for us to live? Have we given serious thought to the mountains of shrimp, fish, cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs and other creatures which we have consumed in our lifetime?

Indeed, how many creatures die annually to be served on our plates, thrown in our trash, then buried in our landfills and sewer systems?

Try 8 billion land animals and 100 billion marine creatures per year on US soil alone (see PETA source below). That is more than all of the human casualties in all of the world wars and natural disasters combined.

The joyride that we took was fueled by blood. Now, as we are faced with the horrific truth of our deeds, our conscience quivers, as the picture of our unmercifully killing other sentient beings for our benefit is nothing short of despicable.

I can guess what you are thinking: All living creatures are subject to the law of the “Survival of the Fittest”. Big fish eat small fish, which in turn are eaten by other fish or animals, and so on—it is simply part of life’s rudimentary operation.

Perhaps you have a point there. After all, turn on a nature program and watch the scene unfolding on the African plains. A pack of lions is resting peacefully when a herd of zebras gallops by. The lions immediately dash after, seize and kill an ill-fated member of the herd. While the rest of the lions gather to feast on the downed zebra, the surviving zebras cluster and watch from afar as their companion is torn to shreds. What are they thinking as they watch this bloody sight? Opinions vary widely. Some people say that zebras and other so-called lower animals lack the intelligence to be able to grieve when one of their own is killed; but no one knows for certain what animals fee. Yet, one thing we can all agree on is that this sort of heart-wrenching scenario can never be altered, as it has been playing out repeatedly since the beginning of time as part of the natural order. Lions and other predators are genetically programmed to hunt and kill their food.

But we need not go so far as the African plains to witness the brutality of Nature’s food chain. Look at the scene in a suburban backyard: An innocent bird frolics on dewy branches, chirping an early morning song. We romanticize the bird, viewing it as one of Nature’s enchanting, peaceful minstrels. In actuality, the bird is a killing machine. It will leave no leaf unturned in its constant search for helpless worms, caterpillars, and insects to snatch and swallow alive.

Such is the bitter sorrow of the true nature of life, a gorgeous masquerade of vicious killing concealed by brilliant sun, lush trees and vegetation enchanted by the choruses of birds and insects. All species are in a permanent state of war, in which humans are the most powerful and destructive killers of all.

Since the beginning of time, human beings have inflicted the most profound damage upon the ecosystem. Despite our deceivingly delicate appearance – fragile strength compared to tigers, small size compared to elephants and killer whales – we are the top predator on earth.

No other species so utterly desecrates and plunders the earth as homo sapiens. While herbivorous animals consume only leaves or fruits, extracting the nectar or pollens and leaving the trees intact, humans strip the trees of their fruits and flowers, then chop them down for use as building materials and firewood.

Widespread human destruction of the world’s forests has been setting off alarm bells for some time now. From natural disasters around the world, to disruptions in the climate, to the emergence of mysterious viruses and the wiping out of entire species, the destructive effects of the never-ending human pageant of killing are in greater evidence than ever before. Our blood-soaked ways have put us on a path that can lead nowhere healthy or good for the human race or the myriad other creatures with which we share the earth.

It is a mistake to think that human beings are exempt from the natural order that has caused countless species to emerge and then disappear since life first came into being on earth. As archeologists have proven, giant dinosaurs once ruled the planet. Some measured over 120 feet from head to tail and weighed in excess of 100 tons. The wingspan of the largest of the flying reptiles, the Quetzalcoatlus, was nearly 45 feet. Up until 1.5 million years ago, well after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, there lived a giant shark called the Megalodon, which measured some 70 feet in length and had teeth over 7 inches in diagonal length. What caused these giants to go extinct?

Simply put, they consumed more food than their environments could produce. The giant herbivorous dinosaurs could swallow a few trees per meal; the carnivores, a few tons of meat. When the earth was hit by a giant asteroid that flung up dust clouds obscuring the sun, the herbivores’ food-sources shriveled to the point where whatever vegetation remained was not enough to sustain them; and without an abundance of herbivores to feed them, the great carnivores disappeared along with their prey.

Due to the suddenness of the dinosaurs’ obliteration from earth, there is a serious argument that their destruction was due to a mysterious “heavenly intervention” or, rather, a violent debit from the universal account – an exercise of karmic force.

Today, we humans greedily empty out fish from the ocean, evict animals from the jungles and plains, wipe out the birds from the sky, and raze forests that have stood for thousands of years. Unknowingly, we are following the dinosaurs’ fatal footsteps, and may well end up triggering a “second heavenly intervention” in response to our destructiveness.

When a doctor knows her patient is dying, she will advise the patient to go home and enjoy all savory pleasures. It’s a perfectly natural human response to impending death: live it up while you still can! Similarly, in capital cases, before being executed, the condemned prisoner is granted a lavish last meal. With one eye on the clock ticking down menacingly toward death, we choose to indulge in savory pleasure with our eyes wide shut to the ominous fate that we are about to face.

