The Karmic Dimensions Of Killing Animals For Food

[Guest guest]

We have heard of BSE(mad cow's disease),Nipah virus(which killed

many rich Chinese farmers in Malaysia several years before),SARS

(which abruptly manisfested and then mysteriously vanished in

S.E.Asia).

Now, avian influenza(bird flu) hangs like an ominous cloud over

the entire world,threatening to make the transgenic jump from

poultry to humans, and engender a massive global pandemic that the

WHO says may wipe out millions of people on planet Earth.

Some quarters think,rather nonchalantly, that the WHO is being

alarmist,or is playing safe by issuing warnings first so that no

one could accuse it of tardy action if the scourge

materializes.Personally,I wouldn't be so dismissive of the WHO.

Humankind has killed animals for meat since times

immemorial,considering it natural and thus not wrong to do so.From

the perspective of Buddhism,animals are sentient beings like us

humans,and have the innate capacity to feel fear,

anxiety,discomfort,distress and physical pain.They are born into

these lower animal realms because they were recalcitrantly and

unrepentantly wicked as humans in some previous lives.Even so,we

should have compassion and loving-kindness for these beings, which

have changed so drastically from the human form to animals',all out

of their own doings.They reap what they have sown,and invisible

consciousness reincarnating as an animal form is bad enough, without

we humans augmenting their misery by mistreating or slaughtering

them to feed our selfish appetites for rich foods,which we can do

without and still live healthily. We should not kill them to eat

them,but let them live out their karmic retributions in freedom and

painlessness as individual entities just like us.

When we kill them for food, we create new karma for

ourselves.Killing of sentient beings who can feel fear and pain

creates unwholesome karmic seeds,which given the right aggregating

conditions,will sprout and grow.Then we suffer.The present bird flu

is just one karmic backlash of long-term human consumption of animal

flesh.It is a collective karma of mankind,like the Spanish influenza

of 1918/1919.

Today,we live to eat.Just look at what we eat,and how we eat,not

only in Singapore,but in other so-called " progressive " , " advanced "

countries.Life becomes one exciting gastronomic adventure,and

whatever flies, walks,hops,slithers,crawls or swim could well end up

on our dinning tables,delectably prepared to tantalize our taste

buds.Do we spare a moment to ponder the terrifying mental and

physical ordeals

these poor

creatures have to go through in order to satisfy our selfish taste

buds?

Small wonder the incidences of diabetes,heart

diseases,hypertension,various cancers,strokes,renal failures and

other lifestyle diseases in modern society continue to climb,in

spite of medical advance.All these are karmic consequences of eating

meat.

To get aquainted with what we humans are doing to our fellow

creatures who are unable to articulate their feelings in words, go

to the hyperlink below:

 

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/archive.asp

 

 

Rgds,

jason xie

 

 

 

 

P.S. How do I sign my post?