In the grand scheme of life, the most vicious animals and acts of killing accumulate the largest account of negative karma. A war is going on daily in our stomach. Indisputably, some people will say, “But I don’t kill animals, I just bought the meat from the store,” or “I don’t eat a whole chicken, just a wing or two once in a while.” Well, that chicken had to be slaughtered for its wings to appear on your plate. If you eat just a gram of meat a day, you still bear responsibility for the killing of the animal from which it came. On average, a person living in the United States eats around 406 different types of land and marine animals per year. Multiply that by the years in the average lifetime, and the number becomes astronomical. In death, these animals do not go away quietly as we may think; they do not disappear simply because we have digested their flesh. As nature shows us every day, nothing is free in the universe; ultimately, we all must pay back what we have taken from life. Animals have the same pain receptors as we do. The various ways in which animals have died to sustain our lives are the various ways in which death will come to us. The brutal acts of cutting, smashing, and choking, accompanied by the sheer terror and pain animals suffered in the face of their own slaughter will be manifested in the form of wounds, sicknesses, accidents, infections, diseases, and mental and physical pain that we suffer throughout our lifetime.

Look at the bodily makeup of the group of bipedal primates to which modern humans belong – our closest cousins, the anthropoid apes: chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas, and orangutans. These creatures are natural vegetarians; they will not touch meat in captivity even when there is nothing else available.

The human intestinal tract is 6x the overall body length, while carnivorous animals’ intestinal tract is typically 3x the overall body length in order to allow for concentrated digestion of meat. Our bodies treat meat as an unwelcome substance. While fruits and vegetables come with their own digestive enzymes, meat requires the human body’s own enzymes in the digestive process. Enzymes are the life force, the electrical energy factor, the catalysts in all aspects of our being including thinking, breathing, metabolizing, digesting, fighting diseases, etc. In contrast to red blood cells, our bodies don’t manufacture enzymes. We are born with only a certain number of enzymes and our lives will go out like a flame when we exhaust that supply.

After we eat meat, the body’s temperature and white blood cells rise, which is the body’s typical inflammatory reaction to infection. The body’s use of enzymes to digest meat is analogous to our calling in the National Guard in response to local crimes. Eventually, the body’s army and soldiers will become exhausted, which naturally weakens all other bodily functions.

Popular belief is that humans have to eat meat in order to get protein. On the contrary, even high-performing athletes need only 1.2 to 1.7 grams of protein per day. This can be easily obtained from beans, nuts, seeds, grains, soy, and certain greens. The American Dietetic Association (ADA) reports that vegetarians are less at risk for a number of chronic diseases, including but not limited to heart disease, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Vegetarianism can help prolong life and reduce the inflation of medical care costs worldwide.

In summary, with every shrimp, fish, chicken, cow or other animal that we consume, we enlarge our balance of negative karma. Eventually, the astronomical killing of other creatures for food will lead to our untimely death and prevent us from being born into higher realms. We will inevitably wind up trapped in a lower station in the food chain – then, we shall be eaten by other predators. To avoid being slaughtered as a chicken, duck, fish, or pig in future lives, we must stop slaughtering such and other creatures in this life.

We can prevent the destruction of the human race, by learning to live in harmony with nature and showing respect for all of earth’s creatures. With a deeper appreciation for universal principles of harmony and utilitarianism – which guides us to act in order to bring about the greatest good – every single meal that we consume, every action that we take in life, must bring happiness and peace for the whole. Simply by switching to a vegetarian diet, one person can save roughly 406 land and marine animals per year. As the average human lifespan is nearly 80 years, a committed vegetarian can save over 30,000 animals in his or her lifetime. We can begin to understand how world peace starts with us by acknowledging that the largest war on earth is actually taking place on a daily basis, right in our stomachs. 

 In conclusion, we can stop this mass violation of Mother Nature by replanting trees in the forests, leaving fish in the sea, and no longer raising fowl and mammals to be slaughtered for food. By demonstrating our commitment to the well-being of all sentient beings on earth, we can reduce the karmic debts that we have created from having taken so many lives.

Our ultimate goal of self-enlightenment is to attain inner peace. To reach this goal, we must ask ourselves an essential question: Can we ever find inner peace when we are taking the lives of other creatures not for the purpose of legitimate sustenance but simply for pleasure?

To live consciously is hard, but to live unconsciously brings about far harder consequences.

References:

Animals used for food. http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/

How many animals can a vegetarian save? http://www.countinganimals.com/

The Vegetarian Resource Group. http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/faq.htm

Suzanne, Paulette, NC. Enzymes & Living Food--The Vital Force for Radiant Health and the Elixir of Life. http://holistichealthservices.com/research/enzymes.html